Dermot O'Gara, IrishAbroad.com

Ireland's location and proximity to Britain have in large measure shaped her history. As an island to the west of continental Europe, Ireland, which has been inhabited for approximately 7,000 years, experienced many incursions and invasions, resulting in a rich mixture of ancestry and traditions.

The first settlers, mostly hunters from Britain, brought a Mesolithic culture. They were followed around 3000 BC by farmers who raised animals and cultivated the soil. After these Neolithic settlers, around 2000 BC, came prospectors and metal workers. By the 6^th century BC the waves of Celtic invaders from Europe began to reach the country.

While Ireland was never unified politically by the Celts, they did generate a cultural and linguistic unity. The introduction of Christianity in the 5^th century is traditionally credited to Saint Patrick, though there is evidence that there were Christians on the island before his arrival.

Ireland never experienced the barbarian invasions of the early medieval period and, partly as a result, the 6^th and 7^th centuries saw a flowering of Irish art, learning and culture centring on the Irish monasteries. Irish monks established centre of learning and Christianity in many parts of Europe in the period before 800 AD.

During the 9^th and 10^th centuries, the Vikings regularly raided Ireland. The Vikings were also traders and they did much to develop town life at Dublin, Cork and Waterford. Following the defeat of the Vikings by Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland, at Clontarf in 1014, the Vikings influence faded.

In the 12^th century, such progress as had been made towards the creation of a centralised State under a single High King was shattered by the arrival of the Normans, who had earlier settled in England and Wales. The Normans quickly came to control some three-quarters of the land of Ireland, which then came under the political authority of the King of England.