2500 BC Magnificent Irish grave
A superb passage grave is built at Newgrange in Ireland

400 First king of Ireland
Niall of the Nine Hostages is the first man to be called king of Ireland, though his direct control does not extend beyond Ulster

450 St Patrick preaches in Ireland
St Patrick creates a strong tradition of Celtic Christianity in Ireland, from his base in Armagh

500 Celtic monks in beehive cells
Monks in Ireland live in stone beehive cells on rocky islands, to achieve maximum discomfort

530 Irish monastery at Clonard
St Finnian founds the first of Ireland's great Celtic monasteries, at Clonard

600 Lower-case in Ireland
The distinction between capital and lower-case emerges in the scriptoria of the Irish monasteries

600 Scots leave Ireland for new life
The Scots, a tribal group of northern Ireland, extend their kingdom across the sea into Scotland

650 Celts illuminate manuscripts
The Book of Durrow, one of the earliest of the great Celtic manuscripts, is written and illuminated in Ireland

838 Vikings capture Dublin
Vikings from Norway capture Dublin and establish a Norse kingdom in Ireland

920 Vikings capture Limerick
After years of raiding up the Shannon, the Vikings capture Limerick

976 Brian Boru
Brian Boru becomes king of Munster and leader of the Irish campaign against the Vikings

1014 Brian Boru beats Vikings
Brian Boru, aged 73, achieves a major victory over the Vikings at Clontarf but is killed in his tent after the battle

1169 Normans invade Ireland
Normans land in Ireland, seize Wexford, and in the following year capture Waterford and Dublin

1171 English king holds court in Dublin
Henry II, the king of England, summons the Irish and Norman lords to do homage to him in Dublin

1297 First Irish parliament
The English government in Dublin calls a parliament on the lines of England's recent Model Parliament

1306 Spider teaches Bruce
Robert de Bruce, in hiding on the island of Rathlin, is supposedly given a lesson in perseverance by a spider

1316 Edward Bruce crowned king of Ireland
Edward Bruce is crowned king of Ireland at Dundalk, but his uprising ends two years later when he is killed in battle with the English

1487 Lambert Simnel crowned in Dublin
Lambert Simnel, supposedly a nephew of Edward IV, is crowned in Dublin - but ends up working in the royal kitchens of Henry VII

1607 Flight of the Earls
The earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel sail from Ireland with their families, in the event known as the Flight of the Earls

1649 Massacre by Cromwell in Drogheda
Cromwell captures the royalist stronghold of Drogheda and massacres some 2800 people

1658 English and Scots own most of Ireland
Parliamentary reprisals against the rebellious Irish result in two thirds of Ireland's land being owned by the English or the Scots

1680 Irish eat potatoes
Ireland becomes the first European region in which the potato is an important food crop

1689 James II welcomed in Catholic Ireland
James II, landing in Ireland, is acclaimed as king in Dublin by enthusiastic Irish Catholics

1690 James II defeated at river Boyne
The armies of James II and William III confront each at the river Boyne, with victory going to William

1700 Catholic land in Ireland reduced to 14%
In the years after the battle of the Boyne, Catholic ownership of land in Ireland is reduced to just 14% of the total

1766 Vicar of Wakefield
Irish novelist Oliver Goldsmith publishes The Vicar of Wakefield, with a hero who has much to complain about but keeps calm

1791 Irishmen unite
Wolfe Tone is one of the founders in Belfast of the Society of United Irishmen

1795 Orangemen unite
A secret Protestant group, the Orange Society, is formed in Co. Armagh to resist Irish nationalism

1796 Wolfe Tone invades Ireland
Irish nationalist Wolfe Tone sails from France to invade Ireland with a force of 14,000 French soldiers

1798 Wolfe Tone commits suicide
Irish nationalist Wolfe Tone, convicted of treason for his failed invasion, cuts his throat to cheat the British gallows

1801 Ireland to join United Kingdom
The Act of Union comes into effect, linking Ireland with Britain to form the United Kingdom

1803 Emmet captured
The uprising by Irish nationalist Robert Emmet ends in disaster when he marches on Dublin with only about 100 men

