title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In 1912–1913, the Liberal government in Britain proposed a Bill for Home Rule. Alarmed, unionists in the north organized the Ulster Volunteers, an armed militia proposing to resist Home Rule by force. Nationalists in response founded the Irish Volunteers. Arising out of this stand off, the partition of Ireland was proposed in three way talks between the Irish Parliamentary Party, the Unionist Party and the British government. In 1914, the UK Parliament enacted a Third Irish Home Rule Bill but suspended its effect until after World War I.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The nationalist leader John Redmond pledged support for the British war effort and many Irishmen served in the British Army (see Ireland and World War I), but the war and the frustration of nationalist ambitions regarding Home Rule led to a radicalisation of Irish nationalism. In 1916, a group of IRB activists within the Irish Volunteers led an insurrection aimed at Irish independence in Dublin, known as the Easter Rising. The rebellion did not have popular support and was put down within a week, but the execution of its leaders, and the subsequent wholesale arrest of radical nationalist activists proved very unpopular with the nationalist public. Coming directly after the Rising, a further attempt was made at the Irish Convention to resolve the impasse over Home Rule, but without success. Finally, the British proposal to extend conscription for the war to Ireland provoked widespread resistance, (see Conscription Crisis of 1918) and discredited the Irish Parliamentary Party who had supported the British war effort.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: All of these factors led to a swing towards support for Sinn Féin – the party which was led by veterans of the Easter Rising and which stood for an independent Irish Republic. In the 1918 Irish general election, Sinn Féin won the vast majority of seats, many of which were uncontested. Sinn Féin's elected candidates refused to attend the UK Parliament at Westminster and instead assembled in Dublin as a new revolutionary parliament called "Dáil Éireann". They declared the existence of a new state called the "Irish Republic" and established a system of government to rival the institutions of the United Kingdom.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The first meeting of the Dáil coincided with an unauthorised shooting of two RIC men in Tipperary, now regarded as the outbreak of the Irish War of Independence. From 1919 to 1921 the Irish Volunteers (now renamed as the Irish Republican Army, being deemed by the Dáil to be the army of the new Irish Republic) engaged in guerrilla warfare against the British army, the RIC and paramilitary police units known as the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries. The violence started out slowly, with only 19 deaths in 1919, but escalated sharply from the second half of 1920 and in the first six months of 1921 alone there were 1,000 deaths on all sides. The principle political leader of the republican movement was Éamon de Valera – the President of the Republic. However he spent much of the conflict in the United States, raising money and support for the Irish cause. In his absence, two young men, Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy rose to prominence as the clandestine leaders of the IRA – respectively Director of Intelligence and Chief of Staff of the guerrilla organisation.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: There were several failed attempts to negotiate an end to the conflict. In the summer of 1920, the British government proposed the Government of Ireland Act 1920 (which passed into law on 3 May 1921) that envisaged the partition of the island of Ireland into two autonomous regions "Northern Ireland" (six northeastern counties) and "Southern Ireland" (the rest of the island, including its most northerly county, Donegal). However, this was not acceptable to southern republicans and only the entity of Northern Ireland was established under the Act in 1921. The political entity of Southern Ireland was superseded in 1922 by the creation of the Irish Free State.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: After further failed talks in December 1920, the guerrilla conflict was brought to an end in July 1921, with a truce agreed between the IRA and the British. Talks were then formally begun in pursuit of a peace settlement.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: To some extent, the War of Independence exposed political and religious fissures in Irish society. The IRA killed over 200 civilians as alleged informers in the conflict. It has been alleged that groups like Protestants and ex-servicemen were disproportionately represented in this figure – an argument disputed by other historians. However whether due to violence and intimidation or due to their loyalty to the British presence in Ireland, between 1911 and 1926 some 34 percent of the Free State's Protestant population – or about 40,000 people – left the 26 counties, mostly for Northern Ireland or Great Britain. While there were many reasons for this, secession from the United Kingdom was a factor in Protestant emigration.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Negotiations between the British and Irish negotiating teams produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty, concluded on 6 December 1921. The Irish team was led by Michael Collins, who had organised the IRA intelligence during the War of Independence. The British team led by David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill were prepared to make concessions on Irish independence but would not concede a republic. Towards the end of negotiations, Lloyd George threatened, "immediate and terrible war" if the Irish did not accept the terms offered.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The Treaty envisaged a new system of Irish self-government, known as "dominion status", with a new state, to be called the Irish Free State. The Free State was considerably more independent than a Home Rule Parliament would have been. It had its own police and armed forces and control over its own taxation and fiscal policy, none of which had been envisaged under Home Rule. However, there were some limits to its sovereignty. It remained a dominion of the British Commonwealth and members of its parliament had to swear an oath of loyalty to the British monarch. The British also retained three naval bases, known as the Treaty Ports. In addition, the Irish state was obliged to honour the contracts of the existing civil service—with the exception of the Royal Irish Constabulary, which was disbanded, albeit with full pensions—payable by the Irish state.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: There was also the question of partition, which pre-dated the Treaty but which was copper-fastened by it. In theory, Northern Ireland was included under the terms of the Treaty but under Article 12 was, given the option to opt out within a month. (See Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922) Thus for three days from midnight on 6 December 1922 the newly established Irish Free State, in theory included all of the island of Ireland (including Northern Ireland). However, in practice, Northern Ireland was already a functioning autonomous area by this time and it formally left the Irish Free State on 8 December 1922.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: As a result of these limits to the Free State's sovereignty, and because the Treaty dismantled the Republic declared by nationalists in 1918, the Sinn Féin movement, the Dáil and the IRA were all deeply split over whether to accept the Treaty. Éamon de Valera, the President of the Republic was the most prominent leader of those who rejected the Treaty. Among other things, he objected to the fact that Collins and the negotiating team had signed it without the authorisation of the Dáil Cabinet.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: On a vote of 64 to 57, the Dáil narrowly passed the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 7 January 1922. Éamon de Valera, President of the Republic and several other cabinet members resigned in protest.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The pro-Treaty leadership of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, organised in a Provisional Government, set about establishing the Irish Free State created by the Treaty. To this end, they began recruiting for a new army, based initially at Beggars Bush Barracks in Dublin, composed of pro-Treaty IRA units. They also began recruiting for a new police, the Civic Guard, to replace the RIC which was disbanded as of August 1922.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: However a majority of the IRA led by Rory O'Connor opposed the Treaty, on the grounds that it disestablished the Irish republic, which they argued they were sworn to defend, and that it imposed a declaration of fidelity to the British monarch on Irish parliamentarians. The IRA held a convention in March 1922, in which they renounced their allegiance to the Dáil and vested it in their own Army Council. O'Connor in April led the occupation by anti-Treaty forces of several public buildings in Dublin, notably the Four Courts – centre of the Irish legal system. Éamon de Valera, while not in command of the anti-Treaty IRA, also led political opposition to the Treaty in a new party named Cumann na Poblachta.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: With two rival Irish armed forces now in the country, civil war looked likely from the spring of 1922. Three events set it off. The first was the election of 18 June 1922, which the pro-Treaty Sinn Féin party won, giving the Free State a popular mandate. The second was the assassination by Irish republicans in London of a retired British general Henry Hughes Wilson. While it is not clear who ordered the killing, the British government assumed it was the anti-Treaty IRA and ordered Collins to act against them or risk armed British intervention to do it. The third trigger was the kidnapping by the IRA in the Four Courts of Free State general, JJ "Ginger" O'Connell. This combination of events forced the Collins government to assault and take the anti-Treaty positions in Dublin, which it succeeded in doing after a week's fighting in July 1922. Éamon de Valera declared his support for the anti-Treaty IRA after the outbreak of hostilities.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: A further military offensive secured the Free State control over the other major towns and cities in its territory by the beginning of August. Despite their defeat in open warfare, the IRA regrouped and took up a guerrilla campaign, as they saw it, to restore the Irish Republic. The war dragged on in a guerrilla form until April 1923. In August 1922, the Free State was rocked by the death of its two main leaders. Michael Collins was killed in an ambush at Béal na mBláth, Cork, on 22 August 1922 and Arthur Griffith died of a stroke a week earlier. W. T. Cosgrave assumed control of both the Irish Republic's cabinet and the Provisional Government and both administrations disappeared simultaneously shortly afterwards, replaced by the institutions of the Irish Free State on 6 December 1922.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The anti-Treaty IRA under Liam Lynch tried to use the same guerrilla tactics against the Free State as they had against the British in 1919–1921. However, without the same degree of popular support, they were less effective. By late 1922, the Irish National Army had taken all the major towns in the country and reduced the IRA's campaign to small scale attacks. A very large number of anti-Treaty fighters, some 12,000 in all, were interned by the Free State. Moreover, as it went on the war produced acts of great cruelty on both sides. The Free State embarked on a policy of selective executions – 77 prisoners were judicially shot with over 100 more 'unofficially' killed in the field. The anti-Treaty forces assassinated one pro-Treaty member of Parliament, and several other civilian politicians, wounded more and burned their houses. However the Free State's tactics of internment and executions combined to cripple the anti-Treaty forces by April 1923.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The death in action of Liam Lynch in this month led to the anti-Treaty IRA, under the orders of Frank Aiken and on the urgings of civilian leader de Valera, calling a ceasefire and to "dump arms". There was no negotiated end to the war however.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The Civil War between Irish nationalists created a great deal of bitterness and the Civil War cleavage also produced the two main parties of independent Ireland in the 20th century. The number of dead has yet to be accurately counted but is considered to be around 2,000; at least as high as the number killed in the preceding War of Independence.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Immediately after the Civil War, elections were held in which anti-Treaty Sinn Féin were allowed to participate. Although many of their candidates, including Éamon de Valera, were imprisoned, they won about one third of the vote. However the pro-Treaty side, organised in Cumann na nGaedheal, won a comfortable majority and went on to form the government of the new state until 1932.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The Cumann na nGaedheal governments, led by WT Cosgrave, were highly conservative – being more concerned with establishing the state's basic institutions after the havoc of the Civil War than with social or political reform. According to Kevin O'Higgins, the Minister for Justice, "we were the most conservative group of revolutionaries ever to have carried out a successful revolution".


