According to archeologists, the first human settlements in Irish history occurred relatively late, about 6000 B.C. The arrival of the Celts had the greatest impact on Ireland, and they dominated the island until 1600. During the early part of the first century, St. Patrick (c.389-461) came to Ireland to educate the people and convert them to Catholicism. He completely succeeded, and even when the Protestant Reformation swept through Europe and England in the 1500’s, Ireland remained stubbornly Catholic. This helped to trigger the Catholic/Protestant conflict that still exists in Irish culture today.

For most of the 1700’s, Ireland was a powder keg of social unrest because the Anglican minority, who only made up 10% of the population, used its ownership of land and control of the government to deny civil rights to the rest of Ireland (75% Catholic and 15% Presbyterian). This situation in Irish history laid the groundwork for the horrible results of the Great Potato Famine in the late 1800’s. The problem that resulted in the dire consequences of the potato famine was that about half the population worked on farms—not for money, but for the right to grow potatoes on tiny plots. They lived on a subsistence diet consisting almost exclusively of potatoes, and when the potato crop failed, they were without food and cash to feed their families. Nearly a million people died and another two million emigrated, and Irish culture would never be the same.

Long-standing hostility towards England became a genuine hatred. In the century of Irish history that followed, otherwise law abiding Irishmen found themselves supporting anti-British terrorist groups, such as the IRA, which still has a stronghold in Ireland today.