Christian Cyclopedia

Ireland

(Erin; Emerald Isle; Lat.: Hibernia). 1. One of the Brit. Isles; W of Eng. and Wales; includes Eire (Ireland; Irish Free State; Rep. of Ireland; Irish Rep.) and Northern* Ireland. Area: Eire ca. 27140 sq. mi.

2. For the early hist. of Christianity in Ireland see Celtic Church; Palladius (5th c.); Patrick.

3. The RC date of Easter was gen. adopted in Ireland by the end of the 7th c. Adrian IV (see Popes, 8) “gave” Ireland to Henry* II of Eng. ca. 1155, provided he secure the rights of the ch. and render tribute to Rome. Henry invaded Ireland and was acknowledged sovereign 1171. By 1172 the Romanization of the Irish Ch. in internal affairs was complete.

4. In the Reformation period the Eng. govt. tried to enforce a form of Protestantism (see Henry VIII). But the loyalty of many to Rome made it impossible to secure dominance of state over ch. The Irish Articles (1615; see Anglican Confessions, 8) yielded ca. 1635 to the Thirty-nine Articles (see Anglican Confessions, 6), which were less Calvinistic. The 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act restored civil rights to RCs See also England.

The est. Irish Episc. Ch. was dissolved 1869, effective 1871.

5. The 1920 Government of Ireland Act offered Home Rule to all ireland. S Ireland refused and, after the 1919–21 Anglo-Irish War, became the Irish Free State (Gaelic: Saorstat Eireann; called Eire beginning 1937), a dominion of the Brit. Empire, effective 1922; declared complete independence 1948; officially proclaimed the Republic of Ireland 1949.

6. See Northern Ireland.

7. The 1st Luth. service in Ireland was probably that conducted ca. 1690 by Iver Didericksen Brink (b. 1665 Norway; pastor London, Eng., 1691–1702), chaplain of a Dan. regiment supporting William III (Dutch: Willem; 1650–1702; count of Nassau [prince of Orange]; stadtholder of Holland 1672–1702; king of Eng. 1689–1702) against James II (1633–1701; of the house of Stuart; king of Eng., Scot., and Ireland 1685–88; father-in-law of William III) A Luth. ch. was est. at Dublin ca. 1697, with services in Scand. languages and Ger.; this ch. lost its Luth. character and vanished ca. 1850. After WW II many Luths. came to Ireland; the LWF est. a ch. at Dublin (pastor installed 1955).

J. Lanigan, An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, 4 vols. (Dublin, 1822); G. T. Stokes, Ireland and the Anglo-Norman Church, 2d ed. (London, 1892); History of the Church of Ireland, ed. W. A. Phillips, 3 vols. (London, 1933–34); F. R. Webber, A History of Preaching in Britain and America, 3 vols. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1952–57).