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The Irish Civil Service was largely inherited intact from the British and senior civil servants such as C.J. Gregg were 'lent' to the Irish from London to get the new state's bureaucracy off the ground. The new service, and especially its comptroller, Joseph Brennan were initially most concerned with balancing the state's budget and avoiding long-term in-debtedness The Free State printed its own notes (the punt), and minted its own coins but their value remained tied to British sterling currency until the 1970s.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Whereas the British had devolved much power to local government in the 1890s, one of the Free State's first acts was to abolish many of the powers of County Councils and replace them with unelected County managers. This was partly due to the allegiance of some councils to the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War, but also due to the belief that giving power to local government bred corruption. One of the major successes of the Cumann na nGaedheal governments was to establish the police, the Garda Síochána, as an unarmed and politically neutral force, relatively untainted by the bitterness of the civil war.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: On the economic front, the Cosgrave administration saw its role as supporting the Irish agricultural export sector by consolidating farms and improving the quality of their produce. Ernest Blythe, the first Minister for Finance, in a bid to reduce the public debt, cut public expenditure from £42 million in 1923 to £27 million in 1926. The Cumann na nGeadhael governments did not see providing social services as a priority and instead cut income tax from 5 to 3 shillings. One exception to the generally low level of public spending was the Shannon hydroelectric scheme, which provided Ireland's first autonomous source of electricity.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: While the last prisoners of the Civil War were released in 1924, the Free State retained extensive emergency powers to intern and even execute political opponents, under a series of Public Safety Acts (1923, 1926 and 1931). These powers were used after the IRA assassinated Minister Kevin O'Higgins (in revenge for the executions during the Civil War) in 1927 after which several hundred IRA suspects were interned.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The political representatives of the anti-Treaty side had re-grouped in 1926 as Fianna Fáil, leaving only a minority of intransigent republicans in Sinn Féin and the IRA who refused to recognise the legitimacy of the state. Fianna Fáil initially refused to take their seats after being elected to the Dáil. However, they entered the parliament in 1927, in part to disassociate themselves from the killing of Kevin O'Higgins.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Initially Cumann na nGaedheal had been popular as the party that had established the state, but by 1932, their economic conservatism and continued repression of anti-Treaty Republicans was becoming unpopular. Fianna Fáil won the 1932 election on a programme of developing Irish industry, creating jobs, providing more social services and cutting the remaining links with the British Empire. In 1932, Fianna Fáil entered government in coalition with the Labour Party, but a year later they won an absolute majority. They would be in government without interruption until 1948 and for much of the rest of the 20th century.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: One of Fianna Fáil's first actions in government was to legalise the IRA and to release imprisoned republicans. IRA members began attacking Cumann na nGaedhal supporters, who they considered "traitors" at rallies. This greatly antagonised pro-Treaty Civil War veterans, who in response formed the quasi-fascist Blueshirts (initially the "Army Comrades Association"), led by the former Garda Commissioner Eoin O'Duffy to oppose the IRA. There were frequent riots and occasional shootings between the two factions in the early 1930s. De Valera banned the Blueshirts in 1933, after a threatened march on the Dáil, in imitation of Mussolini's March on Rome. Not long afterwards, in 1936, de Valera made a clean break with political violence when he banned the increasingly left-wing IRA after they murdered a landlord's agent, Richard More O'Farrell, in a land dispute and fired shots at police during a strike of Tramway workers in Dublin. In 1939 it enacted the Offences against the State Act for the prosecution of illegal armed groups, an act similar to those passed by previous governments to combat dissident militant groups.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Fianna Fáil's economic programme marked a sharp break with their predecessors in Cumann na nGaedheal. Instead of free trade, which benefited mainly substantial farmers, Fianna Fáil pursued the nationalist aim of establishing Irish domestic industries, which were protected from foreign competitors by tariffs and subsidies. Fianna Fáil made it mandatory for foreign companies to have a quota of Irish members on their boards. They also set up a large number of semi-state companies such as the Electricity Supply Board and the Turf Development Board. While this state-led strategy had some positive results, emigration remained high throughout this period, with up to 75,000 leaving for Britain in the late 1930s.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In the course of their pursuit of economic independence, Fianna Fáil also provoked what is known as the Anglo-Irish Trade War with Britain in 1933, by refusing to continue paying back "land annuities" money provided under the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 by the British Government to enable Irish farmers purchase their own land. The British in retaliation raised tariffs on Irish agricultural produces, hurting Ireland's export trade. De Valera in turn raised taxes on the importation of British goods. The burden of this standoff fell on the cattle farmers, who could no longer sell their cattle at competitive rates in Britain. Additionally the Fianna Fáil government continued to collect half the land annuities as taxation. Police and sometimes troops were used to seize cattle off farmers who would not or could not pay. Farmers aggrieved at these policies were one of the principal support bases of the Blueshirt movement


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The dispute with Britain was finally settled in 1939. Half of the land annuity debt (c. £90 million) was written off and the rest paid as lump sum. The British also returned to Ireland the Treaty ports, which they had retained since the Treaty of 1922. Irish control over these bases made possible Irish neutrality in the looming Second World War.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The Free State from 1922 to 1937 was a constitutional monarchy over which the British monarch reigned (from 1927 with the title "King of Ireland"). The Representative of the Crown was known as the Governor-General. The Free State had a bicameral parliament and a cabinet, called the "Executive Council" answerable to the lower house of parliament, the Free State Dáil. The head of government was called the President of the Executive Council.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The parliament of the UK passed The Statute of Westminster 1931, which granted legislative independence to the six Dominions, Australia, Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, New Zealand, and South Africa.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In 1932, after Éamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil's victory in the general election, the 1922 Irish Free State constitution was amended through a series of legislative changes, was subsequently replaced with a new constitution. This document was drawn up by the de Valera administration. It was approved by the electorate in a plebiscite by a simple majority.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: On 29 December 1937, the new "Constitution of Ireland" came into effect, renaming the Irish Free State to simply "Éire" or in the English language "Ireland". The Governor-General was replaced by a President of Ireland and a new more powerful prime minister, called the "Taoiseach", came into being, while the Executive Council was renamed the "Government". Though it had a president, the new state was not a republic. The British monarch continued to reign theoretically as "King of Ireland", and was used as an "organ" in international and diplomatic relations, with the President of Ireland relegated to symbolic functions within the state but never outside it.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The AngloIrish Treaty provided that should Northern Ireland choose not be included in the Free State, a Boundary Commission would be set up to revise the borders between the two jurisdictions. The Irish perspective was that this was intended to allow largely nationalist areas of Northern Ireland to join the Free State, and shortly after the establishment of the Free State this commission came into being. However the commission concentrated on economic and topographic factors, rather than the political aspirations of the people who would be living near the new border. In 1925, the Boundary Commission report, contrary to expectations, proposed ceding some small areas of the Free State to Northern Ireland. For a variety of reasons the governments agreed to accept the original Northern Ireland/Southern Ireland delineation in return for Britain dropping the Irish obligation to share in paying Britain's Imperial debts. The Dáil approved the boundary by a large margin of 71 to 20.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The outbreak of the Second World War put the state and the de Valera government in a difficult situation. It came under pressure from Britain and later the US, to enter the war, or at least to allow the allies to use its ports. However, there remained a minority who felt that national independence had yet to be achieved and who were resolutely opposed to any alliance with Britain. For this reason, de Valera ensured that the state remained neutral throughout the War which was officially known as the "Emergency". The state's decision to adopt neutrality was influenced by memories of the AngloIrish War and the Civil War, and the state's lack of military preparedness for involvement in a war.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The remnants of the IRA, which had split several times into ever smaller groupings since 1922, embarked on a bombing campaign in Britain (see Sabotage Campaign (IRA)) and some attacks in Northern Ireland (see Northern Campaign), intended to force a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. Some of its leadership, notably Seán Russell, sought help from Nazi Germany for this project. De Valera, considering this activity a threat to Irish neutrality and therefore to the state's vital interests, interned all active IRA members and executed several. Another was hanged in Northern Ireland for shooting a policeman.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Behind the scenes the Irish state worked with the Allies; in 1940, the government agreed provisionally with Britain that it would accept the entry of British troops and put its own armed forces under their command should the Germans invade Ireland – see Plan W. There was a provisional German plan for an invasion of Ireland, known as Operation Green, but it was never carried out. Additionally, Irish fire fighters were sent to Northern Ireland to help fight the fires caused by the German bombing of Belfast in 1941 (See Belfast Blitz).


