Timeline of Irish HistoryA timeline of the history of Ireland, including the country's political, legal and religious events

0432 AD: St Patrick arrives to help convert Irish
Saint Patrick was active in the fifth-century and is the primary patron saint of Ireland. He has be...

0795 AD: Arrival of Norsemen or Vikings on Lambay Island of Dublin Coast
The Norsemen, also known as Vikings, arrived to raid and loot the wealthy Irish monastaries which co...

0800 AD: Book of Kells
The Book of Kells contains the four Gospels in Latin written on vellum (prepared calfskin). The dat...

1 May 1170: Arrival of Normans
The first wave of Norman invaders arrived at Baginbun in County Wexford. They were a small party wh...

1171: Strongbow becomes King of Leinster
Having arrived in 1170, Strongbow the Earl of Pembroke, captured Dublin for the King of Leinster Der...

1171: Arrival of Henry II in Ireland
The King of E ngland Henry II arrived in 1171, primarily to subdue Strongbow who was still one of hi...

1366: Statutes of Kilkenny
These statutes aimed to try and prevent Normans and later settlers from becoming 'more Irish than th...

Feb 1534: Gerald Fitzgerald Lord Deputy of Ireland summoned to London
Gerald Fitzgerald Lord Deputy of Ireland, was summoned to London by the King and appointed his 21-ye...

Jun 1534: Kildare Rebellion
Thomas Fitzgerald hears rumours that his father had been executed in the Tower of London and that th...

1536: Act of Supremacy - beginning of the Reformation in Ireland.
This was the beginning of the Reformation in Ireland as King Henry VIII broke with the Pope and made...

3 Feb 1537: Execution of Thomas Fitzgerald and his five uncles at Tyburn, London.
Thomas Fitzgerald was born in London in 1513, the son of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare and ...

1541: The Irish Parliament declares the King of England Henry VIII to be the King of Ireland.
The title "King of Ireland" was created by an act of the Irish Parliament in 1541, replacing the Lor...

1557: Act providing for the plantation of Laois and Offaly.
This allowed the plantation of English settlers on lands confiscated following the suppression of re...

1565: 1st Desmond Rebellion
A feud developed between the Earl of Desmond and the Earl of Ormond resulting in a pitched battle at...

1579: 2nd Desmond Rebellion
This rebellion proved bloody as the English forces engaged in a scorched earth policy. Much of Muns...

1586: Plantation of Munster begins.
The Munster Plantation was the first mass plantation in Ireland. It was instituted as punishment for...

Sep 1588: Spanish Armada wrecked off the west coast of Ireland.
Following its defeat the Armada attempted to return home through the North Atlantic, when it was dri...

1594: Start of Rebellion of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and the Nine Years War.
Towards the end of the 16th century only Ulster remained free from direct rule of the English Queen....

1598: Hugh O'Neill's victory at Yellow Ford in County Armagh
O'Neill defeated an English army which had set our from Armagh to relieve an isolated English fort o...

24 Dec 1601: Battle of Kinsale
Hugh O'Neill formed an alliance with Catholic Spain. In 1601 four thousand Spanish soldiers landed ...

1603: Surrender of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone.
Hugh O'Neill surrendered expecting to be executed. Luckily for the Earl, Queen Elizabeth had died a...

4 Sep 1607: Flight of the Earls
Hugh O'Neill (Tyrone), Hugh O'Donnell (Tirconnell) were the last great chieftains of Ireland but the...

1608: Ulster Plantation begins.
After the flight of the earls King James confiscated their lands. Large sections of the population...

1613: James I's Irish parliament opens.
A dispute over the election of the speaker of the House of Commons leads to the withdrawal of Catho...

1618: Letters patent issued for grants in the plantation of north Wexford.
In addition to the Ulster plantation, several other small plantations occurred under the reign of th...

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