Ireland is divided into four provinces of roughly equal size, Leinster, Munster, Connaught and Ulster (from the east in clockwise direction). Each province consists of a number of counties, 32 in all. The Republic of Ireland consists of 26 counties, the remaining six form the state of Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom). The northern province of Ulster actually consists of nine counties, three of which are within the Republic (Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan). All the main cities of Ireland are located at the estuaries of rivers. In general, the cities were either established or properly developed during the Viking period (the 9th and 10th centuries) as the English names often show, Waterford, Wexford, etc. The Republic of Ireland shows a strong concentration of population in the centre of the east coast in the Dublin metropolitan area where now almost a third of the population lives (about one million people). The second largest city is Cork (about 150,000), followed at some distance by Limerick, Waterford and Galway. The main urban centre in Northern Ireland is Belfast (with a population of about 300,000) followed by the city of Derry (sometimes called Londonderry following the renaming of the city by the English in the early seventeenth century).

Topographically the most significant feature of Ireland is the generally hilly and mountainous rim of the island. The centre of the country is largely flat, particularly on the banks of the Shannon, the longest river in the British Isles, which rises in the north and flows in a southerly direction entering the sea beyond Limerick. The most important urban settlement on the Shannon is Athlone. Ireland is poor in mineral deposits but rich in soil which made it traditionally a largely agricultural country. The quality of the land is best in the east and south, the west of the country has suffered from natural erosion and overpopulation, particularly in the eighteenth and the early nineteenth century. Apart from agriculture, most of the Irish are employed in service industries, many of which have arisen during the past two decades with increased economic growth.

Ireland has a temperate climate, with mild winters and cool summers. There is considerable rainfall throughout the entire year which results in rich vegetation, the abundance of natural growth is responsible for the traditional label for Ireland, the Emerald Isle.

Historical map of four Irish towns (from top left in clockwise direction: Galway, Dublin, Cork and Limerick)

Periods in Irish English

The Pale is the area around medieval Dublin where English influence was greatest. This influence lasted from the late twelfth to the late fifteenth century, but even in Dublin the influence of Irish was increasingly felt the regaecilisation which reached its zenith during the sixteenth century. The English phrase ‘beyond the Pale’ derives from this time when the English population regarded the native culture outside of the Pale as barbaric.

The county of Kildare, west/south-west of Dublin, is the probable source of the main document of Irish English in the early period. It gives the name to a collection called the Kildare Poems, some 16 items in the manuscript MS Harley 913, housed in the British Museum.

The following is an extract from the poem The Land of Cockaigne, one of the famous pieces in the collection. The language of the poems has a general West Midland Middle English character but with many features from Irish, which may well have been the native language of the author or authors.

The city of Dublin has two names: the first Dublin means ‘black pool’ from Irish Dubh Linn, a term used particularly by the Vikings and Anglo-Normans, the Anglicisation of which gives us the English name of the city. The second, and that used in Irish today, is Baile Átha Cliath which means ‘town at the hurdled/fortified ford’. The Vikings established the modern settlement of Dublin in the late 10th century. The English reached the city by 1170 and since then the English language has been present there. The vintage of Dublin English in certainly responsible for its phonological profile which is unique among varieties of present-day English.

2) Second period 1600 to the present-day

This began in the early seventeenth century. The position of English was strengthened by the decisive military defeat for the Irish at Kinsale in 1601. The north of the country was particularly affected with settlers from Lowland Scotland moving across to Ulster and establishing a firm presence there. Later on in the seventeenth century, there were plantations in the south of the country which were more successful than those of the previous century in the centre and south-west. By the end of the seventeenth century, the position of English was unassailable and the general decline of Irish set in. The eighteenth century was a largely peaceful period, but there was considerable emigration from the north of the country to the New World. Various setbacks affected the status of Irish, notably periods of famine, the most significant of which was the Great Famine in the late 1840´s, after which mass emigration to Britain and North America took place, depleting the Irish-speaking population of the country.

Archaic forms of Irish English