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: There were a number of further examples of cooperation. German pilots who crashed in Ireland were interned while Allied airmen were returned to Britain. There was also mutual sharing of intelligence. For example, the date of the D-Day Normandy landings was decided on the basis of transatlantic weather reports supplied by the Irish state. It is estimated that between 43,000 and 150,000 men from Ireland took part, with that number roughly evenly divided between Northern Ireland and the southern state.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Conversely, following the suicide of Adolf Hitler, de Valera, following diplomatic protocol, controversially offered condolences to the German ambassador.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Economically, the war was a difficult time for the state. Industrial production fell by 25%. Unlike the First World War, when Irish farmers had made substantial profits selling food to Britain, in the Second World War, Britain imposed strict price controls on Irish agricultural imports. Due to the war, imports to Ireland dried up, leading to a drive for self-sufficiency in food and strict rationing, which continued until the 1950s. Nevertheless, as a result of neutrality, Ireland emerged from the war having been spared the physical destruction and extreme hardship undergone by combatant nations on the European mainland.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The official position of the Irish state, as laid out in the 1937 constitution, was that the territory of the state comprised the whole island of Ireland, but that its laws applied only to the territory of the Free State, as outlined in the 1922 Treaty. Thereafter the policies of Irish governments pursued the peaceful unification of Ireland through the pressure groups such as the anti-Partition League. However, at the same time, the state recognised that paramilitary groups – in particular the IRA – were also a threat to its own security. Furthermore, their attacks on Northern Ireland could drag the Irish state into an unwanted confrontation with Britain.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In the 1950s, the IRA launched a campaign of attacks on Northern security targets along the border (the Border Campaign). The Irish government first detained the IRA's leaders under the Offences Against the State Act and later introduced internment for all IRA activists. This helped to halt the campaign in its tracks, and the IRA called it off in 1962. In the aftermath of this episode, the southern government under Seán Lemass, himself an IRA veteran of the War of Independence and Civil War, tried to forge closer ties with the authorities in Northern Ireland to promote peaceful co-operation on the island. He and Northern premier Terence O'Neill exchanged visits, the first of the respective heads of state to do so since the very early days of partition in 1922.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: However, in 1969, the Irish government found itself placed in a very difficult position when conflict erupted in Northern Ireland in the form of rioting in Derry, Belfast and other urban centres. The violence arose out of agitation by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association for the redress of grievances of Catholics and nationalists in Northern Ireland. Two episodes in particular caused concern – the Battle of the Bogside in Derry, in which nationalists fought the police for three days and the rioting in Belfast, in which several Catholic neighbourhoods were attacked and burned by loyalists.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Taoiseach Jack Lynch in a televised address, said, "we can not stand by and watch innocent people being injured and perhaps worse", comments taken to mean that Irish troops would be sent over the border to assist Northern nationalists. This was not done, but Irish Army field hospitals were set up and some money and arms were covertly supplied to nationalist groups for self-defence. Government ministers, Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney, were later put on trial for allegedly supplying arms to republican paramilitaries.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: At the same time, the Provisional IRA, emerged from the 1969 rioting intending to launch an armed campaign against the Northern state. By 1972, their campaign was of considerable intensity, killing over 100 British soldiers in that year alone. Unlike the IRA campaign of the 1950s, this campaign was viewed as having considerable public support among Northern nationalists and for this reason, Irish governments did not introduce internment as they had previously, in the absence of a political settlement in Northern Ireland. The Irish government also refused to allow British and Northern Ireland security units to pursue Republican paramilitaries over the border into the Republic and arrested those soldiers or police who did enter its territory armed.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The Irish governments however, continued to view illegal armed activity by republicans on its territory as a major security risk. The Gardaí and the Irish Army were used to try to impede the activities of republican paramilitary groups throughout the conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles (c. 1968–1998). The paramilitaries' activities in the south included bank robberies, kidnappings and occasional attacks on the Irish security forces (killing 6 gardaí and one Irish soldier) as well as attacks on British forces over the border. Representatives of republican paramilitaries were forbidden from appearing on television or radio by Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act, (1971).


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: There were also some attacks by loyalist paramilitary groups in southern territory, notably the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974, which killed 33 people.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In 1985, the Irish government was part of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, in which the British government recognised that the Irish government had a role to play in a future peace settlement in the North. In 1994, the Irish government was heavily involved in negotiations which brought about an IRA ceasefire.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In 1998, the Irish authorities were again party to a settlement, the Good Friday Agreement, which set up power-sharing institutions within Northern Ireland, north–south instructions and links between the various components of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The Irish state also changed Articles 2 and 3 of the constitution to acknowledge both the existence of Northern Ireland and the desire of Irish nationalists for a united Ireland. Even in the wake of the post-Good Friday Agreement incorporation of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin into electoral politics, there remain several republican paramilitary groups who wish to use force to destabilise Northern Ireland – such as the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA. Irish security forces continue to be used to try to prevent attacks by such groups.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: On 18 April 1949 the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, which had been enacted by the Oireachtas, came into force. That legislation described Ireland as the Republic of Ireland but did not change the country's name. The international and diplomatic functions previously vested in or exercised by the king were now vested in the President of Ireland who finally became unambiguously the Irish head of state. Under the Commonwealth rules then in force, the declaration of a republic automatically terminated the state's membership of the British Commonwealth. Unlike India, which became a republic shortly afterwards, Ireland chose not to reapply for admittance to the Commonwealth.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Though a republic since 1949, the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 that had established the Kingdom of Ireland was not finally repealed until 1962, along with many other obsolete Parliament of Ireland statutes. However, long before that, the British Government in its Ireland Act 1949 recognised that "the Republic of Ireland had ceased to be part of His Majesty's dominions" (but would not be "a foreign country" for the purposes of any law).


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The state joined the United Nations in December 1955, after a lengthy veto by the Soviet Union. Turned away by the veto of France in 1961, the state finally succeeded in joining the European Communities (now known as the European Union) in 1973.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Ireland emerged from the Second World War in better condition than many European countries, having been spared direct involvement in the war and with an income per capita higher than that of most belligerent countries. Ireland also benefited from a loan under the Marshal Plan; $36 million, at 2% interest. The money was spent on an extensive housing and slum-clearing project and a successful campaign to eradicate tuberculosis.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: However, whereas most European countries experienced a sustained economic boom in the 1950s, Ireland did not, its economy growing by only 1% a year during the decade. Ireland as a result experienced sharp emigration of around 50,000 per year during the decade and the population of the state fell to an all-time low of 2.81 million. The policies of protectionism and low public spending which had predominated since the 1930s were widely viewed to be failing.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Fianna Fáil's political dominance was broken in 1948–51 and in 1954–1957, when coalitions led by Fine Gael (descendants of Cumann na nGaedheal), and including the Labour Party and Clann na Poblachta won elections and formed the government. However, the periods of coalition rule did little to radically alter government policies. An initiative by Noël Browne, the Minister for Health, to introduce the Mother and Child Scheme, providing free medical care to mothers and children, came to nothing when opposed by the Catholic Church and by private medical practitioners.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Poor economic growth and lack of social services led Seán Lemass, who succeeded the veteran Éamon de Valera as leader of Fianna Fáil and as Taoiseach in 1958, to state that if economic performance did not improve, the very future of the independent Irish state was at risk. "[Something] has got to be done now... If we fail everything else goes with it and all the hopes of the past will have been falsified".