1814 'Peelers' in Ireland
Robert Peel, chief secretary for Ireland, introduces a police force soon known as the 'Peelers'

1823 O'Connell organizes Irish Catholics
Daniel O'Connell organizes Catholic Associations throughout Ireland, funded by the members' penny subscriptions

1828 O'Connell in by-election upset
Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell wins a sensational by-election victory to join the Westminster parliament

1833 Berlioz marries Harriet Smithson
Hector Berlioz marries an Irish actress, Harriet Smithson, with whom he has been obsessed since seeing her play Ophelia and Juliet in 1827

1842 O'Connell's monster meetings
Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell pioneers mass political demonstrations, which become known as 'monster meetings'

1843 O'Connell sentenced to prison
Daniel O'Connell is convicted of seditious conspiracy and is sentenced to prison

1844 O'Connell acquitted on appeal
Daniel O'Connell is acquitted on appeal and released from prison

1845 Potato blight causes Irish famine
A blight destroys the potato crop in Ireland and causes what becomes known as the Great Famine

1846 Irish migrate to USA
The Irish, fleeing from the potato famine at home, become the main group of immigrants to the USA

1858 Irish Republican Brotherhood
An Irish branch of the US Fenians is established as the Irish Republican Brotherhood

1870 Home Rule association founded
Isaac Butt, an Irish MP at Westminster, founds the Home Rule association

1875 Parnell elected to Westminster
Charles Stewart Parnell takes his seat in the House of Commons at Westminster and immediately adds zest to the campaign for Home Rule

1879 Hurling gets official status
The ancient Irish game of hurling is formalized by the newly founded Irish Hurling Union

1882 Phoenix Park murders
Irish chief secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and a colleague are assassinated in Phoenix Park in Dublin

1886 Home Rule splits Liberals
Gladstone's bill promising Home Rule for Ireland splits the Liberal party in Britain's House of Commons

1886 Unionist theme enters British politics
Those in Britain's Liberal party opposing Home Rule for Ireland become a separate group under the name of Unionists

1889 Yeats's first book of poetry
23-year-old Irish author William Butler Yeats publishes his first volume of poems, The Wanderings of Oisin

1889 Parnell cited in O'Shea divorce
Charles Steward Parnell is cited as co-respondent in a divorce case brought against Kitty O'Shea

1892 Yeats promotes Irish literature
W.B. Yeats founds the National Literary Society in Dublin, with Douglas Hyde as its first president

1892 Yeats's first play
W.B. Yeats publishes a short play The Countess Cathleen, his first contribution to Irish poetic drama

1893 Lords reject Home Rule bill
Gladstone finally gets a Home Rule bill through the Commons, only to have it rejected in the Lords

1893 Gaelic language promoted in Ireland
The Gaelic League is founded to restore the use of Gaelic as Ireland's spoken language

1900 Split healed in Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party, which split after the Parnell divorce case, reunites under the leadership of John Redmond

1902 Cathleen ni Houlihan excites Dublin
The play Cathleen ni Houlihan, by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, fosters Irish nationalism

1902 Griffith launches Sinn Fein
Irish politician Arthur Griffith launches Sinn Fein, as an organization campaigning for a strong and independent Ireland

1902 Irish National Theatre Society
W.B. Yeats heads a group of writers and directors in establishing the Irish National Theatre Society

1903 Riddle of the Sands
Erskine Childers has a best-seller in The Riddle of the Sands, a thriller about a planned German invasion of Britain

1904 Synge's Riders to the Sea
J.M. Synge's play Riders to the Sea has its premiere at the Molesworth Hall in Dublin

1904 Abbey Theatre opens
Dublin's Abbey Theatre opens as a new home for the Irish National Theatre Society

1907 Playboy of the Western World
J.M. Synge's Playboy of the Western World provokes violent reactions at its Dublin premiere

1910 Deirdre of the Sorrows
J.M. Synge's last and unfinished play, Deirdre of the Sorrows, is performed in Dublin shortly after his death

1911 Carson promises Unionist defiance
Edward Carson tells a vast crowd in Northern Ireland that they must be ready to defend their Protestant province by force

