Editing Republic of Ireland (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of the Republic of Ireland}}
{{For|the history of the entire island|History of Ireland}}

===Home-rule movement===
{{Main|Irish Home Rule movement}}
[[File:Charles Stewart Parnell at meeting.jpg|thumb|right|[[Charles Stewart Parnell]] (1846–1891) addressing a meeting. The [[Irish Parliamentary Party]] was formed in 1882 by Parnell.]]

From the [[Act of Union 1800|Act of Union]] on 1 January 1801, until 6 December 1922, the island of Ireland was part of the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]. During the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]], from 1845 to 1849, the island's population of over 8&nbsp;million fell by 30%. One million Irish died of starvation and disease and another 1.5&nbsp;million emigrated, mostly to the United States.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mokyr |first=Joel |author-link=Joel Mokyr |title=New Developments in Irish Population History 1700–1850 |journal=Irish Economic and Social History |volume=XI |pages=101–121 |year=1984 |hdl=10197/1406 |url=http://researchrepository.ucd.ie/bitstream/10197/1406/1/wp83_17.pdf |access-date=19 September 2019 |archive-date=24 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924160733/https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/bitstream/10197/1406/1/wp83_17.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> This set the pattern of emigration for the century to come, resulting in constant population decline up to the 1960s.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://census.ie/in-history/population-of-ireland-1841-2006/ | publisher = [[Central Statistics Office (Ireland)|CSO]] | title = Population of Ireland 1841–2011 | access-date = 6 September 2018 | archive-date = 6 September 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180906195419/http://census.ie/in-history/population-of-ireland-1841-2006/ | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/famine/demographics_pre.html | publisher = Wesleyjohnston.com | first1 = Wesley | last1 = Johnston | first2 = Patrick | last2 = Abbot | title = Prelude to the Irish Famine – Demographics | access-date = 6 September 2018 | archive-date = 7 July 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190707111107/http://wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/famine/demographics_pre.html | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/releasespublications/documents/population/2017/Chapter_1_Population_change_and_historical_perspective.pdf |title = Population Change and Historical Perspective |access-date = 6 September 2018 |publisher = CSO |archive-date = 17 April 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190417022844/https://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/releasespublications/documents/population/2017/Chapter_1_Population_change_and_historical_perspective.pdf |url-status = live }}</ref>

From 1874, and particularly under [[Charles Stewart Parnell]] from 1880, the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]] gained prominence. This was firstly through widespread agrarian agitation via the [[Irish Land League]], which won [[land reforms]] for tenants in the form of the [[Irish Land Acts]], and secondly through its attempts to achieve [[Irish Home Rule Movement|Home Rule]], via two unsuccessful bills which would have granted Ireland limited national autonomy. These led to "grass-roots" control of national affairs, under the [[Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898|Local Government Act 1898]], that had been in the hands of landlord-dominated [[grand juries]] of the [[Protestant Ascendancy]].

Home Rule seemed certain when the [[Parliament Act 1911]] abolished the veto of the [[House of Lords]], and [[John Redmond]] secured the [[Home Rule Act 1914|Third Home Rule Act]] in 1914. However, the [[Unionism in Ireland|Unionist movement]] had been growing since 1886 among Irish Protestants after the introduction of the first home rule bill, fearing discrimination and loss of economic and social privileges if [[Irish Catholics]] achieved real political power. In the late 19th and early 20th-century unionism was particularly strong in parts of [[Ulster]], where industrialisation was more common in contrast to the more agrarian rest of the island, and where the Protestant population was more prominent, with a majority in four counties.<ref>{{Cite book |title=A History of Ulster |last=Bardon |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Bardon |year=1992 |publisher=Blackstaff Press |isbn=0856404985 |pages=402, 405}}</ref> Under the leadership of the Dublin-born [[Edward Carson|Sir Edward Carson]] of the [[Irish Unionist Party]] and the Ulsterman [[James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon|Sir James Craig]] of the [[Ulster Unionist Party]], unionists became strongly militant, forming [[Ulster Volunteers]] in order to oppose "the Coercion of Ulster".<ref>{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zWgfwHuOCHYC&q=%22the+Coercion+of+Ulster%22+craig&pg=PA128 | title = Ireland in the 20th Century | last = Coogan | first = Tim Pat | date = 2009 | publisher = Random House | pages = 127–128 | isbn = 9781407097213 | access-date = 19 November 2020 | archive-date = 5 July 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210705090337/https://books.google.com/books?id=zWgfwHuOCHYC&q&pg=PA128 | url-status = live }}</ref> After the Home Rule Bill passed parliament in May 1914, to avoid rebellion with Ulster, the British Prime Minister [[H. H. Asquith]] introduced an [[Irish Parliamentary Party#Home Rule succeeds|Amending Bill]] reluctantly conceded to by the Irish Party leadership. This provided for the temporary exclusion of Ulster from the workings of the bill for a trial period of six years, with an as yet undecided new set of measures to be introduced for the area to be temporarily excluded.