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Lemass, along with T. K. Whitaker as Secretary of the Department of Finance, set specific plans for economic growth, including planned investment in industrial infrastructure and dropping of many protective tariffs and giving tax incentives to foreign manufacturing companies to set up in Ireland. Attracting foreign direct investment has remained a central part of Irish economic planning since that time. The economic plans of the Lemass era yielded economic growth of 4% a year between 1959 and 1973. A result of having more public revenue was more investment in social infrastructure – free secondary education, for instance, was instituted in 1968, by the then Minister for Education, Donough O'Malley. Emigration fell as living standards in Ireland went up by 50% and began to catch up with the European average.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: However, in the 1970s, the world energy crisis – where OPEC countries withheld supplies of oil – resulted in rising inflation and a budget deficit in Ireland. From 1973 to 1977 a coalition government of Fine Gael and Labour tried to keep spending under control by imposing a series of cuts in public spending.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The period of economic crisis of the late 1970s provoked a new economic crisis in Ireland that would endure throughout the 1980s. Fianna Fáil, back in power after the 1977 election, tried to reactivate the economy by increasing public spending, which by 1981 amounted to 65% of Irish GNP. Irish national debt in 1980 was £7 billion or 81% of GNP. By 1986, it was over £23 billion – 142% of Irish GNP.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: This massive public debt hindered Irish economic performance throughout the 1980s. The governments of Charles Haughey (Fianna Fáil) and Garret FitzGerald (Fine Gael/Labour) borrowed even more, and income tax rates went up to between 35% and 60% of wage earners' income. The combination of high taxes and high unemployment caused emigration to pick up again, with up to 40,000 leaving the country each year in that decade. Power alternated between the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, with some governments not even lasting a year, and in one case, three elections in a period of 18 months.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Starting in 1989 there were significant policy changes with economic reform, tax cuts, welfare reform, an increase in competition, and a ban on borrowing to fund current spending. There was also a "Social Partnership Agreement" with the trade unions, whereby unions agreed not to strike in return for gradual, negotiated pay increases. These policies was started by the 1989–1992 Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat government, with the support of the opposition Fine Gael, and continued by the subsequent Fianna Fáil/Labour government (1992–1994) and Fine Gael/Labour Party/Democratic Left governments (1994–1997). This was known as the Tallaght Strategy, where the opposition promised not to oppose certain necessary economic measures brought in by the government of the day.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The Irish economy returned to growth by the 1990s but unemployment remained high until the second half of that decade.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The state had had a disappointing economic performance for much of its existence, but it became one of the fastest growing economies in the world by the 1990s, a phenomenon known as the Celtic Tiger. One factor in this was a policy of attracting foreign investment by offering very low taxes on profits ("corporations taxes", which were set at 12%) and by investing in education – offering a well-educated work force at relatively low wages and access to the now-open European market. The second factor was getting public spending under control by a series of agreements, termed 'social partnership' with the trade unions – where gradual increases in pay were awarded in return for no industrial action. However it was not until the second half of the 1990s that figures for unemployment and emigration were reversed.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: By the early 2000s, the Republic had become the second richest (in terms of GDP per capita, adjusted for purchasing power parity) member of the European Union, had moved from being a net recipient of EU funds to a net contributor, and from a position of net emigration to one of net immigration. In 2005, its "per capita" GDP (adjusted for purchasing power parity) became the second highest in the world (behind Switzerland) with 10 percent of the population born abroad. The population grew to an all-time high for the state of about 4.5 million.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: By 2000 Ireland had a substantial budget surplus and the first decade of the new millennium also saw a significant expansion of public spending on infrastructure and social services. As against this, several state-run industries were also privatised – Eircom for instance. In 2002, Irish national debt was 32% of GNP and fell further until 2007.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The Celtic Tiger started in the mid-1990s and boomed until 2001, when it slowed down, only to pick up again in 2003. It slowed again in 2007 and in June 2008 the Irish Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) predicted that Ireland would go into recession briefly before growth would resume.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: However, since 2001, the Irish economy had been heavily dependent of the property market and when this crashed in 2008, the country's economy was badly hit.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The Irish banks had invested heavily in loans to property developers and were facing ruin as result of the property markets' collapse and also the international 'Credit crunch' or drying up of loans from abroad. Much of the Irish economy and public finances had also depended on the property market and its collapse at roughly the same time as the banking crisis impacted all parts of the Irish economy. It also meant that revenue collected by the state fell radically.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: This situation was compounded by the assumption by the state of the banks' debts in 2008. The Irish government led by Brian Cowen, following a late-night meeting with all the senior banking officials in the country on 30 September 2008, agreed to cover all of the banks' debts. This debt, now estimated at over €50 billion, (over half of which will be paid to Anglo Irish Bank) imposed a heavy burden on the tax-payer and severely damaged Ireland's ability to borrow money from the International Bond markets.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The second problem is that public spending, which rose steeply in the 2000s, was now unsustainable. The total Irish budget deficit as of December 2010, stood at 93.4 billion with General Government Debt at 148.6 billion or 94.2% of GDP. As it was not clear how much money would be needed to revitalise the banks – to clear their debts and supply them with enough money to start lending again – the international markets were unwilling to lend Ireland money at an interest rate it could afford.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Under pressure from the European Union, which feared a 'run' (selling causing a collapse in value) of the euro, Ireland was forced to accept a 16-year loan of €85 billion at just under 6% interest from IMF and EU itself. Not only were the interest rates of the loan high, but the deal also involved a humiliating loss of sovereignty, in which Irish budgets had to first be approved by other parliaments of the EU – notably that of Germany.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The political result of this crisis was the fall of the Cowen government and a shattering defeat for Fianna Fáil in the 2011 Irish general election, in which the party won just 17% of the vote and retained only 20 out of its 71 seats in the Dáil. Emigration from Ireland has again picked up and many remain anxious about the economic future. Leader of Fine Gael, Enda Kenny, became the new Prime Minister after the election to succeed Brian Cowen.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In the 2016 general election, Fine Gael remained the largest party in parliament, but lost seats. After the resignation of Enda Kenny, Leo Varadkar became the new Prime Minister and leader of Fine Gael, in June 2017. The background of Varadkar, as gay son of Indian immigrant, made his choice historical


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In early 2020, the general election was an unprecedented three-way race, with the three largest parties each winning a share of the vote between 20% and 25%. Fianna Fáil finished with 38 seats (including the Ceann Comhairle). Sinn Féin made significant gains; it received the most first-preference votes, and won 37 seats, the party's best result since its modern iteration in 1970. Fine Gael, the governing party led by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, finished third both in seats (35) and in first-preference votes.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: International news outlets described the result as a historic break from the two-party system, as it was the first time in almost a century that neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael won the most votes. Furthermore, the combined vote share of the two traditional main parties fell to a historic low. The leaders of those parties had long ruled out forming a coalition government with Sinn Féin.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In June 2020, leader of Fianna Fáil, Micheál Martin, became the new Irish prime minister (taoiseach). He formed a historical three-party coalition consisting of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. It was the first time in history that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were in the same government. The previous prime minister and leader of Fine Gael, Leo Varadkar, became the deputy prime minister (tánaiste). Martin was scheduled to lead the country as Prime Minister until December 2022, before changing posts with Varadkar.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Though later reporting indicated that there may have been some cases dating from late 2019, COVID-19 was confirmed to be spreading in Ireland by the end of January 2020 with the first confirmed deaths in March. At the same time as the U.K., Ireland was initially relatively slow in implementing restrictions. Subsequent epidemiological analysis showed that over 1000 lineages of SARS-CoV-2 entered Ireland in early 2020 from international travellers, mostly from outbreaks elsewhere in Europe, leading to numerous clusters that overwhelmed contact tracing efforts. A legally enforced Stay at Home Order, or lockdown, was introduced on 23 March. Restrictions were steadily eased across Ireland in late spring and early summer that year. Ireland's epidemic in early 2020 was at the time one of the largest and deadliest worldwide.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: By the Autumn, COVID-19 cases were again rising between second and third wave in the country. However, this led to the creation of new regulations along with the introduction of the concept of a local lockdown, a variance in restrictions in a more specific geographic location than the rest of Ireland. Lockdowns took place in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and other areas later that season.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In December 2020, COVID-19 vaccinations had begun in Ireland. However, restrictions began to ease from late February onwards and almost all had ended in Ireland by the end of September. A third wave of daily infections began in July 2021 due to the arrival and rapid spread of the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant. However, at the same time as the U.K., mass vaccination continued to keep deaths and hospitalisations at much lower levels in Ireland than in previous waves. During the ongoing fourth COVID wave, in the light of highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Ireland was also the acclaim of a new hybrid strain, Deltacron variant, which pre-dominates the country until April 2022 as ahead of endemic phase alongside the U.K., Finland, Cyprus, Slovenia, Croatia, and among others.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In the late 20th century, Irish society underwent rapid social change. After the introduction of free education in the late 1960s, many more people had access to second and third level qualifications. The relative economic success of the 1960s and 1970s also decreased emigration, meaning that Ireland became a younger and much more urban society than before. The spread of television and other mass media also exposed Irish citizens to a far wider range of influences than previously. All of these factors loosened the power of the traditional political parties and the Catholic Church over society.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: By the 1980s, some were calling for liberalisation of the state's laws, particularly a review of the bans on divorce, contraception, and homosexuality. However, they were also opposed by well-organised groups who accused the reformers of being irreligious and "anti-family". That decade saw bitter disagreement between socially conservative, principally religious, elements and liberals over a series of referendums.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In 1983, the Pro-Life Amendment Campaign campaigned for and won a referendum, explicitly including a ban on abortion into the constitution – the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The liberals had a victory in 1985, when it was made legal to buy condoms and spermicides without prescription. Nevertheless, it was not until 1993 that all restrictions on information and sale of contraceptives were abolished. In 1986, the Fine Gael/Labour coalition proposed to remove the ban on divorce. This was opposed by Fianna Fáil and the Catholic Church and the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1986 was defeated in a referendum.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Since 1992, the state has become less socially conservative. Liberalisation has been championed by figures like Mary Robinson, a radical feminist senator who became President of Ireland, and David Norris, who led the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform. Homosexual sex was decriminalised by an act of parliament in 1993.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: The constitutional ban on abortion was softened somewhat in 1992. After a referendum in that year, the Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1992 was approved, it was made legal to perform an abortion to save the life of a mother, to give information about abortion and to travel to another country for an abortion.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In 1995, after a referendum, the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland legalised divorce.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In the 1980s and early 1990s, these questions were deeply divisive in the Republic of Ireland and exposed deep social cleavages between religious and secular-minded people, urban and rural, middle and working classes. Issues such as divorce, contraception and homosexuality have since become accepted by many and have ceased to be matters of serious political debate. However, legalising abortion remained controversial. Opinion poll evidence on the subject of abortion was mixed.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In 2015, Ireland became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage by means of popular referendum, when the Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland was passed by just over 60% of voters.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In 2018, a referendum repealing the ban on abortion was passed, the Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland. Legislation to allow abortion on demand up to 12 weeks and under restrictions after that time was enacted in the form of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. Abortion services began on 1 January 2019.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: Social liberalisation was widely accepted by the 1990s due in part to a series of a very damaging scandals in that decade. The revelation that one senior Catholic bishop, Eamon Casey, fathered a child by a divorcée caused a major reaction, as did the discovery of a child abuse ring whereby offenders became clerics in order to use their position in the Roman Catholic Church to obtain access to victims—notably the infamous paedophile Father Brendan Smyth. Some other bishops, including John Magee and Brendan Comiskey, subsequently resigned between 2002 and 2010 over their mishandling of child abuse cases in their dioceses.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: It was also revealed, in the 2000s, after an inquiry, the Ryan Commission, that there had been widespread physical and sexual abuse of children in secular and Church-run industrial schools and orphanages from the 1920s until the 1960s. These were institutions which were set up to house children without families or with very poor parents. In some cases, it was claimed, these children had been removed from their parents only to be put into institutions worse than their previous state.


