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Ireland fields a single national rugby team and a single association, the Irish Rugby Football Union, governs the sport across the island. The Irish rugby team have played in every Rugby World Cup, making the quarter-finals in eight of them. [196] Ireland also hosted games during the 1991 and the 1999 Rugby World Cups (including a quarter-final).
Ireland (Irish: Éire [ˈeːɾʲə] ⓘ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (Poblacht na hÉireann), [a] is a country in Northwestern Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. [4]
Ireland is a place where religion and religious practice have long been held in high esteem. The majority of people on the island are Roman Catholics; [30] however, there are significant Protestant and Orthodox minorities. Protestants are mostly concentrated in Northern Ireland, where they long made up a plurality of the population. [31]
Ireland during the Ice Age. What is known of pre-Christian Ireland comes from references in Roman writings, Irish poetry, myth, and archaeology.While some possible Paleolithic tools have been found, none of the finds is convincing of Paleolithic settlement in Ireland. [4]
Ireland's geological history includes a wide range of elements, from volcanism and tropical seas to the last glacial period. Ireland was formed in two distinct parts, which slowly joined, uniting about 440 million years ago. As a result of tectonics and the effect of ice, the sea level has risen and fallen.
The Irish state came into being in 1919 as the 32 county Irish Republic.In 1922, having seceded from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, it became the Irish Free State.
There have been humans in Ireland for about 33,000 years, and it has been continually inhabited for more than 10,000 years (see Prehistoric Ireland). For most of Ireland's recorded history, the Irish have been primarily a Gaelic people (see Gaelic Ireland). From the 9th century, small numbers of Vikings settled in Ireland, becoming the Norse-Gaels.
The economy of the Republic of Ireland is a highly developed knowledge economy, focused on services in high-tech, life sciences, financial services and agribusiness, including agrifood. Ireland is an open economy (3rd on the Index of Economic Freedom), [27] and ranks first for high-value foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. [28]