Irish History and Politics

History And Politics

268 practice questions, each with the answer and an explanation.

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Random questions from this topic, one at a time. You see the answer and the explanation straight after each one.

All 268 questions

  1. Complete the sentence about Gaelic Ireland with the correct year: In ______, the Lordship of Ireland became the Kingdom of Ireland when Henry VIII of England was given the title of King of Ireland by…
  2. Complete the sentence about Gaelic Ireland with the correct year: By ______, Ireland was, from the perspective of the British Empire, fully under English control.
  3. Complete the sentence about Brian Boru with the correct year: The Uí Néill king Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill, abandoned by his northern kinsmen of the Cenél nEógain and Cenél Conaill, acknowledged Bria…
  4. Complete the sentence about Brian Boru with the correct year: In ______, his armies confronted the armies of Leinster and Dublin.
  5. Complete the sentence about Norman invasion of Ireland with the correct year: In ______, there were further Norman landings, led by the Earl of Pembroke, Richard "Strongbow" de Clare.
  6. Complete the sentence about Norman invasion of Ireland with the correct year: Diarmait died in May ______, and Strongbow claimed Leinster, which Diarmait had promised him.
  7. Complete the sentence about Norman invasion of Ireland with the correct year: In October ______, King Henry landed with a large army to assert control over both the Anglo-Normans and the Irish.
  8. Complete the sentence about Norman invasion of Ireland with the correct year: After Henry's departure in ______, fighting between the Normans and Irish continued.
  9. Complete the sentence about Lordship of Ireland with the correct year: King Henry II of England arrived in Ireland with a large army in ______.
  10. Complete the sentence about Lordship of Ireland with the correct year: The ______ Treaty of Windsor acknowledged Henry as overlord of the conquered lands, and the High King of Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conc…
  11. Complete the sentence about Tudor conquest of Ireland with the correct year: Henry VIII of England was made "King of Ireland" by the Crown of Ireland Act ______.
  12. Complete the sentence about Tudor conquest of Ireland with the correct year: Ireland in ______ was shaped by the Norman conquest, initiated by Cambro-Norman barons in the 12th century.
  13. Complete the sentence about Flight of the Earls with the correct year: Spanish king Philip III forbade the earls from entering Spain for fear of violating the ______ Anglo-Spanish peace treaty.
  14. Complete the sentence about Flight of the Earls with the correct year: The earls sought support from Pope Paul V and arrived in Rome on 29 April ______, where they were granted small pensions.
  15. Complete the sentence about Flight of the Earls with the correct year: Tyrone repeatedly demonstrated his intent to return to Ireland and retake his lands, but he became ill and died in ______ before…
  16. Complete the sentence about Flight of the Earls with the correct year: From ______, Ulster lords Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Hugh Roe O'Donnell led a confederacy of Irish lords in resistance to…
  17. Complete the sentence about Flight of the Earls with the correct year: In summer ______, Tyrone and Rory travelled to London to submit to King James I, who had acceded to the English throne mere days…
  18. Complete the sentence about Plantations of Ireland with the correct year: In ______ there was an attempt to establish a colony in Kerrycurrihy, but it was destroyed by the Irish.
  19. Complete the sentence about Plantation of Ulster with the correct year: When Lord Mountjoy invaded Ulster in ______, he identified the harvest as the primary means by which Tyrone continued the war.
  20. Complete the sentence about Plantation of Ulster with the correct year: Following an extremely costly series of campaigns by the English, the war ended in ______ with the Treaty of Mellifont.
  21. Complete the sentence about Plantation of Ulster with the correct year: In ______, O'Neill and his primary allies left Ireland to seek Spanish help for a new rebellion to restore their privileges, in…
  22. Complete the sentence about Cromwellian conquest of Ireland with the correct year: The Act for the Settlement of Ireland ______ barred Catholics from most public offices and much of their land was tra…
  23. Complete the sentence about Cromwellian conquest of Ireland with the correct year: Following the execution of Charles I in January ______, the newly established Commonwealth of England took steps to r…
  24. Complete the sentence about Battle of the Boyne with the correct year: Although the Williamite War in Ireland continued until the signing of the Treaty of Limerick in October ______, James fled to Fra…
  25. Complete the sentence about Battle of the Boyne with the correct year: By ______, they controlled all of Ireland except for Derry and Enniskillen.
