Ireland

The independent sovereign nation of the Republic of Ireland shares the name and history with the island of Ireland. It was ruled by the warring tribal kings of Leinster, Connaught, Munster, Meath and Ulster (much of Ulster is now in Northern Ireland). It was then ruled by England from the 12th century. Many insurrections finally allowed it to gain increasing independence from the United Kingdom over the 16th-20th centuries until full independant nationhood on April 18, 1949. The official languages are Irish Gaelic and English. It is some 70272.78 square kilometers in area, and the 2003 estimated population was 3,968,100.