1912 Unionists sign pledge of civil disobedience
Half a million Unionist men and women in Belfast commit themselves to civil disobedience if Home Rule government is established in Ireland

1913 Dublin raises Irish National Volunteers
The Irish National Volunteers are formed in Dublin, in response to the Protestant equivalent in Ulster

1914 Home Rule Act passed for Ireland
A Home Rule Act is finally passed for Ireland, with its implementation postponed until after the war

1914 July Erskine Childers is Irish gun-runner
Erskine Childers sails his own yacht from Germany to Ireland with 900 rifles and 14,000 rounds of ammunition for the Irish Volunteers

1914 December Casement urges Irish soldiers to change sides
Roger Casement travels to Germany to persuade Irish prisoners of war to change sides and invade Ireland

1915 Jack Yeats emerges as leading Irish painter
The Irish painter Jack Yeats develops a romantic Expressionist style, with a new interest in Celtic myth

1916 Easter Rising in Dublin
The occupation of the General Post Office in Dublin marks the beginning of the Easter Rising

1916 Pearse proclaims republic of Ireland
The rebel leader Patrick Pearse stands under the portico of Dublin's General Post Office to announce the birth of the Irish republic

1916 Casement arrested in Irish undergrowth
Roger Casement is arrested after returning secretly to Ireland three days before the Easter Rising

1916 De Valera in Easter Rising
Eamon de Valera comes to prominence as one of the republican leaders in the Easter Rising

1916 Pearse and Connolly executed
Patrick Pearse and his fellow Irish rebel James Connolly are executed by firing squad

1917 De Valera leads Sinn Fein
Eamon de Valera, newly released from prison, is elected to lead Sinn Fein

1918 First woman elected to House of Commons
Countess Markiewicz, an Irish republican, is elected a member of Britain's House of Commons but refuses to take her seat

1919 Sinn Fein sets up Dáil Eireann
The Sinn Fein members elected to Westminster establish their own parliament in Dublin, the Dáil Eireann (Assembly of Ireland), soon declared illegal by Britain

1919 IRA to fight for independence
The armed supporters of Sinn Fein become the IRA, or Irish Republican Army, in Ireland's war of independence

1919 Erskine Childers joins Sinn Fein
Returning from active service with the Royal Navy, Erskine Childers devotes his energies to Sinn Fein and Irish independence

1919 Non-stop trans-Atlantic flight
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown fly from St John's in Newfoundland to Clifden in Ireland

1920 Parliaments proposed for Dublin and Belfast
The Government of Ireland Act provides for separate devolved parliaments in southern Ireland and the six counties of Ulster

1920 Black and Tans brutalize Ireland
The brutal behaviour of the British police reinforcements, the Black and Tans, aggravates the violence in Ireland

1920 Bloody Sunday in Dublin
The IRA and the British security forces clash during a violent 'Bloody Sunday' in Dublin

1921 Massive Sinn Fein election victory
The republican party Sinn Fein is unopposed in southern Ireland's first general election, and so wins every available seat in the Dail

1921 Dáil Eireann revived
The Sinn Fein members of southern Ireland's new parliament assemble on their own, under the name Dáil Eireann (Assembly of Ireland)

1921 Southern Irish independence agreed
Envoys sent to London by de Valera agree independence for southern Ireland as the Irish Free State, with Dominion status

1921 De Valera rejects independence treaty
The British parliament ratifies the Anglo-Irish treaty, but de Valera repudiates it and resigns as president of the Dáil

1922 Ulysses published in Paris
James Joyce's novel Ulysses is published in Paris, by Sylvia Beach, because of censorship problems elsewhere

1922 Collins defeats de Valera
In elections to the Dáil the pro-treaty faction of Collins and Griffith defeats the opposition, led by de Valera

1922 Civil war in southern Ireland
Bitter war breaks out between factions of the IRA supporting and opposing the Anglo-Irish Treaty

1922 Stringent measures against IRA
The Irish Free State takes stringent measures against rebel terrorism, making possession even of a pistol a capital offence

1922 Collins killed in ambush
After Michael Collins is killed in an ambush, William Cosgrave and Kevin O'Higgins emerge as leaders of the Irish Free State