  26. Complete the sentence about Battle of the Boyne with the correct year: In particular, they dreaded a repeat of the Irish Rebellion of ______, which had been marked by widespread killing.
  27. Complete the sentence about William III of England with the correct year: When the Catholic French king Louis XIV attacked the Dutch Republic in ______, William rose to power and became Louis's greate…
  28. Complete the sentence about William III of England with the correct year: In ______, his Catholic uncle and father-in-law, James, became king of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
  29. Complete the sentence about William III of England with the correct year: Supported by a group of influential English political and religious leaders, William invaded England with a Dutch force in Nov…
  30. Complete the sentence about William III of England with the correct year: In ______, the Jacobites, a faction loyal to the deposed James, plotted unsuccessfully to assassinate William and restore Jame…
  31. Complete the sentence about William III of England with the correct year: William's lack of children and the death in ______ of his nephew the Duke of Gloucester threatened the Protestant succession.
  32. Complete the sentence about Siege of Derry with the correct year: The siege of Derry in ______ was the first major event in the Williamite War in Ireland.
  33. Complete the sentence about Siege of Derry with the correct year: The siege was preceded by an attempt against the town by Jacobite forces on 7 December ______ that was foiled when 13 apprentices shut…
  34. Complete the sentence about Siege of Derry with the correct year: The second attempt began on 18 April ______ when James himself appeared before the walls with an Irish army led by Jacobite and French…
  35. Complete the sentence about Siege of Derry with the correct year: The "Glorious Revolution" overthrew James II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland and replaced him with William of Orange, who land…
  36. Complete the sentence about Siege of Derry with the correct year: Tyrconnell took action against those who did, and by November ______ only the Protestants of Ulster were still resisting.
  37. Complete the sentence about Siege of Derry with the correct year: Louis XIV had revoked the Edict of Nantes in ______, which resulted in Huguenots fleeing to northern Europe and rekindled fears of per…
  38. Complete the sentence about Williamite War in Ireland with the correct year: James returned to France after the battle, while the Jacobites were decisively defeated at Aughrim in ______.
  39. Complete the sentence about Treaty of Limerick with the correct year: Although the English Parliament was divided politically, all parties broadly agreed on the need to re-establishing the pre-______…
  40. Complete the sentence about Treaty of Limerick with the correct year: In ______, French preparations for an offensive in the Low Countries led William to authorise De Ginkell to offer whatever terms w…
  41. Complete the sentence about Society of United Irishmen with the correct year: Beginning in May ______, martial-law seizures and arrests forced the conspiracy in Ireland into the open.
  42. Complete the sentence about Society of United Irishmen with the correct year: The Society was formed at a gathering in a Belfast tavern in October ______.
  43. Complete the sentence about Wolfe Tone with the correct year: When in the early summer of ______ it broke into open rebellion, Tone was in exile soliciting assistance from the French Republic.
  44. Complete the sentence about Wolfe Tone with the correct year: In October ______, on his second attempt to land in Ireland with French troops and supplies, he was taken prisoner.
  45. Complete the sentence about Wolfe Tone with the correct year: In ______, Tone found work as a tutor in the home of Richard Martin, a Patriot member of the Irish Parliament for Jamestown, County Leitri…
  46. Complete the sentence about Daniel O'Connell with the correct year: In ______, the Dublin Castle administration used troops to induce O'Connell to call a halt to an unprecedented campaign of open-air…
  47. Complete the sentence about Daniel O'Connell with the correct year: Irish nationalists continued to dispute O'Connell's legacy — honoured in ______ in the renaming of Dublin's principal thoroughfare.