===Revolution and steps to independence===
[[File:The shell of the G.P.O. on Sackville Street after the Easter Rising (6937669789).jpg|thumb|Damage in Dublin city centre following the 1916 [[Easter Rising]]]]

Though it received the [[Royal Assent]] and was placed on the statute books in 1914, the implementation of the [[Home Rule Act 1914|Third Home Rule Act]] was suspended until after the [[World War I|First World War]] which defused the threat of civil war in Ireland. With the hope of ensuring the implementation of the Act at the end of the war through [[Ireland and World War I|Ireland's engagement in the war]], Redmond and the Irish [[National Volunteers]] supported the UK and its [[Allies of World War I|Allies]]. 175,000 men joined [[Irish regiment]]s of the [[10th (Irish) Division (United Kingdom)|10th (Irish)]] and [[16th (Irish) Division|16th (Irish)]] divisions of the [[Kitchener's Army|New British Army]], while Unionists joined the [[36th (Ulster) Division|36th (Ulster)]] divisions.<ref>{{cite web|title=Irish Soldiers in the First World War |url=http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Taoiseach_and_Government/History_of_Government/1916_Commemorations/Irish_Soldiers_in_the_First_World_War.html |work=1916 Commemorations |publisher=Department of the Taoiseach |access-date=29 August 2011 |year=2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810192700/http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Taoiseach_and_Government/History_of_Government/1916_Commemorations/Irish_Soldiers_in_the_First_World_War.html |archive-date=10 August 2011}}</ref>

The remainder of the [[Irish Volunteers]], who refused Redmond and opposed any support of the UK, launched an armed insurrection against British rule in the 1916 [[Easter Rising]], together with the [[Irish Citizen Army]]. This commenced on 24 April 1916 with the [[Irish Declaration of Independence|declaration of independence]]. After a week of heavy fighting, primarily in Dublin, the surviving rebels were forced to surrender their positions. The majority were imprisoned, with fifteen of the prisoners (including most of the leaders) were executed as traitors to the UK. This included [[Patrick Pearse]], the spokesman for the rising and who provided the signal to the volunteers to start the rising, as well as [[James Connolly]], socialist and founder of the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] union and both the Irish and Scottish Labour movements. These events, together with the [[Conscription Crisis of 1918]], had a profound effect on changing public opinion in Ireland against the British Government.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.waterfordmuseum.ie/exhibit/web/Display/article/283/1/The_Hay_Plan__Conscription_In_Ireland_During_WW1_Introduction.html |title=The Hay Plan & Conscription in Ireland During WW1 |last1=Hennessy |first1=Dave |publisher=Waterford County Museum |access-date=6 September 2018 |archive-date=25 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225080831/http://www.waterfordmuseum.ie/exhibit/web/Display/article/283/1/The_Hay_Plan__Conscription_In_Ireland_During_WW1_Introduction.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In January 1919, after the December [[1918 Irish general election|1918 general election]], 73 of Ireland's 105 [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Members of Parliament]] (MPs) elected were [[History of Sinn Féin|Sinn Féin]] members who were elected on a platform of [[abstentionism]] from the [[British House of Commons]]. In January 1919, they set up an Irish parliament called [[Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic)|Dáil Éireann]]. This [[first Dáil]] issued a [[declaration of independence]] and proclaimed an [[Irish Republic]]. The declaration was mainly a restatement of the [[Proclamation of the Irish Republic|1916 Proclamation]] with the additional provision that Ireland was no longer a part of the United Kingdom. The Irish Republic's [[Ministry of Dáil Éireann]] sent a delegation under {{lang|ga|[[Ceann Comhairle]]|italic=no}} (Head of Council, or Speaker, of the Daíl) [[Seán T. O'Kelly]] to the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] of 1919, but it was not admitted.