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: While other factors also played a role, the scandals in the Catholic Church contributed to a steep decline in church attendance among Irish Catholics. While in 1991, 92% of the Republic's population identified themselves as Roman Catholics, by 2006 this had dropped to 86%. More starkly, whereas in 1990, 85% of Catholics attended mass weekly, by 2008 this had fallen to 43% among Catholics and 40% of the population in general. (See also Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Ireland)


title: History of the Republic of Ireland

text: In the 1990s, a series of tribunals began inquiring into major allegations of corruption against senior politicians. Ray Burke, who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1997 was sentenced to six months in prison following his conviction on charges of tax evasion in January 2005. The Beef Tribunal in the early 1990s found that major food companies, notably in Iraq had been given preferential treatment by the Fianna Fáil government in return for donations to that party. Former Taoisigh Charles Haughey and Bertie Ahern were also brought before Tribunals to explain their acceptance of very large personal donations of money to them by private businessmen.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: The (Grand) Principality of Hungary or Duchy of Hungary (: "Hungarian Grand Principality" Byzantine ) was the earliest documented Hungarian state in the Carpathian Basin, established 895 or 896, following the 9th century Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: The Hungarians, a semi-nomadic people forming a tribal alliance led by Árpád (founder of the Árpád dynasty) arrived from Etelköz which was their earlier principality east of the Carpathians.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: During the period, the power of the Hungarian Grand Prince seemed to be decreasing irrespective of the success of the Hungarian military raids across Europe. The tribal territories, ruled by Hungarian warlords (chieftains), became semi-independent polities ("e.g.", the domains of Gyula the Younger in Transylvania). These territories were united again only under the rule of St. Stephen. The semi-nomadic Hungarian population adopted settled life. The chiefdom society changed to a state society. From the second half of the 10th century, Christianity started to spread. The principality was succeeded by the Christian Kingdom of Hungary with the coronation of St Stephen I at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000 (its alternative date is 1 January 1001).


title: Principality of Hungary

text: The ethnonym of the Hungarian tribal alliance is uncertain. According to one view, following Anonymus's description, the federation was called "Hetumoger / Seven Magyars" (""VII principales persone qui Hetumoger dicuntur"", "seven princely persons who are called Seven Magyars"), though the word "Magyar" possibly comes from the name of the most prominent Hungarian tribe, called "Megyer". The tribal name "Megyer" became "Magyar" referring to the Hungarian people as a whole. Written sources called Magyars "Hungarians" prior to the conquest of the Carpathian Basin when they still lived on the steppes of Eastern Europe (in 837 "Ungri" mentioned by Georgius Monachus, in 862 "Ungri" by Annales Bertiniani, in 881 "Ungari" by the "Annales ex Annalibus Iuvavensibus").


title: Principality of Hungary

text: In contemporary Byzantine sources, written in Greek, the country was known as "Western "Tourkia"" in contrast to eastern or Khazar "Tourkia." The Jewish Hasdai ibn Shaprut around 960 called the polity ""the land of the Hungrin"" (the land of the Hungarians) in a letter to Joseph of the Khazars.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: On the eve of the arrival of the Hungarians (Magyars), around 895, East Francia, the First Bulgarian Empire and Great Moravia ruled the territory of the Carpathian Basin. The Hungarians had much knowledge about this region because they were frequently hired as mercenaries by the surrounding polities and had led their own campaigns in this area for decades. This area had been sparsely populated since Charlemagne's destruction of the Avar state in 803, and the Magyars were able to move in peacefully and virtually unopposed during the 9th century. The first mention of them living in the region dates back to 862. The conquest proper started from 894, when armed conflicts opened with the Bulgarians and Moravians after the requests for help from Arnulf, Frankish king and Leo VI, Byzantine emperor. During the occupation, the Hungarians found sparse population and met no well-established states or effective control of any empire in the plain. They were able to take over the basin quickly, defeating the First Bulgarian Tsardom, disintegrating the Principality of Moravia, and firmly establishing their state there by 900. The invasion wasn't aimed at plundering the acquired lands as attacks were led by "gyula" Árpád and "kende" Kurszán, the two highest-ranking leaders, who left no mass graves behind them showing that the transition back to an Avar-like system was peaceful for the locals. Archaeological findings indicate that they settled in the lands near the Sava and Nyitra by this time.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: The principality as a warrior state, with a new-found military might, conducted vigorous raids ranging widely from Constantinople to central Spain. Three major Frankish imperial armies were defeated decisively by the Hungarians between 907 and 910.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: The Hungarians succeeded in extending the "de jure" Bavarian-Hungarian border to the River Enns (until 955), and the principality was not attacked from this direction for 100 years after the Battle of Pressburg. The intermittent Hungarian campaigns lasted until 970, but two military defeats in 955 (Lechfeld) and 970 (Arcadiopolis) marked a shift in the evolution of the Hungarian principality.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: The change from a ranked chiefdom society to a state society was one of the most important developments during this time. Initially, the Magyars retained a semi-nomadic lifestyle, practising transhumance: they would migrate along a river between winter and summer pastures, finding water for their livestock. According to Györffy's theory derived from placenames, Árpád's winter quarters -clearly after his occupation of Pannonia in 900- were possibly in 'Árpádváros' (Árpád's town), now a district of Pécs, and his summer quarters -as confirmed by Anonymus- were on Csepel Island. Later, his new summer quarters were in Csallóköz according to this theory, however the exact location of the early center of the state is disputed. According to Gyula Kristó the center was located between the Danube and Tisza rivers, but the archaeological findings imply a location in the region of the Upper Tisza.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: Constantine VII's De Administrando Imperio, written around 950 AD, tries to define precisely the whole land of the Hungarians, or "Tourkia". Constantine described the previous inhabitants of Hungary ("e.g.", the Moravians), described early Hungarian settlements and neighbors, and located Hungarian rivers (Temes, Maros, Körös, Tisza, Tutisz). Constantine had much more knowledge about the eastern parts of Hungary; therefore, according to one theory, "Tourkia" did not mean the land of the whole federation, but a tribal settlement and the source of the description of Hungary could have been Gyula whose tribe populated the five rivers around 950. According to another hypothesis, mainly based on Constantine's description, the Hungarians started to really settle western Hungary (Transdanubia) only after 950, because the eastern part of the country was more suitable for a nomadic lifestyle.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: Due to changed economic circumstances, insufficient pasturage to support a nomadic society and the impossibility of moving on, the semi-nomadic Hungarian lifestyle began to change and the Magyars adopted a settled life and turned to agriculture, though the start of this change can be dated to the 8th century. The society became more homogeneous: the local Slavic and other populations merged with the Hungarians. The Hungarian tribal leaders and their clans established fortified centers in the country and later their castles became centers of the counties. The whole system of Hungarian villages developed in the 10th century.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: Fajsz and Taksony, the Grand Princes of the Hungarians, began to reform the power structure. They invited Christian missionaries for the first time and built forts. Taksony abolished the old center of the Hungarian principality (possibly at Upper Tisza) and sought new ones at Székesfehérvár and Esztergom. Taksony also reintroduced the old style military service, changed the weaponry of the army, and implemented large-scale organized resettlements of the Hungarian population.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: The consolidation of the Hungarian state began during the reign of Géza. After the battle of Arcadiopolis, the Byzantine Empire was the main enemy of the Hungarians. The Byzantine expansion threatened the Hungarians, since the subjugated First Bulgarian Empire was allied with the Magyars at that time. The situation became more difficult for the principality when the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire made an alliance in 972. In 973, twelve illustrious Magyar envoys, whom Géza had probably appointed, participated in the Diet held by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor. Géza established close ties with the Bavarian court, inviting missionaries and marrying his son to Gisela, daughter of Duke Henry II. Géza of the Árpád dynasty, Grand Prince of the Hungarians, who ruled only part of the united territory, the nominal overlord of all seven Magyar tribes, intended to integrate Hungary into Christian Western Europe, rebuilding the state according to the Western political and social model. Géza's eldest son St Stephen (István, Stephen I of Hungary) became the first King of Hungary after defeating his uncle Koppány, who also claimed the throne. The unification of Hungary, the foundation of the Christian state and its transformation into a European feudal monarchy was accomplished by Stephen.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: The new Hungarian state was located on the border with Christendom. Since the second half of the 10th century AD, Christianity was flourished in Hungary as the German Catholic missionaries arrived from the Holy Roman Empire. Between 945 and 963, the main office-holders of the Principality (the gyula and the horka) agreed to convert to Christianity.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: In 973 Géza I and all his household were baptised, and a formal peace concluded with the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I; however he remained essentially pagan even after his baptism: Géza had been educated by his father Taksony as a pagan prince. The first Hungarian Benedictine monastery was founded in 996 by Prince Géza. During Géza's reign, the nation conclusively renounced its nomadic way of life and within a few decades of the battle of Lechfeld became a Christian kingdom.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: Until 907 (or 904), the Hungarian state was under joint rule (perhaps adopted from the Khazars). The kingship had been divided between the sacral king (some sources report the titles "prince" or "khan"), or Kende, and the military leader, or gyula. It is not known which of the two roles were assigned to Árpád and which to Kurszán. Possibly, after the Kende Kurszán's death, this division ceased and Árpád became the sole ruler of the principality. The Byzantine Constantine Porphyrogennetos called Árpád ""ho megas Tourkias archon"" (the great prince of Tourkia), and all of the 10th-century princes who ruled the country held this title. According to the Agnatic seniority the oldest members of the ruling clan inherited the principality. The Grand Princes of Hungary probably did not hold superior power, because during the military campaigns to the west and to the south the initially strong princely power had decreased. Moreover, the records do not refer to Grand Princes in the first half of the 10th century, except in one case, where they mention Taksony as 'duke of Hungary' ("Taxis-dux, dux Tocsun") in 947. The role of military leaders ("Bulcsú, Lél") grew more significant. The princes of the Árpád dynasty bore Turkic names as did the majority of the Hungarian tribes.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: There are various estimates of the size of the country's population in the 10th century, ranging from 250,000 to 1,500,000 in 900 AD. There is no archaeological evidence that the Hungarian nobles lived in castles in the 10th century. Archaeology revealed only one fortified building dated to the late 9th century (the castle of Mosapurc). Only excavations of 11th century buildings give certain evidence of castle building. However, the result of the excavations in Borsod may imply that the prelates and nobles lived in stone houses as early as the 10th century. Muslim geographers mentioned that Hungarians lived in tents. Beside tents, the common people lived in pit-dwellings, though there is archaeological proof of the appearance of multi-roomed and wood-and-stone house types.


