1998 — 2026

Peace & the New Ireland

The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 is backed by referendums North and South. Consent replaces conquest as the basis of the border. The Celtic Tiger, the crash and the recovery remake the Republic into one of the most globalised societies in Europe: younger, more diverse, and more at ease with all of its histories, the known and the unknown.

Open this age on the atlas ↗

Click any county to open its page.

Who holds the land

County boundaries were fixed in 1610 and are the ones shown here. The colours are an approximation of who held sway, county by county.

Republic of Ireland ↗
Declared a republic in 1949 and out of the Commonwealth; EEC member from 1973; transformed by the Celtic Tiger into one of Europe's most open economies.

Carlow Cavan Clare Cork Donegal Dublin Galway Kerry Kildare Kilkenny Laois Leitrim Limerick Longford Louth Mayo Meath Monaghan Offaly Roscommon Sligo Tipperary Waterford Westmeath Wexford Wicklow
Northern Ireland (UK) ↗
Six Ulster counties retained within the United Kingdom under a devolved parliament from 1921; since 1998 governed under the power-sharing terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Antrim Armagh Down Fermanagh Derry / Londonderry Tyrone

🕯 Unknown history Only around 2021 did the island's population finally pass eight million again — the level it last held in 1845, on the eve of the Famine. It took 176 years to come home to that number.

People of this age

John Hume & David Trimble — Nobel peace laureates of 1998
Bertie Ahern & Tony Blair — The governments behind the Agreement
Seamus Heaney — Nobel poet: 'hope and history rhyme'
Mary McAleese — President of 'building bridges'

Almost everyone who lived through this age left no name. Records keep kings, abbots and whoever could write, so this is a list of who was written about rather than who was here.

📜 The chronicle — events of this age

1998

Good Friday Agreement ↗

Peace by consent, endorsed North and South — weeks later Omagh shows its cost.

2002

The euro arrives ↗

The punt passes into history.

2008

Crash ↗

The Celtic Tiger dies overnight; the bank guarantee mortgages a decade.

2011

A royal first ↗

Elizabeth II visits and speaks Irish at Dublin Castle — the first reigning monarch since 1911.

2015

Marriage referendum ↗

Ireland becomes the first country to introduce same-sex marriage by popular vote.

2018

The Eighth repealed ↗

A two-thirds majority rewrites the constitution on abortion.

2020

Pandemic and Protocol ↗

Covid closes the island; Brexit redraws the border question in customs paperwork.

2021

Eight million again ↗

The island's population passes its pre-Famine level for the first time in 176 years.

Quick answers

When was Peace & the New Ireland in Ireland?

Peace & the New Ireland spans 1998 to 2026 in this atlas. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 is backed by referendums North and South.

Who ruled Ireland during Peace & the New Ireland?

Power was divided: Republic of Ireland (26 counties); Northern Ireland (UK) (6 counties). County boundaries are modern approximations.

What is a lesser-known fact about Peace & the New Ireland?

Only around 2021 did the island's population finally pass eight million again — the level it last held in 1845, on the eve of the Famine. It took 176 years to come home to that number.

↗ links go to the relevant Wikipedia article for each event and ruler (sources & further reading).

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