circa 3000 BC Neolithic, Stone Age farmers construct sacred burial chambers at Brù na Bòinne.

AD 430 Saint Patrick begins the conversion of Ireland to Christianity.

circa 795 Vikings settle on the River Liffey, thereby founding Dublin.

1170 Powerful Anglo-Irish hegemony established in Ireland.

circa 1610 Large areas of Ulster are confiscated by the English Crown.

1845-51 The Great Famine; a million Irish people die and a million emigrate, chiefly to America.

1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty partitions Ireland into the Irish Free State and mainly Protestant Ulster, which remains under British rule.

1948 Irish Free State is declared a republic.

1969 Beginning of “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland.

1972 Republic of Ireland becomes a member of the European Community, or, as it is now known, the European Union.

1985 The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the Irish Prime Minister Garrett Fitzgerald.

1998 “Good Friday” agreement paves the way for a Northern Ireland Assembly.