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Ireland

OFFICIAL NAME: Ireland

DATE OF FORMATION: 1922

POPULATION: 4 million

DENSITY: 150 people per square mile

LANGUAGES: English, Irish Gaelic

RELIGIONS: Roman Catholic 88%, Other and nonreligious 9%, Anglican 3%

ETHNIC MIX: Irish 93%, Other 4%, British 3%

GOVERNMENT: Multiparty elections

CURRENCY: Euro

 

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The Irish republic occupies about 85% of the island of Ireland. Low coastal mountain ranges surround a central basin with lakes, hills, and peat bogs. Centuries of struggle against English domination led in 1922 to the formation of the Irish Free State and in 1937 to full sovereignty. Revitalized as the "Celtic tiger," Ireland now comes top in global quality-of-life surveys. The republic gave up its territorial claim to Northern Ireland under the 1998 Good Friday accord.

 

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