  48. Complete the sentence about Daniel O'Connell with the correct year: In ______, under his uncle's patronage, O'Connell and his younger brother Maurice were sent to continue their schooling in France at…
  49. Complete the sentence about Daniel O'Connell with the correct year: Revolutionary upheaval and their mob denunciation as "young priests" and "little aristocrats", persuaded them in January ______ to f…
  50. Complete the sentence about Daniel O'Connell with the correct year: After further legal studies in London, including a pupillage at Lincoln's Inn, O'Connell returned to Ireland in ______.
  51. Complete the sentence about Daniel O'Connell with the correct year: In ______, O'Connell married his third cousin, Mary O'Connell.
  52. Complete the sentence about Daniel O'Connell with the correct year: Despite O'Connell's early infidelities, the marriage was happy and Mary's death in ______ was a blow from which her husband is said…
  53. Complete the sentence about Daniel O'Connell with the correct year: By ______, he had returned to the Church, "becoming thereafter more devout by the year".
  54. Complete the sentence about Catholic Emancipation with the correct year: The most significant measure was the Roman Catholic Relief Act ______, which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman…
  55. Complete the sentence about Catholic Emancipation with the correct year: Ever since the Papacy recognised the Hanoverian dynasty in January ______, none of the immediate royal heirs has been a Roman C…
  56. Complete the sentence about Catholic Emancipation with the correct year: In Ireland, the Roman Catholic Relief Act ______ was enacted by the Irish Parliament, extending the right to vote to Catholics.
  57. Complete the sentence about Great Famine with the correct year: The worst year of the famine was ______, which became known as "Black '47".
  58. Complete the sentence about Great Famine with the correct year: When the potato blight returned to Ireland in the ______ famine, the Land League boycotted "notorious landlords", and its members physic…
  59. Complete the sentence about Great Famine with the correct year: Ireland was incorporated into the United Kingdom in January ______ following the passage of the Acts of Union.
  60. Complete the sentence about Irish diaspora with the correct year: The phenomenon of migration from Ireland is recorded since the Early Middle Ages, but it can be quantified only from around ______.
  61. Complete the sentence about Irish diaspora with the correct year: After ______, emigration from Ireland became a short, relentless and efficiently managed national enterprise.
  62. Complete the sentence about Fenian with the correct year: In ______, they attempted a rising in Ireland which was co-ordinated with raids into Canada from the United States.
  63. Complete the sentence about Fenian with the correct year: Along with Thomas Clarke Luby, John O'Leary and Charles Kickham he founded the Irish Republican Brotherhood on 17 March ______ in Lombard Stre…
  64. Complete the sentence about Fenian with the correct year: The Fenian Rising in ______ proved to be a "doomed rebellion", poorly organised and with minimal public support.
  65. Complete the sentence about Fenian with the correct year: In ______, O'Mahony's leadership was challenged and the movement was split by a faction led by William B.
  66. Complete the sentence about Fenian with the correct year: In ______ there was a further challenge to O'Mahony from the new IRB exile David Bell, and his weekly the Irish Republic.
  67. Complete the sentence about Young Ireland with the correct year: Despairing, in the face of the Great Famine, of any other course, in ______ Young Irelanders attempted an insurrection.
  68. Complete the sentence about Young Ireland with the correct year: The paper first appeared in October in ______ bearing the title chosen for it by Davis, The Nation, after the French liberal-opposition…
  69. Complete the sentence about Home Rule with the correct year: Following a referendum in Greenland where the majority favored a higher degree of autonomy, home rule was granted by the Parliament of Denm…
  70. Complete the sentence about Home Rule with the correct year: Nonetheless, when Indian independence came in ______, the new state was the Dominion of India.
  71. Complete the sentence about Home Rule with the correct year: English home rule has been discussed in relation to proposals for constitutional changes regarding England following the ______ Scottish in…
  72. Complete the sentence about Land War with the correct year: From ______, various governments introduced a series of Land Acts that granted many of the activists' demands.
  73. Complete the sentence about Land War with the correct year: The population of Ireland was overwhelmingly rural; in ______, four-fifths of the population lived in hamlets smaller than 20 houses.