[[File:Leinster_House_-_1911.jpg|thumb|[[Leinster House]], Dublin. In 1922 a new parliament called the [[Oireachtas of the Irish Free State|Oireachtas]] was established, of which [[Dáil Éireann]] became the [[lower house]].]]

After the [[Irish War of Independence|War of Independence]] and truce called in July 1921, representatives of the [[British government]] and the five Irish treaty delegates, led by [[Arthur Griffith]], [[Robert Barton]] and [[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]], negotiated the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] in London from 11 October to 6 December 1921. The Irish delegates set up headquarters at [[Hans Place]] in [[Knightsbridge]], and it was here in private discussions that the decision was taken on 5 December to recommend the treaty to Dáil Éireann. On 7 January 1922, the [[Second Dáil]] [[Anglo-Irish Treaty Dáil vote|ratified]] the Treaty by 64 votes to 57.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1922-01-07/2/|website = [[Oireachtas]]|title = Dáil Éireann debates, 7 January 1922: Debate on Treaty|access-date = 28 September 2019|archive-date = 28 September 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190928094536/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1922-01-07/2/|url-status = live}}</ref>

In accordance with the treaty, on 6 December 1922 the entire island of Ireland became a self-governing [[Dominion]] called the Irish Free State (''Saorstát Éireann''). Under the [[Constitution of the Irish Free State]], the [[Parliament of Northern Ireland]] had the option to leave the Irish Free State one month later and return to the United Kingdom. During the intervening period, the powers of the [[Parliament of the Irish Free State]] and [[Executive Council of the Irish Free State]] did not extend to Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland exercised its right under the treaty to leave the new Dominion and rejoined the United Kingdom on 8 December 1922. It did so by making an address to the King requesting, "that the powers of the Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State shall no longer extend to Northern Ireland."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://stormontpapers.ahds.ac.uk/stormontpapers/pageview.html?volumeno=2&pageno=1145#bak-2-1149 |title=Northern Ireland Parliamentary Report, 7&nbsp;December 1922 |publisher=Stormontpapers.ahds.ac.uk |date=7 December 1922 |access-date=9 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415143605/http://stormontpapers.ahds.ac.uk/stormontpapers/pageview.html?volumeno=2&pageno=1145#bak-2-1149 |archive-date=15 April 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Irish Free State was a [[constitutional monarchy]] [[personal union|sharing a monarch]] with the United Kingdom and other Dominions of the [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]]. The country had a [[Governor-General of the Irish Free State|governor-general]] (representing the monarch), a [[Bicameralism|bicameral]] parliament, a cabinet called the "Executive Council", and a prime minister called the [[President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State|President of the Executive Council]].

===Irish Civil War===
{{Main|Irish Civil War}}
[[File:The Long Fellow (10570624475).jpg|thumb|right|[[Éamon de Valera]], Irish political leader, pictured outside Ennis Courthouse in 1917. He would later be involved in introducing the 1937 [[Constitution of Ireland]].]]