1922 Erskine Childers is executed
Erskine Childers is sent before a firing squad in the Irish Free State for possession of a revolver

1922 Irish Free State comes into being
With the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the 26 counties of southern Ireland formally become the Irish Free State

1922 Cosgrave heads Irish Free State
William Thomas Cosgrave becomes the first prime minister of the Irish Free State

1923 De Valera and IRA capitulate
De Valera and the IRA lay down their arms, bringing to an end the Irish civil war

1923 De Valera declines seat in Dáil
De Valera and his followers do well in elections to the Dáil but decline to take their seats

1923 Shadow of a Gunman
Sean O'Casey's first play The Shadow of a Gunman is performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin

1924 Juno and the Paycock
Sean O'Casey's second play Juno and the Paycock is performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin

1925 O'Flaherty's The Informer
Irish novelist Liam O'Flaherty publishes The Informer

1926 Fianna Fáil becomes political party
Eamon de Valera's faction, Fianna Fáil (Warriors of Ireland), enters mainstream Irish life as a political party

1927 O'Higgins assassinated
Irish Free State president Kevin O'Higgins is murdered by members of the IRA on his way to mass

1927 De Valera returns to Dáil
De Valera and his party, the Fianna Fáil, finally take their seats in the Dáil

1928 'Sailing to Byzantium'
W.B. Yeats's new volume of poems, The Tower, includes 'Sailing to Byzantium'

1930 Irish National War Memorial
The Irish National War Memorial opens in Dublin, designed by Edwin Lutyens in a garden setting

1930 Whittle patents jet
British inventor Frank Whittle takes out a patent for a jet engine

1931 IRA outlawed in Ireland
The Irish government classifies the Irish Republican Army as an illegal organization

1932 De Valera wins control of Dáil
Fianna Fáil wins enough seats in the Irish Free State's election for Eamon de Valera to form a government

1932 British and Irish in trade war
De Valera withholds farmers' annuities from Britain, provoking British tariffs and a trade war

1933 Fine Gael founded
Fine Gael is the name given to a new political party in Ireland, formed by the merger of several smaller groups

1937 Irish Free State becomes Eire
De Valera introduces a new constitution, changing the name of the Irish Free State to Eire (Gaelic for Ireland)

1937 Eire claims the six counties
De Valera's new constitution for Eire lays claim to the six counties of northern Ireland

1938 Beckett's first novel
Irish author Samuel Beckett publishes his first novel, Murphy

1939 Finnegan's Wake
James Joyce's Finnegans Wake is published after 17 years in the making

1939 At Swim-Two-Birds
Irish author Flann O'Brien publishes his first novel, At Swim-Two-Birds

1939  February 2 Eire declares neutrality
De Valera declares that Eire will be neutral in any forthcoming European war

1940 The Third Policeman
Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman is rejected by numerous publishers before becoming, decades later, his best-known novel

1940 Northern Ireland's first prime minister dies
Lord Craigavon (previously James Craig) dies in office after nineteen years as northern Ireland's prime minister

1940 August 20 Churchill praises the Few
Churchill says of the Battle of Britain pilots that never has so much been owed by so many to so few

1941 December Enigma now being reliably decoded
Enigma is now being decoded fast enough at Bletchley to give the Allies advance warning of German plans

1945 July 26 Labour wins UK election
The British electorate dismisses Winston Churchill, giving the Labour party and Clement Attlee a landslide victory

1949 Eire acquires new name
Eire is renamed the republic of Ireland and withdraws from the Commonwealth, severing the last link with the British crown

1949 British guarantee for northern Ireland
The British government declares that northern Ireland will remain British unless the parliament in Stormont decides otherwise

1953 Waiting for Godot
Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot ('En attendant Godot') is first performed in French in Paris

1957 De Valera clamps down on IRA
De Valera takes stringent measures against the IRA and Sinn Fein, detaining activists in an internment camp

1958 Borstal Boy
Irish writer Brendan Behan's autobiographical Borstal Boy is published

1959 Lemass succeeds de Valera
On the retirement of de Valera, Sean Lemass succeeds him as leader of Fianna F´il and prime minister of Ireland