title: Principality of Hungary

text: Some historians believe that Prince Árpád's people spoke Turkic and the Magyars had been in the Basin since 680. Their main argument is that the newcomers' cemeteries are too small, indicating that the population wasn't big enough to make Magyar the dominant language in the Basin. However, it seems that Árpád led the Megyer tribe, and it would be tricky if the Megyer tribe would have spoken Bulgar Turkic. Of course, in principle anything may happen in a symbiosis.


title: Belmont Park

text: Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse racing facility in the northeastern United States, located in Elmont, New York, just east of the New York City limits. It was opened on May 4, 1905.


title: Belmont Park

text: It is operated by the non-profit New York Racing Association, as are the Aqueduct Racetrack and Saratoga Race Course. The group was formed in 1955 as the Greater New York Association to assume the assets of the individual associations that ran Belmont, Aqueduct, Saratoga, and the now-defunct Jamaica Race Course.


title: Belmont Park

text: Belmont Park is typically open for racing from late April through mid-July (known as the Spring meet), and again from mid-September through late October (the Fall meet). It is widely known as the home of the Belmont Stakes in early June, regarded as the "Test of the Champion", the third leg of the Triple Crown.


title: Belmont Park

text: Along with Saratoga Race Course in Upstate New York, Keeneland and Churchill Downs in Kentucky, and Del Mar and Santa Anita in California, Belmont is considered one of the elite racetracks in North America.


title: Belmont Park

text: The race park's main dirt track has earned the nickname, "the Big Sandy," given its prominent overall dimensions and the deep, sometimes tiring surface. Belmont is also sometimes known as "The Championship Track" because almost every major champion in racing history since the early 20th century has competed on the racecourse – including all of the Triple Crown winners. Belmont Park, with its big, wide, sweeping turns and long homestretch, is considered one of the fairest racetracks. The Hall of Fame champion Easy Goer graces the cover of the 2005 book, "Belmont Park: A Century of Champions", with paintings by Richard Stone Reeves and text by Edward L. Bowen. The book chronicles seventy racehorses who competed from 1905 to 2005 thrilling fans, setting records, and becoming legends at the venerable New York track.


title: Belmont Park

text: Belmont hosted its largest crowd in 2004, when 120,139 saw Smarty Jones upset by Birdstone in his Triple Crown bid.


title: Belmont Park

text: August Belmont Jr. and William Collins Whitney, along with other investors, built the original Belmont race track which opened on May 4, 1905. Arthur Underhill was hired as Engineer and Landscape Architect to design and oversee construction of the park. In its first 15 or so years, Belmont Park featured racing clockwise, in the "English fashion"—allowing the upper-class members of the racing association and their guests to have the races finish in front of the clubhouse, just to the west of the grandstand. (A "field stand," at what was then the top of the stretch, was located east of the grandstand). The original finish line was located at the top of the present-day homestretch. In his 1925 book, "The Big Town", Ring W. Lardner refers to the then-recent directional change when he has a character at Belmont say (speaking of a recent race) "At that time, they run the wrong way of the track, like you would deal cards".


title: Belmont Park

text: A later innovation was created by Joseph E. Widener, who took over track leadership when August Belmont II died in 1924: the Widener Chute. It was a straightaway of just under that cut diagonally through Belmont's training and main tracks, hitting near the quarter-pole of the main track; the course was removed in 1958.


title: Belmont Park

text: Two features of Old Belmont Park remain today. First is the display of four stone pillars on Hempstead Turnpike, a gift from the mayor and park commissioners of Charleston, South Carolina. The pillars had stood at the entrance of the Washington Course of the South Carolina Jockey Club in Charleston, which operated from 1792 to 1882. The stone pillars are now found at the clubhouse entrance. Lesser known but more visible are the racing motif iron railings seen partially bordering the walking ring. The railings, used as decoration on the south side of the old Belmont grandstand, were salvaged during the 1963 demolition.


title: Belmont Park

text: The original Belmont Park was not only unprecedented in its size but also had the then-new innovation of a Long Island Rail Road extension from the Queens Village station, running along the property, tunneling under Hempstead Turnpike, then terminating on the south side of the property. The train terminal was moved to its present location north of the turnpike after the 1956 season.


title: Belmont Park

text: Near the railroad terminal was yet "another" track—Belmont Park Terminal, a steeplechase course operated by United Hunts until 1927.


title: Belmont Park

text: In addition to racing history, Belmont Park made history in another industry native to the Hempstead Plains – aviation. Some 150,000 people were drawn to the track on October 30, 1910, at the climax of a Wright Brothers-staged international aerial tournament, which had started eight years earlier. The event came at the beginning of a period (1910, 1911, and 1912) in which racing was outlawed in New York State.


title: Belmont Park

text: Eight years later, Belmont and aviation were reunited when the racetrack served as the northern point of the first U.S. air mail route, between the New York area and Washington, D.C.


title: Belmont Park

text: Today, two displays in the clubhouse of the current Belmont Park commemorate the history of the racetrack: a long mural by Pierre Bellocq featuring the dominant jockeys, trainers and racing personalities of the track's history; and a series of paintings of Old Belmont Park that were featured at a nearby restaurant before the eatery closed.


title: Belmont Park

text: The last race at the old Belmont Park was run in October 1962. The following spring, NYRA Chairman James Cox Brady announced that two separate engineering surveys found the grandstand/clubhouse was unsafe due to age-induced structural defects and needed to be rebuilt. The book "Belmont Park: A Century of Champions" noted the comment of NYRA President Edward T. Dickinson: "When you sighted down the stands, you could see some of the beams were twisted. They were in something of an S-shape."


title: Belmont Park

text: The old structure was demolished in 1963. The new grandstand was built 1964–1968. (The Inner Turf Course was also added during this time.) The Belmont race meetings were moved to Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens, during that time.


title: Belmont Park

text: The new $30.7 million Belmont Park grandstand, designed by Arthur Froehlich, was opened May 20, 1968, and is the largest in Thoroughbred racing. It has a total attendance capacity of more than 100,000, with the adjoining backyard being able to accommodate more than 10,000. The seating portion totals nearly 33,000. The smaller, more cramped Churchill Downs grandstand has more seats than Belmont, 51,000, but unlike Churchill and Pimlico, Belmont does not allow paying spectators to picnic in the infield.


title: Belmont Park

text: In May 2007, reports surfaced suggesting that then New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was considering closing Aqueduct Racetrack, which is ten miles west of Belmont in Ozone Park, New York, and turning Belmont into a nearly year 'round race track when the New York Racing Association lease for all three of New York State's tracks expired at the end of 2007. According to the plans being discussed, Belmont's stands would have been heated, additional barns built for Aqueduct's 400 horses, and the track modified to accommodate winter racing. In addition, video lottery machines would have been introduced. A new entity would have operated Belmont from fall to spring while the New York Racing Association would have operated Saratoga Race Course in the summer. However, any plans the former governor might have had for the track alignment likely left office with him when Spitzer was forced to resign amid a prostitution scandal in March 2008.


title: Belmont Park

text: In July 2017, New York State officials announced that vacant parking lots behind the Belmont grandstand had been put to tender for two area top-level professional sports teams: the New York Islanders, an NHL ice hockey team; and New York City FC, an MLS soccer team. Both teams were unhappy with their current locations (the Islanders at Barclays Center; New York City FC at Yankee Stadium) and proposed to redevelop the land into their own stadiums. The Islanders proposed an 18,000 seat sports arena, for retail development, a 225-room hotel, and a community center, while NYCFC's pledge included a 26,000 seat soccer ground, for retail, a community park, and soccer complex: both proposals were fully privately funded and included improved parking and LIRR facilities as well. On December 20, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the Islanders project had won approval to be built. In July 2019, the plan was adopted by the Empire State Development Corporation board, and UBS Arena opened in time for the 2021-22 NHL season. The plan also included a new Elmont station on the LIRR, in addition to the hotel, arena, and retail village.


