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True-colour satellite image of Ireland, known in Irish as Éire.. Éire (Irish: [ˈeːɾʲə] ⓘ) is the Irish language name for "Ireland". Like its English counterpart, the term Éire is used for both the island of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the sovereign state that governs 85% of the island's landmass.
The term Old English (Irish: Seanghaill lit. ' old foreigners ') began to be applied by scholars for Norman-descended residents of The Pale and Irish towns after the mid-16th century, who became increasingly opposed to the New English who arrived in Ireland after the Tudor conquest of Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries. [3]
The names Ireland and Éire derive from Old Irish Ériu, a goddess in Irish mythology first recorded in the ninth century. The etymology of Ériu is disputed but may derive from the Proto-Indo-European root * h2uer, referring to flowing water. [17]
The English name for Ireland comes from the name Ériu and the Germanic (Old Norse or Old English) word land. Since Ériu is represented as goddess of Ireland, she is often interpreted as a modern-day personification of Ireland, although since the name Ériu is the Old Irish form of the word Ireland, her modern name is often modified to Éire ...
This replaced the Constitution of the Irish Free State and declared that the name of the state is Éire, or "Ireland" in the English language. [45] While Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution defined the national territory to be the whole island, they also confined the state's jurisdiction to the area that had been the Irish Free State.
This article lists a number of common generic forms in place names in the British Isles, their meanings and some examples of their use. The study of place names is called toponymy ; for a more detailed examination of this subject in relation to British and Irish place names, refer to Toponymy in the United Kingdom and Ireland .
The vast majority of placenames in Ireland are anglicisations of Irish language names; that is, adaptations of the Irish names to English phonology and spelling. However, some names come directly from the English language, and a handful come from Old Norse and Scots.
For example, there is a President of Ireland and a Constitution of Ireland. The name Ireland is also used in the state's diplomatic relations with foreign nations and at meetings of the United Nations, [4] European Union, [5] Council of Europe, [6] International Monetary Fund, [7] and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. [8]