Republic of Ireland

C

Plants and Animals

Although much of Ireland was once covered with primeval forest, little now remains. Sedges, rushes, ferns, and grass predominate. Ireland is one of the last outposts of peatlands in Western Europe, and the flora of these regions consists of a large variety of bog moss species together with heather and sedges. The Burren in County Clare is a region of bare Carboniferous limestone, containing arctic-alpine species surviving from the last glaciation and Mediterranean species at the northern end of their range.

Irish fauna does not differ markedly from that of Britain or France. Mammals include the red deer, fox, badger, rabbit, otter, grey seal, common seal, red squirrel, hedgehog, stoat, hare, and many cetacean species. The great Irish deer and the great auk, or garefowl, were exterminated in prehistoric times and subsequently the island has lost its bear, wolf, wildcat, beaver, and native cattle. Indigenous fish include salmon, brown trout, char, pollan, and eel, with other varieties, such as pike, roach, and rainbow trout, having been introduced from outside. Ireland is important for its seabird colonies and migratory waterfowl. Of some 380 species of wild birds recorded in Ireland, 135 breed in the country. There are no snakes and the only reptile is the common lizard. There are national parks at Killarney, County Kerry; Glenveagh, County Donegal; Connemara, County Galway; The Burren, County Clare; and the Wicklow Mountains, County Wicklow; as well as a number of forest parks and many smaller amenities.

D

Natural Resources

Ireland is not rich in mineral resources. The country has some deposits of lead, zinc, silver, gypsum, and barite. Peat is an important domestic fuel. There is little coal, but natural gas reserves off the coast of County Cork have been in production since the 1980s.

E

Environmental Concerns

Ireland is a predominantly rural country, and its major environmental challenges involve agricultural practices. Farming has intensified in the past two decades, leading to increases in pesticide and fertilizer use, which in turn have increased chemical pollution in run-off, streams, and estuaries. Soil depletion and erosion are widespread. Parts of the Irish Sea are contaminated with nuclear waste discarded by the United Kingdom.

Ireland has relatively low biodiversity but a large number of unique habitats important to wildlife, including migratory birds. Coastal regions contain many types of wetlands that are of great importance to waterfowl and other species. The most endangered biomes are blanket and raised bogs. These are natural wetlands that have been mined for centuries to supply peat, which is used as domestic fuel and to supply electric power facilities. Modern forestry operations have planted about 5 per cent of the land in exotic conifers, mostly on peatlands. Conservation of the remaining peatlands is a conservation priority of both Ireland and the European Union (EU).

Ireland maintains 6 national parks (Burren NP, Connemara NP, Glenveagh NP, Killarney NP, Mayo NP, and Wicklow Mountains NP) and 300 public forests, including 12 forest parks. Two sites—North Bull Island (1981) and Killarney (1982)—have been approved as biosphere reserves under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Man and the Biosphere Program. The country is bound by EU environmental directives under which it has designated 20 special protection areas and 14 biogenetic reserves. These plus nature reserves and areas of scientific interest bring the total protected land in Ireland to about 0.9 per cent (1997). Ireland has ratified international environmental agreements on air pollution, climate change, environmental modification, hazardous wastes, marine dumping, nuclear test ban, ozone layer, tropical timber, wetlands, and whaling and has signed the conventions on biodiversity, desertification, endangered species, law of the sea, and marine life.

III

Population

The population of Ireland is predominantly of Celtic origin (see Celtic Languages; Celts). No significant ethnic minorities exist.

A

Population Characteristics

The Republic of Ireland has a population of 4,156,119 (2008 estimate), giving the country an overall population density of about 60 people per sq km (156 per sq mi). This figure is only about half of what it was in the early 1840s, when the whole island had an estimated population of about 8 million, of whom about three quarters lived in the area now covered by the republic. The potato blight of 1845 and 1846 brought famine to Ireland (see Irish Famine), and despite subsequent good harvests an estimated 1 million people died. In the next 20 years another 1 million people emigrated, setting a trend of depopulation that has continued, albeit at a reduced rate in recent years.

Recently, Ireland had one of the highest birth rates in Europe and thus has one of the youngest populations, but the annual rate of increase during the 1980s was only about 0.5 per cent; in 2008 the rate of population growth was 1.13 per cent. Around 60 per cent of the population lived in urban areas in 2005.