title: Belmont Park

text: In December 2022 the New York Racing Association formally announced its intention to upgrade the facilities at Belmont to make it suitable to host year-round thoroughbred racing and training, which would ultimately lead to the closure of nearby Aqueduct Racetrack. The plans are contingent on NYRA receiving state-backed bonds to fund the construction projects at Belmont.


title: Belmont Park

text: The Belmont Stakes was named after financier and sportsman August Belmont Sr., who helped fund the race, and most sources say the racetrack itself was also named for him. Other sources say Belmont Park was named in honor of his son—August Belmont Jr., a key member of the Westchester Racing Association, which established the racecourse.


title: Belmont Park

text: The race was first run in 1867 at Jerome Park Racetrack in the Bronx. In 1937, the wrought iron gates that bore an illustration of that first Belmont Stakes were donated to the track by August Belmont II's sole surviving son, Perry Belmont. The gates are now on the fourth floor of Belmont Park's clubhouse.


title: Belmont Park

text: The Belmont Stakes races have been run at Belmont Park since 1905, with the exceptions of 1911–12, when gambling was banned in New York State; and the 1963–67 editions, held at Aqueduct while the grandstands at Belmont Park were reconstructed. The first post parade in the United States was at the 14th Belmont, in 1880.


title: Belmont Park

text: Secretariat's finishing time in his 1973 Belmont victory (2 minutes, 24 seconds) set a world record for on dirt, a world record which still stands. The 31-length victory clinched the first Triple Crown in 25 years, dating back to Citation in 1948. A statue of Secretariat is in the center of the Belmont paddock.


title: Belmont Park

text: Another Belmont Stakes achievement is recognized by the "Woody's Corner" display in the first-floor clubhouse lobby, commemorating the five consecutive Belmont Stakes winners trained by Woody Stephens from 1982 to 1986.


title: Belmont Park

text: Other memorable performances in Belmont Park history include the opening of the track in 1905 with the famous dead heat between Sysonby and Race King in the Met Cap. In 1923, Belmont Park was host to an international duel between the American and English champions: Zev, winner of the Kentucky Derby, against Papyrus, winner of The Derby. Zev won by five lengths in front of the biggest crowd for a match race in a hundred years.


title: Belmont Park

text: Belmont Park was the site of the tragedy-marred victory of Foolish Pleasure over champion filly Ruffian in a 1975 match race. Ruffian broke down during the race and had to be euthanized; she is buried near the finish line in the infield at Belmont Park, her nose pointed towards the finish pole.


title: Belmont Park

text: The racetrack was also the site of Affirmed's epic stretch duel with Alydar in the 1978 Belmont Stakes, a victory that gave Affirmed the Triple Crown; and Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew's defeat of Affirmed in the Marlboro Cup in September of that same year. The Marlboro, a key event of the Fall Championship meets in the 1970s and 1980s, included a dramatic come-from-behind win by Forego in the 1976 installment.


title: Belmont Park

text: Officials of the New York Racing Association made a concerted effort to boost attendance on Belmont Stakes Day after the 1995 installment drew only 37,171. In 1997, NYRA and local officials put together the Long Island Belmont Stakes Festival—featuring parades, food fests and other events in surrounding communities to promote the big race. The effort succeeded in creating a buzz around the Belmont Stakes apart from the chance of seeing a Triple Crown. The 2000 and 2001 Belmonts—both run when there was no Triple Crown on the line—drew announced crowds of 67,810 and 73,857. The Belmont Stakes Festival continues to be held in communities near the track, such as Floral Park and Garden City. In 2004, a record attendance of 120,139 was on hand to see if Smarty Jones would be the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.


title: Belmont Park

text: American Pharoah won the 2015 Belmont Stakes on June 6, and became the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. It was announced before the race that attendance would be capped at 90,000. That year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness both set attendance records, over 170,000 and 130,000 respectively.


title: Belmont Park

text: Belmont Park also has a history of early aviation shows and tournaments that dates back to the early 1900s.


title: Belmont Park

text: Harriet Quimby, the first USA woman to obtain a pilot's license, learned of the excitement of flight at the Belmont Park International Aviation Tournament on Long Island, New York in 1910 where she met famed aviator John Moisant and his sister.


title: Belmont Park

text: In addition to the Belmont Stakes, other major races held at Belmont have included the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the Woodward Stakes, the Suburban Handicap and the Memorial Day standby—the Metropolitan Handicap, also known as the "Met Mile." (NYRA moved the Woodward to Saratoga Race Course, in 2006.)


title: Belmont Park

text: Two important races for fillies, the Mother Goose Stakes and the Coaching Club American Oaks, are also run at Belmont as the first two installments of the New York Racing Association's Triple Tiara series for fillies. The third is the Alabama Stakes, run at Saratoga. In years past, the New York Filly Triple Crown consisted of the Mother Goose, CCA Oaks and another Belmont race, the Acorn Stakes (which is still run at the track).


title: Belmont Park

text: All of the above races are contested on dirt; notable turf (grass) races include the Belmont Derby, Belmont Oaks, Manhattan Handicap, Just A Game Handicap, Bowling Green Handicap, Man O' War Stakes, Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes and the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational.


title: Belmont Park

text: Belmont's Fall Championship meet includes New York Showcase Day in late October, with seven stakes races for New York-bred horses. The richest race on that program is the $250,000 Empire Classic Handicap.


title: Belmont Park

text: In 2021, the Woodward Stakes and Waya Stakes were moved to Belmont, while the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Flower Bowl Stakes were moved to Saratoga.


title: Belmont Park

text: Racing at Belmont Park is conducted in two annual installments, or "meetings". The "spring-summer meeting" usually now begins on the Thursday or Friday of the week before the Kentucky Derby in April and lasts through the first or second Sunday in July, depending on the start of the Saratoga meet that follows (the Saratoga meet was expanded to eight weeks in 2019). The "fall meeting" follows the Saratoga Season, commencing on the Thursday or Friday after Labor Day and ending on either the last Sunday in October or in some years the first Sunday in November, usually dependent on the dates of the Breeders' Cup. Racing is held at Saratoga Race Course, during the time between these two meetings. Prior to 1977, a summer meeting was contested at Aqueduct from mid-June until the Saratoga meet began; its abolition led to the Belmont spring meeting being lengthened to its present duration (and eventual renaming).


title: Belmont Park

text: The autumn installment is known as the Fall Championship meet, since many of the eventual Eclipse Award title winners have earned key victories in some of the meeting's races, such as the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Before the advent of the Breeders' Cup series in 1984, the Belmont Fall Championship races themselves helped determine the divisional championships.


title: Belmont Park

text: Belmont has been home to the day-long Breeders' Cup championship in 1990, 1995, 2001 (the first major sports event to be held after the September 11 Attacks in the metropolitan area) and most recently in 2005.


title: Belmont Park

text: Belmont's backyard is well known as a gathering place for racing fans to see their horses saddled before they hit the track. The center of the paddock is dominated by a white pine that pre-dated the track itself—it turned 180 years old in 2006. A stylized version of the pine has been the centerpiece of Belmont Park's corporate logo since 1968.


title: Belmont Park

text: The racing, training and barn complex is located on the western edge of the Nassau County region known as the Hempstead Plains. Just a few miles (kilometers) east on the same plains, the first racing meet in North America was held in 1665, supervised by colonial governor Richard Nicolls.


title: Belmont Park

text: The dirt racecourse, known officially as the "Main Track" and nicknamed "Big Sandy" by racing followers, has a circumference of , the longest dirt thoroughbred racetrack in North America. Immediately inside of this is the "Widener Turf Course" (named after the Widener family that has a long and prestigious history in American horse racing) spanning plus , which in turn encircles an "Inner Turf Course" with a circumference of plus . On the Main Track, it is from the top of the stretch to the finish line, and the segment between the wire and the start of the first (clubhouse) turn covers ; this latter segment is shorter by approximately on both of the turf courses, in order to accommodate the two chutes that exist on the Widener Turf Course, from which turf races of and are started; an additional chute exists for races of on the Inner Turf Course.


title: Belmont Park

text: A straightaway chute leads on to the backstretch of the Main Track and permits races on the dirt up to long to be run with one turn. The chute used to extend further back across the training track, permitting races of up to a mile and a quarter but was shortened because a crossover is now infeasible given the clay base of the Main Track and stone-dust base of the training track. Before the 1990 Breeders' Cup, the outer rail of the Main Track was moved back to widen the middle of the clubhouse turn and soften the angle of the start of the Classic. The training track is in circumference and abuts the east end of the main track. In March 2009, lights were added to the training track as a safety measure to prevent early morning workouts from occurring in the dark.


title: Belmont Park

text: The racetrack, grandstand, training, and barn facilities are located entirely in the community of Elmont in Nassau County, New York. According to the City of New York's own map portal, the Long Island Rail Road station on the property, the ramp between the grandstand and the train station, and some of the adjoining parking fields straddle the Queens County line.


title: Belmont Park

text: Belmont Park has direct on- and off-ramps to the Cross Island Parkway, which runs north-south and is just to the west of the park. Belmont Park's physical address is given as 2150 Hempstead Turnpike (New York State Route 24).


title: Belmont Park

text: The Belmont Park property originally totaled some . Because the property stretched slightly into Queens, bookmakers in the track's early days — when bookmaking was illegal — could escape arrest from one county's authorities by jumping over the border. It was once even believed that horses rounding the far turn crossed into Queens and then came back to Nassau for the stretch run. After the 1956 season, the construction of a wider bus road beyond the main course's final turn forced the turn to be shortened. According to the Belmont publication commemorating the track's 1968 reopening, that move cut off its circumference. The current layout has the entire racing course inside Nassau County.


