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Anthem | "Amhrán na bhFiann (The Soldiers' Song)" | ||||
Capital (and largest city) |
Dublin | ||||
Language official |
English, Irish | ||||
others | French, German, Spanish, Dutch | ||||
Religion main |
Roman Catholicism | ||||
others | Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Nonobservance & atheism | ||||
Government | Unitary parliamentary republic | ||||
Established | 1949 | ||||
Currency | cel | ||||
Organizations | Celtic Alliance |
The devastation of the Third World War wrought a sudden reversal of the relationship between Ireland (Éire) and Great Britain. After a millennium of dominance and exploitation by the larger island, the Republic of Ireland suddenly found itself the strongest power in a region that otherwise was facing total collapse. In the years following Doomsday, Ireland led efforts to build new political structures for the region, efforts which culminated in the creation of the Celtic Alliance, a confederation encompassing Eire, Northern Ireland, northern Scotland, Wales, the former British Crown Dependencies, and several pieces of England. Since the 1990s Ireland has taken on a new international role as the leading nation of the Alliance.
After years of cautious negotiation, Éire in 2015 annexed the western half of the former Northern Ireland. East Ulster remained a separate Nation within the Celtic Alliance.
History[]
- Main article: History of the Celtic Alliance
People[]
Ireland's population has changed significantly since 1983. Its status as the strongest and most stable state in northwestern Europe has drawn refugees and immigrants from across the region, especially the former United Kingdom and France, to a lesser extent from Spain, Germany, and the Low Countries. Accommodating these newcomers has not happened without tension. Anti-immigrant measures have been a major political topic for an uninterrupted period since the mid-80s. Various governments have tried strict limits and incentivised repatriations to countries of origin. Forced deportations have not been attempted but are often discussed.
Economy[]
Though Ireland's economy is greater in relative terms than before the nuclear war, in absolute terms the economy remains smaller and simpler than it had been in 1982. Agriculture and primary resource extraction take up a larger part of the economy. Many manufactured goods are only available from other countries, especially Mexico and South America.
Dublin has emerged as the metropolitan hub of the British Isles. The greatest share of the region's large companies are now headquartered there. Galway is an important secondary city, the gateway to the vital transatlantic trade.
The Republic has delegated control of monetary policy to the Alliance. Its central bank regulates the regional currency, the cel. Still, as the largest economy in the Alliance by far, Irish interests predominate when the bank makes decisions.
Government[]
Ireland continues to hold to its constitution of 1937. It is a parliamentary republic. Parliament (the Oireachtas) has two chambers. The executive is vested in the Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister (Taoiseach). An elected President serves as head of state.
The CA[]
Ireland dominates the Alliance by almost every conceivable measure - demographics, GDP, land area, cultural capital, civic life, global influence. This means that Irish interests and issues tend to guide Alliance policy. Internationally, the CA is often described as an Irish sphere of influence.
The structure of the Alliance is set up to blunt this dominance somewhat. Seats in the Celtic State Parliament are apportioned according to a degressive proportionality based on the old parliament of the European Union. This gives smaller member states (the smallest being the microscopic Isles of Scilly) a disproportionately large number of seats, while Ireland gets comparatively fewer. In addition, the multiparty system of the Parliament means that Irish members rarely if ever act as a bloc. Usually they cooperate with their political allies from other member Nations.
Other international relations[]
The Celtic Alliance has partial but not total control over Irish foreign policy. This includes membership in the League of Nations and Atlantic Defense Community. The republic is able to carry out its own relations only to a limited extent, and almost exclusively with neighbors in northwestern Europe - survivor communities in Britain, France, the Low Countries, and Germany.
Culture[]
Ireland is for the most part as religious a country as ever. The Roman Catholic Church remains a major force in society and in the lives of individual citizens. Trends after Doomsday - isolation from much of the world, the movement of people from cities to the country - had the effect of blunting secularizing influences on Irish culture.
Still there have been notable changes, among them an apparent weakening of the Church's influence over social policy. During the starvation era of the Aftermath, the Oireachtas gave its sanction to both abortion and euthanasia for pragmatic reasons. The Church as a whole remains opposed to both, though some clergy have attempted to moderate this stance without directly contradicting the official teaching.
Media[]
Ireland's public broadcasting service is Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). It owns and operates two free-to-air television channels: RTÉ One and RTÉ Two, alongside a host of cable channels and radio stations. RTÉ is controlled by the state and is funded by a combination of television license fees and advertising. Ireland's third free-to-air channel is provided by two private companies: Eire Television (ETV) and Irish Weekend Television (IWT). Operating similarly to Thames Television and London Weekend Television in the UK, ETV airs on weekdays, switching the channel over to IWT on weekends. Both are part of the larger Celtic Independent Television network. The island's fourth channel is covered by Teilifís na Gaeilge 4 (TG4), an Irish language channel.
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