The Irish Civil War (June 1922 – May 1923) was the consequence of the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the creation of the Irish Free State.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199846719/obo-9780199846719-0149.xml | publisher = Oxford University Press | website = oxfordbibliographies | title = Literature of the Irish Civil War | date = 25 October 2018 | accessdate = 27 April 2021 | doi = 10.1093/OBO/9780199846719-0149 | last1 = Ward | first1 = Brian | archive-date = 27 April 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210427164828/https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199846719/obo-9780199846719-0149.xml | url-status = live }}</ref> Anti-treaty forces, led by [[Éamon de Valera]], objected to the fact that acceptance of the treaty abolished the [[Irish Republic]] of 1919 to which they had sworn loyalty, arguing in the face of public support for the settlement that the "people have no right to do wrong".<ref>{{cite book |title=De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5CFlCwAAQBAJ&q=de+valera+%22people+have+no+right+to+do+wrong%22&pg=PT499 |chapter=21 de Valera Stands Tall |first=Tim Pat |author-link=Tim Pat Coogan |year=1993 |last=Coogan | publisher=Head of Zeus |isbn=9781784975371 |access-date=19 November 2020 |archive-date=20 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210320174331/https://books.google.com/books?id=5CFlCwAAQBAJ&q=de+valera+%22people+have+no+right+to+do+wrong%22&pg=PT499 |url-status=live }}</ref> They objected most to the fact that the state would remain part of the [[British Empire]] and that members of the [[Oireachtas of the Irish Free State|Free State Parliament]] would have to swear what the anti-treaty side saw as an oath of fidelity to the British king. Pro-treaty forces, led by [[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]], argued that the treaty gave "not the ultimate freedom that all nations aspire to and develop, but the freedom to achieve it".<ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 July 2011 |publisher=[[Dáil Éireann]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721130127/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.T.192112190002.html |url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.T.192112190002.html  |title=Dáil Éireann – Volume T – 19 December, 1921 (Debate on Treaty)}}</ref>

At the start of the war, the [[Irish Republican Army (1919–1922)|Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) split into two opposing camps: a pro-treaty IRA and an [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|anti-treaty IRA]]. The pro-treaty IRA disbanded and joined the new [[National Army (Ireland)|National Army]]. However, because the anti-treaty IRA lacked an effective command structure and because of the pro-treaty forces' defensive tactics throughout the war, Michael Collins and his pro-treaty forces were able to build up an army with many tens of thousands of World War I veterans from the 1922 disbanded [[Irish regiments#Irish regiments of the British Army|Irish regiments]] of the British Army, capable of overwhelming the anti-treatyists. British supplies of artillery, aircraft, machine-guns and ammunition boosted pro-treaty forces, and the threat of a return of Crown forces to the Free State removed any doubts about the necessity of enforcing the treaty. Lack of public support for the anti-treaty forces (often called the Irregulars) and the determination of the government to overcome the Irregulars contributed significantly to their defeat.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

===Constitution of Ireland 1937===
[[File:IFS Constitution Committee Darrell F's book2.jpg|thumb|[[Constitution of the Irish Free State|The Constitution Committee meeting]] at the [[Shelbourne Hotel]], Dublin.]]

Following a national plebiscite in July 1937, the new [[Constitution of Ireland]] (''Bunreacht na hÉireann'') [[adoption of the Constitution of Ireland|came into force]] on 29 December 1937.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/cons/en/html | publisher = Irish Statute Book | title = Constitution of Ireland, 1 July, 1937 | access-date = 6 September 2018 | archive-date = 3 May 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190503055502/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/cons/en/html | url-status = live }}</ref> This replaced the [[Constitution of the Irish Free State]] and declared that the name of the state is {{lang|ga|Éire}}, or "Ireland" in the English language.<ref>T. Garvin, ''1922: the birth of Irish democracy'', Gill & Macmillan: Dublin, 2005.<br />{{cite book |title=The Irish Civil War 1922–23 |first=Peter |last=Cottrell |page=85 |isbn=978-1-84603-270-7 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |year=2008 |quote=Irish voters approved a new constitution, ''Bunreacht na hÉireann'', in 1937 renaming the country Éire or simply Ireland.}}<br />{{cite web |title=Guide to Irish Law |first=Darius |last=Whelan |date=June 2005 |url=http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Ireland.htm |access-date=11 September 2009 |quote=This Constitution, which remains in force today, renamed the state ''Ireland'' (Article 4) and established four main institutions&nbsp;– the President, the Oireachtas (Parliament), the Government and the Courts. |archive-date=5 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090905133724/http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Ireland.htm |url-status=live }}<br />John T. Koch, Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbara, 2006.</ref> While [[Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland|Articles 2 and 3]] of the Constitution defined the national territory to be the whole island, they also confined the state's jurisdiction to the area that had been the Irish Free State. The former Irish Free State government had abolished the Office of [[Governor-General of the Irish Free State|Governor-General]] in December 1936. Although the constitution established the office of [[President of Ireland]], the question over whether Ireland was a republic remained open. Diplomats were accredited to the king, but the president exercised all internal functions of a head of state.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Daly |first=Mary E. |author-link=Mary E. Daly |date=January 2007|title=The Irish Free State/Éire/Republic of Ireland/Ireland: "A Country by Any Other Name"?|journal=Journal of British Studies|volume=46|issue=1|pages=72–90|doi=10.1086/508399|jstor=10.1086/508399|quote=After the enactment of the 1936 External Relations Act and the 1937 Constitution, Ireland's only remaining link with the crown had been the accreditation of diplomats. The president of Ireland was the head of state. When opposition deputies asked de Valera whether Ireland was a republic—a favorite pastime in the mid-1940s—he tended to resort to dictionary definitions showing that Ireland had all the attributes of a republic.|doi-access=free |issn = 0021-9371 }}</ref> For instance, the President gave assent to new laws with his own authority, without reference to King [[George VI]] who was only an "organ", that was provided for by statute law.