title: Belmont Park

text: Because of Belmont's role in hosting big, nationally televised races on broadcast and cable TV, its track announcers have been among the best known in the sport. Among the famous race callers who've served as Belmont PA announcers are Fred Capossela, Dave Johnson, Chic Anderson, Marshall Cassidy, Tom Durkin, Larry Collmus and currently on a full-time basis, John Imbriale after Larry Colmus's contract with NYRA was not renewed following the 2019 Belmont Park season (Imbriale had been announcer during the Winter months while Collmus was at Gulfstream Park at that time and even after Collmus ended his time as the Gulfstream track announcer). Imbriale is currently backed up by Anthony Stabile.


title: Belmont Park

text: Contrary to popular belief, Johnson, not Anderson, was Belmont Park's PA announcer during Secretariat's 1973 romp in the Belmont Stakes (there is no known audio to exist of Johnson's call of that Belmont). It was on TV that Anderson called the 1973 Belmont Stakes aired by CBS Television, where he famously described Big Red as "moving like a tremendous machine". Anderson was the TV "voice of horse racing" in the 1970s and the announcer at Churchill Downs during Secretariat's racing career. Johnson went on to be TV's voice of horse racing in the 1990s.


title: Belmont Park

text: Anderson would succeed Johnson as announcer at Belmont and the other NYRA tracks in May 1977, serving until his death on March 24, 1979. Anderson was followed by frequent backup voice Marshall Cassidy, who was the lead caller of NYRA races until Durkin replaced him in September 1990.


title: Belmont Park

text: Comedian Robert Klein made Capossella's race calls the subject of one of his routines, captured on his 1974 album "Mind Over Matter."


title: Belmont Park

text: Scenes for the Woody Allen movies "Mighty Aphrodite" (1995) and "Melinda and Melinda" (2004) were shot at Belmont Park, as was a paddock scene for the 1990s remake of the film "Gloria" with Sharon Stone and George C. Scott.


title: Belmont Park

text: Belmont has hosted a wide range of top musical acts, including Billy Joel, Kenny Rogers, Natalie Cole and Blondie. Titled the Coca-Cola Sunset Series, these fan-based events were produced by Richard Flanzer.


title: Belmont Park

text: A January 1975 episode of the ABC sitcom "The Odd Couple" — entitled "Felix the Horse Player"—was filmed partly at Belmont Park, though one of the race clips on the show features the shot of an Aqueduct starting gate.


title: Belmont Park

text: A few years later, Dick Cavett took the camera crew of his PBS talk show to Belmont for a look at horse racing.


title: Belmont Park

text: Belmont Park was featured in an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond", in which Frank, Robert, and Ray bet on a horse named "Marie's Mouth".


title: Charlie and Lola

text: Charlie and Lola are created by the English writer and illustrator Lauren Child in 2000. They were introduced in a series of picture books and later adapted as animated television characters. Lola is an energetic and imaginative little girl; Charlie is her kind and patient older brother who is always willing to help Lola learn and grow. Charlie and Lola's parents, as well as their friends' parents, are often mentioned, but never seen.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: The series' first book is "I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato", published by Orchard Books in 2000. The U.S. edition was published in the same year by Candlewick Press, with the title: "I Will Never NOT EVER Eat a Tomato".


title: Charlie and Lola

text: For that first book in the series, Child won the 2000 Kate Greenaway All-Medal Trophy from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. For the 50th anniversary of the Medal (1955–2005) it was named one of the top ten winning works, selected by a 2007 panel to compose the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: The "Charlie and Lola" books have been translated into Welsh under the name "Cai a Lois" and into many other languages.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: The books have been adapted by Tiger Aspect into a cartoon series, using a collage style of animation which accurately captures the style of the original books. Directed by Kitty Taylor and Claudia Lloyd. 2D cel animation, paper cutout, fabric design, real textures, photomontage, and archive footage are all employed and subsequently animated in a software application called CelAction. The cartoons are also notable for their use of children's voices, rather than adult voice actors, a technique pioneered by the Peanuts television specials.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: The first series of 26 episodes (11 minutes each) was first broadcast on 7 November 2005. The second series of 26 episodes (again, 11 minutes each) started broadcasting on CBeebies on 2 October 2006 (with the morning broadcast also being shown on BBC Two) a third series followed. In the television series, Charlie is seven and Lola is four, and goes to school (her teacher is called Mrs. Hansen). In episodes of both the first and second series, Charlie celebrates his birthday (in "It's a Secret..." and "This Is Actually My Party"), although this doesn't seem to affect his age in other episodes. The third series, a final 26-episode run, was broadcast in the UK and the US in the 2007-2008 television season. With two special episodes broadcast in 2006 and 2007, a total of 80 episodes were produced.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: "Charlie and Lola's Best Bestest Play" directed by Roman Stefanski with music by Julian Butler was first performed at Polka Theatre on 26 April 2008 and has subsequently been performed at the venue again in 2010 and 2012. Following a series of international tours, it was staged for the first time at Glow, the events and exhibition space at Bluewater in Kent, by Watershed Productions over the Christmas period of 2013.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: "Charlie and Lola's Best Bestest Play" is based on the characters created by Lauren Child and adapted by Jonathan Lloyd, Artistic Director of Polka Theatre. A sequel, "Charlie and Lola's Extremely New Play" premiered at King's College School in 2012 before also touring internationally.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: "Charlie and Lola's Favourite and Best Music Record" was released on 19 March 2007, aimed at parents as well as children. The music is largely a development of existing interstitial and theme music taken from series 1 and 2. There are elements of easy listening, lounge, big band jazz, reggae, bluegrass, eastern European, sci-fi, Latin, classical and film music. There are 17 tracks plus one hidden track, with the programme's theme tune opening and closing the album.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: Each track includes spoken word extracts from the series. In many cases, these are manipulated to fit with the musical accompaniment.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: "The Bestest in the Barn" was released as a single on 12 March 2007. It features Lola and Lotta teaching various animals on their farm how to sing, dance and play music. This is the only track on the album which does not appear in any episode. Lola and Lotta do however appear as farmers in "I Do Not Ever Never Want My Wobbly Tooth To Fall Out". They also have a tendency to imagine that animals are capable of developing impressive human skills, as seen in "We Do Promise Honestly We Can Look After Your Dog" and "I Will Not Ever Never Forget You Nibbles". "The Bestest in the Barn" now features on a playlist of CBeebies programme music played throughout CBeebies Land at the Alton Towers Resort.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: The album is a collaboration between various composers and musicians who write and perform for the TV series. Much of the music is programmed but many tracks feature performances by musicians from London-based bands – Menlo Park, Polar Bear and Acoustic Ladyland.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: Four of the tracks have been animated by Tiger Aspect Productions: "The Bestest in the Barn", "Sizzles", "Batcat" and "It's Snowing". "The Bestest in the Barn" video is encoded as an mpeg on the album CD, and all four videos are included as DVD extras on the series 2 DVD collection.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: "The Bestest in the Barn", "Dancing Dogs", "Batcat" and "It's Snowing" promos animated by Tiger Aspect Productions.


title: Charlie and Lola

text: Tom Beattie, Betti Doherty, Alistair Douglas, Catherine T. Elliot, Tim Fehrenbach, Claudia Lloyd, James O'Shea, Caroline Parkinson, Mark Patterson, Steve Perkins, Kitty Taylor, Clare Winkworth, Andrew Zein.


title: Quarantine 2: Terminal

text: Quarantine 2: Terminal is a 2011 American horror film and a sequel to the 2008 film, "Quarantine". It was written and directed by John Pogue and produced by Marc Brienstock. The film stars Mercedes Mason, Josh Cooke and Mattie Liptak as passengers on an airplane where the mutant rabies virus from the previous film is now spreading, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing at a terminal that is promptly surrounded by the government, trapping the passengers and crew as they search for answers and a means of escape.


title: Quarantine 2: Terminal

text: Although the first film was a remake of the Spanish film "REC", "Quarantine 2" has no relation to any of the "REC" films and has an entirely different plot and setting.


title: Quarantine 2: Terminal

text: On a flight from Los Angeles to Kansas City, passenger Ralph Bundt becomes violent and attempts to enter the cockpit. Ralph had been bitten by a lab rat, brought onto the plane by Henry, who claimed they were his classroom's pet hamsters. Ralph bites flight attendant Paula on the face, to the horror of her colleague Jenny. Captain Forrest and First Officer Willsy land the plane at the nearest city. Disobeying orders, they pull up to a jetway operated by baggage handler Ed Ramirez. Everyone flees the plane, except for elderly couple Bev and Doc Stevens and the pilots, who try to contain Ralph in a bathroom. The passengers find that they have been locked out of the terminal, which is quickly surrounded by armed soldiers and CDC scientists.


title: Quarantine 2: Terminal

text: Passenger Shilah Washington reveals she has a medical kit in her bag in the cargo hold. Jenny, Henry, Ed, and fellow passengers Niall and Preston go to retrieve it. There they find the bathroom empty and covered in blood. Preston gets Doc off the plane, while the others retrieve Shilah's kit and Niall's handgun. Jenny is attacked by an infected Captain Forrest and Niall shoots and kills him, but is splattered by the captain's blood. Leaving the plane, they find Preston's body, and avoid an infected Bev.