Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [22]
795–841 Vikings plunder Irish monasteries; their raping and pillaging urges sated, they establish settlements throughout the country, including Dublin, and soon turn it into a centre of economic power.
1014 The Battle of Clontarf takes place on Good Friday (23 April) between the forces of the high king, Brian Ború, and the forces led by the king of Leinster, Máelmorda mac Murchada.
1169 Henry II’s Welsh and Norman barons land in Wexford and capture Waterford and Wexford with MacMurrough’s help. Although no one knows it at the time, this is the beginning of an 800-year occupation by Britain.
1172 King Henry II invades Ireland, using the 1155 Bull Laudabiliter issued to him by Pope Adrian IV to claim sovereignty, forcing the Cambro-Norman warlords and some of the Gaelic Irish kings to accept him as their overlord.
1350–1530 The Anglo-Norman barons establish power bases independent of the English Crown. Over the following two centuries, English control gradually recedes to an area around Dublin known as ‘the Pale’.
1366 The English Crown enacts the Statutes of Kilkenny, outlawing intermarriage, the Irish language and other Irish customs to stop the Anglo-Normans from assimilating too much with the Irish. It doesn’t work.
1534–41 Henry VIII declares war on the property of the Irish church, as part of his break with the Catholic Church. In 1541 he arranges for the Irish Parliament to declare him King of Ireland.
1585 Potatoes from South America are introduced to Ireland, where they eventually become a staple on nearly every table in the country.
1594 Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, orders lead from England to re-roof his castle, but instead uses it for bullets – instigating open conflict with the English in what would eventually be termed the Nine Years’ War.
1601 The Battle of Kinsale is fought between Elizabeth’s armies and the combined rebel forces led by Hugh O’Neill. O’Neill surrenders and the back of the Irish rebellion against the Crown is broken.
1607 O’Neill and 90 other Ulster chiefs sail to Europe, leaving Ireland forever. Known as the Flight of the Earls, it leaves Ulster open to English rule and the policy of Plantation.
1641 During the English Civil War, the native Irish and Anglo-Norman Catholics support Charles I against the Protestant parliamentarians in the hope of restoring Catholic power in Ireland.
1649–53 Cromwell lays waste throughout Ireland after the Irish support Charles I in the English Civil Wars; this includes the mass slaughtering of Catholic Irish and the confiscation of two million hectares of land.
1688–90 Following the deposition of King James II, James’ Catholic army fights William’s Protestant forces, resulting in William’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne, 12 July 1690.
1695 The Penal Laws (aka the ‘popery code’) prohibit Catholics from owning a horse, marrying outside their religion, building churches out of anything but wood, and from buying or inheriting property.
1795 Concerned at the attempts of the Society of United Irishmen to secure equal rights for non-Establishment Protestants and Catholics, a group of Protestants create the Orange Institution.
1798 The flogging and killing of potential rebels sparks a rising led by the United Irishmen and their leader, Wolfe Tone. Wolfe Tone is captured and taken to Dublin, where he commits suicide.
1801 The Act of Union unites Ireland politically with Britain. The Irish Parliament votes itself out of existence following a campaign of bribery. Around 100 Members of Parliament move to the House of Commons in London.
1828–29 Daniel O’Connell exploits a loophole in the law to win a seat in Parliament but is unable to take it because he is Catholic. The prime minister passes the Catholic Emancipation Act giving limited rights to Catholics.
1845–51 A mould ravages the potato harvest. The British government adopts a laissez-faire attitude, resulting in the deaths of between 500,000 and one million, and the emigration of up to two million others.
1879–82 The Land War, led by the Land League, sees