  74. Complete the sentence about Land War with the correct year: In ______, the Tenant Right League briefly dominated Irish politics with the demand for free sale, fixity of tenure, and fair rent.
  75. Complete the sentence about Irish Land Acts with the correct year: Further acts were introduced by the governments of the Irish Free State after ______ and more acts were passed for Northern Ireland.
  76. Complete the sentence about Douglas Hyde with the correct year: In ______, his father was appointed prebendary and rector of Tibohine, and the family moved to neighbouring Frenchpark, in County Roscom…
  77. Complete the sentence about Douglas Hyde with the correct year: A medallist of the College Historical Society, he was elected its president in ______.
  78. Complete the sentence about Sinn Féin with the correct year: The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in ______ by Arthur Griffith.
  79. Complete the sentence about Sinn Féin with the correct year: Another split in ______ at the start of the Troubles led to the modern Sinn Féin party, with the other faction eventually becoming the Work…
  80. Complete the sentence about Sinn Féin with the correct year: After Gerry Adams became party leader in ______, electoral politics were prioritised increasingly.
  81. Complete the sentence about Sinn Féin with the correct year: In ______, the party dropped its abstentionist policy for the Dáil; some members formed Republican Sinn Féin in protest.
  82. Complete the sentence about Irish Volunteers with the correct year: A small committee then began to meet regularly in Dublin from July ______, who watched the growth of this opinion.
  83. Complete the sentence about Irish Volunteers with the correct year: The IRB began the preparations for the open organisation of the Irish Volunteers in January ______.
  84. Complete the sentence about Easter Rising with the correct year: Sixteen of the Rising's leaders were executed starting in May ______.
  85. Complete the sentence about Easter Rising with the correct year: Organised by a seven-man Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Rising began on Easter Monday, 24 April ______ and l…
  86. Complete the sentence about James Connolly with the correct year: On moving to Ireland in ______, he established the country's first socialist party, the Irish Socialist Republican Party.
  87. Complete the sentence about James Connolly with the correct year: According to his daughter Nora, Connolly left the army in February ______ and returned to Scotland.
  88. Complete the sentence about Proclamation of the Irish Republic with the correct year: The proclamation was modelled on a similar independence proclamation issued during the ______ rebellion by Robert…
  89. Complete the sentence about Éamon de Valera with the correct year: Éamon de Valera was born on 14 October ______ in New York City; his name was initially registered as George de Valero.
  90. Complete the sentence about Irish War of Independence with the correct year: In April ______, Irish republicans launched the Easter Rising against British rule and proclaimed an Irish Republic.
  91. Complete the sentence about Irish War of Independence with the correct year: In the ______ general election, republican party Sinn Féin won a landslide victory in Ireland.
  92. Complete the sentence about Irish War of Independence with the correct year: About 300 people had been killed by late ______, but the conflict escalated in November.
  93. Complete the sentence about Irish War of Independence with the correct year: In May ______, Ireland was partitioned under British law by the Government of Ireland Act, which created Northern Ireland.
  94. Complete the sentence about Black and Tans with the correct year: By ______, for example, the Black and Tans made up almost half of the RIC in County Tipperary.
  95. Complete the sentence about Bloody Sunday with the correct year: Two other IRA members were later convicted and hanged in March ______ for their part in the assassinations.
  96. Complete the sentence about Bloody Sunday with the correct year: By late ______, British Intelligence in Dublin had established an extensive network of spies and informers around the city.
  97. Complete the sentence about Bloody Sunday with the correct year: In early November ______, some prominent IRA members in Dublin were almost captured.
  98. Complete the sentence about Anglo-Irish Treaty with the correct year: The Irish Free State as contemplated by the treaty came into existence when its constitution became law on 6 December ______ by a…
  99. Complete the sentence about Anglo-Irish Treaty with the correct year: In his book Thomas Jones states that in late July ______ De Valera met alone with the British Prime Minister on four occasions.
  100. Complete the sentence about Anglo-Irish Treaty with the correct year: De Valera sent the Irish plenipotentiaries to the ______ negotiations in London with several draft treaties and secret instruction…

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