1960 The Country Girls
Irish author Edna O'Brien publishes her first novel, The Country Girls

1965 Northern Irish and Irish prime ministers meet
Terence O'Neill and Séan Lemass, prime ministers of Northern Ireland and Ireland, have two unprecedented meetings

1966 Death of a Naturalist
Irish poet Seamus Heaney wins critical acclaim for Death of a Naturalist, his first volume containing more than a few poems

1967 The Third Policeman
Flann O'Brien's novel The Third Policeman has a great success when published posthumously

1968 Civil rights clash in northern Ireland
The first civil rights march in northern Ireland, in Derry, is halted by the police with batons and water cannon

1969 Terrorism by Provisional IRA
The Provisional IRA reintroduces terrorism to northern Ireland after Protestants attack a civil rights march

1971 New ultra-Unionist party in northern Ireland
Ian Paisley and others in northern Ireland form the Democratic Unionist Party, as the intransigent wing of Ulster Unionism

1973 Ireland joins EC
Prime minister Jack Lynch leads Ireland into the European Community

1975 Passage grave at Newgrange
Excavation of the 5200-year-old passage grave at Newgrange in Ireland is completed

1979 Mountbatten murdered by IRA
Lord Mountbatten is killed by an IRA bomb that explodes on his boat in the bay of Donegal

1984 Adams heads Sinn Fein
Republican activist Gerry Adams is elected president of Sinn Fein

1984 Do they know its Christmas?
Bob Geldof forms Band Aid and releases for Ethiopian famine relief the best-selling UK single Do they know its Christmas?

1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement
Britain's Margaret Thatcher and Ireland's Garret FitzGerald sign an Anglo-Irish Agreement to tackle shared problems

1990 Irish elect their first female president
Mary Robinson is elected president of the republic of Ireland, the first woman to hold the post

1990 Dancing at Lughnasa
Irish author Brian Friel's play Dancing at Lughnasa has its premiere at the Abbey Theatre

1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Irish author Roddy Doyle publishes a novel that wins the Booker Prize, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

1993 Downing Street Declaration
UK and Irish premiers John Major and Albert Reynolds sign the Downing Street Declaration, a strategy for peace in Nothern Ireland

1994 IRA ceasefire brings hope
The IRA declares a cease-fire in Northern Ireland, a gesture followed a month later by Protestant paramilitaries

1994 Divorce legal in Ireland
Divorce is legalized in the republic of Ireland

1996 Marina Carr's Portia Coughlin
Irish author Marina Carr's play Portia Coughlin is performed at the Abbey Theatre

1997 Martin McDonagh writes first play in trilogy
Irish author Martin McDonagh's play The Beauty Queen of Leenane is the first in a trilogy

1997 Ahern is prime minister
Bertie Ahern, leader of Fianna Fáil, becomes the prime minister (Taoiseach) of the republic of Ireland

1998 Good Friday Agreement
A proposed referendum on northern Irish issues is accepted by all the relevant political parties in what becomes known as the Good Friday Agreement

1998 Both parts of Ireland vote for peace
In the referendum to endorse the Good Friday Agreement, the terms are accepted by majorities in both the republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

1998 Bomb kills 26 in Omagh
The Real IRA kills 26 people and injures about 200 with a bomb planted in Omagh, in northern Ireland

1999 Heaney's Beowulf
A translation by Irish author Seamus Heaney brings many new readers to the Old English poem Beowulf

2000 Northern Ireland Assembly suspended
The new Northern Ireland Assembly is suspended because of IRA failure to decommission arms

2000 Irish growth fastest in Europe
The republic of Ireland is the fastest growing economy in the EU, with a GDP growth of more than 10%

2003 Paisley victory in Ulster
Ian Paisley's hard-line Democratic Unionist Party wins in elections to the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly

2005 IRA declares end to armed conflict
The Provisional IRA announces a formal end to armed conflict and orders units to dump all their weapons

2015 May 23 Same-sex marriage in Ireland legalised
The Republic of Ireland votes in a referendum to permit same-sex marriage , the first time that a state legalises same-sex marriage through a popular vote