[[Irish neutrality during World War II|Ireland remained neutral]] during World War II, a period it described as [[The Emergency (Ireland)|The Emergency]].<ref>{{cite book | title = The Emergency: Neutral Ireland 1939–45 |last=Girvin |first= Brian |publisher = Pan | date = 2007 | isbn = 9780330493291}}</ref> Ireland's [[Dominion]] status was terminated with the passage of [[The Republic of Ireland Act 1948]], which came into force on 18 April 1949 and declared that the state was a republic.<ref>{{cite ISB |name=The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 (Commencement) Order 1949 |year=1949 |number=27 |type=si |nothe=1|date=4 February 1949}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Whyte |first1=J. H. |author-link1=John Henry Whyte |editor1-last=Hill |editor1-first=J. R. |title=A New History of Ireland |volume=VII: Ireland, 1921–84 |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0191615597 |page=277 (footnote 20) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PfFXarIhGqEC&pg=PA277 |access-date=6 August 2019 |chapter=Economic crisis and political cold war, 1949-57 |quote=The Republic of Ireland Act, 1948...repealed the external relations act, and provided for the declaration of a republic, which came into force on 18 Apr. 1949, when Ireland left the commonwealth. |archive-date=15 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191115091428/https://books.google.com/books?id=PfFXarIhGqEC&pg=PA277 |url-status=live }}</ref> At the time, a declaration of a republic terminated Commonwealth membership. This rule was changed 10 days after Ireland declared itself a republic, with the [[London Declaration]] of 28 April 1949. Ireland did not reapply when the rules were altered to permit republics to join. Later, the [[Crown of Ireland Act 1542]] was repealed in Ireland by the [[Statute Law Revision (Pre-Union Irish Statutes) Act 1962]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1962/act/29/enacted/en/html | publisher = Irish Statute Book | title = Statute Law Revision (Pre-Union Irish Statutes) Act, 1962 | access-date = 6 September 2018 | archive-date = 5 September 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180905111820/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1962/act/29/enacted/en/html | url-status = live }}</ref>

===Recent history===
[[File:Tratado de Lisboa 13 12 2007 (081).jpg|thumb|In 1973 Ireland joined the [[European Economic Community]] along with the United Kingdom and Denmark. The country signed the [[Lisbon Treaty]] in 2007.]]

