IRELAND

Ireland is an island nation in the North Atlantic, occupying most of the island of the same name off the northwestern coast of Great Britain, with Northern Ireland, a constituent country of the United Kingdom, occupying the northeastern portion. It was under British rule for centuries before gaining independence in 1922 and has maintained a distinct cultural identity shaped by the Irish language, the Catholic Church, and a diaspora produced in large part by the Great Famine of the 1840s, which reduced the island’s population by roughly a quarter through death and emigration.

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