11 ATLASES

History of Ireland in maps

Ireland as it appears in 11 interactive history atlases, from 1095 to 2015: Ireland. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.

Open this map in the interactive atlas →

WW2 is free in full, and chapter 1 of every atlas is free. A free account opens 3 more chapters a day. Starter, at $9 a month, opens all 21 with no daily limit — see the plans.

Free printable Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution study guide, sent by email ↓

Map of women’s rights in May 1970, showing Ireland — MAP OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN MAY 1970

These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v0.2.1 historical polities · ILO: Equal Remuneration Convention C100 · Natural Earth 1:10m countries and physical geography · Natural Earth 1:10m administrative references (US states and Berlin)

Source details

Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY 4.0 · Selected source records; component selection, documented unions and date proxies; projected for display.
International Labour Organization. Factual historical evidence; no source prose reproduced
Natural Earth. Public domain · Property selection and semantic ID normalization; full coordinates retained. An upstream Egyptian ring self-intersection is repaired with area change below 1e-9 square degrees; see natural-earth-admin0-review.json.
Natural Earth. Public domain

Modern reference outlines locate the historical thematic data. The underlying rights/protest classifications remain unchanged.

Germany uses dated East/West source extents together with a Berlin reference; Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union use reviewed historical extents. For Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, the 1953–68 references are retained where later Cliopatria records show military occupation rather than treaty-party territory.

reconstruction: 1953–1968 · reconstruction: 1958–1989; 1953–1972 · reconstruction: Cartographic device · vector: 1949–1990 · vector: 1953–1968 · vector: 1963–1975

Layer records and reconstruction methods

What was Ireland before it was Ireland? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.

Hibernia (mod. Ireland) · Ancient Rome

ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Ireland · Norse and Aztecs

Norse raiders founded Dublin in 841 and later Waterford, Wexford and Limerick. These became trading towns linked to the Irish Sea economy, including its slave trade. Dublin remained a Norse town until the Anglo-Normans took it in 1170–71. Many Gaelic people brought to Iceland came from Ireland, and genetic studies indicate that more than half of Iceland’s founding mothers had Gaelic ancestry.

c. 790

Other peoples and states — the opening position

NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Ireland · Crusades

1095	Latin Christendom — the opening position

CRUSADES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Ireland (in the United Kingdom from 1801) · Industrial Revolution

Ireland joined the United Kingdom in 1801, but industry developed chiefly in the northeast. Belfast’s linen mills and shipyards could rival those in Britain; elsewhere, small farms and great estates prevailed. The Great Famine of 1845–52 killed about a million people and sent millions more toward the factories and docks of Liverpool, Glasgow and America. Irish labor also built much of industrial Britain’s canals, railways and cities.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Ireland · Age of Revolutions

The United Irishmen rose in 1798 for a republic, with French help. Their rising was savagely crushed, and forced union with Britain followed in 1801. During the Great Famine of 1845–49, a million people died and two million more were scattered; the Young Ireland rising of 1848 flickered out. Irish exiles carried republicanism into every English-speaking country.

JUL 1789

Britain & its empire — the opening position

AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Ireland · WWI

While home rule remained suspended, 200,000 Irishmen served in British uniform. Ireland’s experience at home followed another course: the Easter 1916 rising in Dublin, the execution of its leaders and the conscription crisis turned nationalism from home rule toward independence. Britain’s war for small nations ended with one leaving Britain; the Anglo-Irish war began in 1919.