Ireland became a member of the [[United Nations]] in December 1955, after having been denied membership because of its [[Irish neutrality during World War II|neutral stance]] during the Second World War and not supporting the [[Allies of World War II|Allied cause]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/review-ireland-at-the-un-memories-of-the-early-years-by-noel-dorr-26673946.html |title=Ireland at the UN |work=Irish Independent|date=22 August 2010 |access-date=12 November 2010 |archive-date=16 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716113300/http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/review-ireland-at-the-un-memories-of-the-early-years-by-noel-dorr-26673946.html |url-status=live }}</ref> At the time, joining the UN involved a commitment to using force to deter aggression by one state against another if the UN thought it was necessary.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/a-frank-account-of-irelands-un-affairs-26663319.html |title=Ireland's UN affairs |work=Irish Independent|date=26 June 2010 |access-date=12 November 2010 |archive-date=16 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716123540/http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/a-frank-account-of-irelands-un-affairs-26663319.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Interest towards membership of the [[European Communities]] (EC) developed in Ireland during the 1950s, with consideration also given to membership of the [[European Free Trade Area]]. As the United Kingdom intended on EC membership, Ireland applied for membership in July 1961 due to the substantial economic linkages with the United Kingdom. The founding EC members remained sceptical regarding Ireland's economic capacity, neutrality, and unattractive [[protectionist]] policy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/EU/eu.htm |title=National Archives – Ireland and European Unity |publisher=Nationalarchives.ie |access-date=12 November 2010 |archive-date=1 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101084325/http://nationalarchives.ie/topics/EU/eu.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Many Irish economists and politicians realised that economic policy reform was necessary. The prospect of EC membership became doubtful in 1963 when French President General [[Charles de Gaulle]] stated that France opposed Britain's accession, which ceased negotiations with all other candidate countries. In 1969 his successor, [[Georges Pompidou]], was not opposed to British and Irish membership. Negotiations began and in 1972 the [[Treaty of Accession 1972|Treaty of Accession]] was signed. A [[Third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland|referendum was held later that year]] which confirmed Ireland's entry into the bloc, and it finally joined the EC as a member state on 1 January 1973.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ec.europa.eu/ireland/ireland_in_the_eu/index1_en.htm |title=Joining the European Community |publisher=European Commission |date=31 July 1961 |access-date=12 November 2010 |archive-date=6 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160606010430/http://ec.europa.eu/ireland/ireland_in_the_eu/index1_en.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The economic crisis of the late 1970s was fuelled by the [[Fianna Fáil]] government's budget, the abolition of the car tax, excessive borrowing, and global economic instability including the [[1979 oil crisis]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tcd.ie/Economics/TEP/1998/985.pdf|title=Taxations And savings in Ireland|last=O'Toole|first=Francis|author2=Warrington|work=Trinity Economic Papers Series|publisher=Trinity College Dublin|page=19|access-date=17 June 2008|archive-date=24 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080624202457/http://www.tcd.ie/Economics/TEP/1998/985.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> There were significant policy changes from 1989 onwards, with economic reform, tax cuts, welfare reform, an increase in competition, and a ban on borrowing to fund current spending. This policy began in 1989–1992 by the Fianna Fáil/[[Progressive Democrats]] government, and continued by the subsequent Fianna Fáil/[[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour]] government and [[Fine Gael]]/Labour/[[Democratic Left (Ireland)|Democratic Left]] government. Ireland became one of the world's fastest growing economies by the late 1990s in what was known as the [[Celtic Tiger]] period, which lasted until the [[Great Recession]]. Since 2014, Ireland has experienced increased economic activity.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-nie/nie2017/summary/ | publisher = CSO | title = National Income and Expenditure 2017 (Figure 1.1 Growth Rates) | access-date = 6 September 2018 | archive-date = 6 September 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180906195352/https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-nie/nie2017/summary/ | url-status = live }}</ref>

In the Northern Ireland question, the British and Irish governments started to seek a peaceful resolution to the violent conflict involving many [[Paramilitary|paramilitaries]] and the [[British Army]] in Northern Ireland known as "[[The Troubles]]". A peace settlement for Northern Ireland, known as the [[Good Friday Agreement]], was approved in 1998 in referendums north and south of the border. As part of the peace settlement, the territorial claim to Northern Ireland in [[Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland]] was removed by referendum. In its white paper on [[Brexit]] the United Kingdom government reiterated its commitment to the Good Friday Agreement. With regard to Northern Ireland's status, it said that the UK Government's "clearly-stated preference is to retain Northern Ireland's current constitutional position: as part of the UK, but with strong links to Ireland".<ref>{{cite report| work = Cm 9417 | publisher = HM Government | title = The United Kingdom's exit from and new partnership with the European Union | date = February 2017}}</ref>