Infoplease site:  Ireland    Again, Encyclopedia entry.

Met Eireann- The Irish Meteorological Service
 
Udaras na Gaeltachta    Info on the Gaeltacht

The Irish News    Daily Newspaper in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland Office

Northern Ireland Executive Government

The Belfast Telegraph    Daily newspaper from Northern Ireland

The Irish Times  The Republic of Ireland's daily newspaper.  News is free, premium services available to
            subscribers.

The London Times

Scavenger Hunt Links stop here.

Sinn Fein    Political Party committed to a united Ireland.

CAIN    Academic site providing information on the conflict in Northern Ireland from 1968-present.

Annotated Internet Links: Irish History 
    (annotations by Charlie Delgado, Honors Student, Department of History, University of Arizona, 2005.)

Multi Media History

Ireland's Millennia, Hosted by Radio / Telef’s Eirrn

This site may present the ultimate interactive whirlwind tour of Irish history. It was developed in conjunction with a special series of radio and television
programming provided by RTƒ for the millennium celebration. It is an ambitious presentation that begins in prehistory and travels through the modern era.
 The presentation is broken into three broad categories; people, history, and places. The people section boasts more than 1500 biographies, some of them
 complete with audio and video clips from RTƒ archives. The history section includes these features as well. The places section promises a tour of the island
 with guides to the counties as well as information on places of cultural and artistic importance.

The people section offers a comprehensive interface that allows the user to browse for names by category (art and literature, sport, music, public figures,
history and politics, or business). A search tool is also provided, allowing the user to target specific characters in Irish history, "from St. Brigid to Bertie Ahern,
 Christy Ring to Sonia O'Sullivan, and John Field to Bono." The biographies are fairly comprehensive and the multi media features of the site allow the student
of Irish history glimpses of character that might not be easily available in other formats. Interior links in biographies allow the user easy access to the associates
 of each subject.

The history section of the site is broken into nineteen broad categories, beginning in prehistory and ending with the new nation. Within each of those categories,
 information is presented by topic. For example, in the section titled Toward Independence, 1891-1922, twenty-four subsections are presented, each of them
providing assessment of the subject. Areas include the GAA, the Irish literary revival, the 1914 volunteers, the Easter Rising, the War of Independence, and the
 Civil War. This section also includes excerpts from the RTƒ archives.

The places section of the site offers the same ease of navigation. At the main page of the section, the select a county by clicking on a map, or choose to browse
 by province. The county pages provide a map of the county and some general information about the area. From this point, the user can select from a menu of
significant places in the county.

While this site is a model of good internet design and presents enough information to keep the Irish history buff glued to the screen for weeks, it is unfortunate
to note that the system structure is lacking. At times certain site functions, such as audio and video clips, suddenly become unavailable. This is probably due to
a server that isn't quite up to the task of supporting such an ambition project. Also, the potential visitor should note that this site is not meant for the unfortunate
souls still stuck with a dial-up connection. Some of the files are very large and difficult to retrieve.

Wars and Conflict: The Troubles, Presented the BBC

Another ambitious Internet project hosted by British television, this is part of the BBC history section and focuses on the conflict in Northern Ireland. The
information is divided into broad categories (Origins and Civil Rights, Power-sharing, Hunger Strikes, Agreement), and each of these categories is further
subdivided into specific topics. For example, in the Origins and Civil Rights section, the user can access features such as the Civil Rights Movement of the
1960s, or the Battle of the Bogside. Each area presents a feature on the specific subject and provides audio and video clips from BBC archives.

As is the case with the material provided by RTƒ, these features are not recommended for use via a dial up connection.

There are two other areas of interest at the BBC history Wars and Conflicts, The Plantation of Ulster and 1916 Easter Rising. Both sections are structured
similarly to the section already described. The section on the Easter Rising is especially interesting for the number of witness accounts provided and some
of the radio broadcasts. Also provided is a fairly extensive section of the diary of a Catholic priest who administered last rights to several of these executed
 following the rising.

Again, the short comings at this site are the usual ones found on the internet. While a lot of information is presented it is still a brief overview rather than a
deep study. The site does however succeed in providing the tone of a particular event in history, provides the names of some of the lesser-known players
in those events, a has a much more stable delivery than the RTƒ site.

The Ireland Story

This site, while it provides a good deal of useful material, should be approached with caution. It is hosted by an individual who's states on the home page
that he has "lived in Ireland all his life." This is the only qualification he presents.

This being said, the site does offer some good material that may be difficult to put together from other sources, such as an impressive collection of maps,
including contemporary street maps of several cities, historical maps that go all the way back to the Ice Age, and maps that show electoral, religious and
population breakdowns.

There is an extensive listing of Irish organizations including religious orders, recognized political parties, citizen pressure groups, and a disturbing number
of terrorist groups for such a small island. The site also provides discussion of various historical reference points, such as the Great Famine. This section
is broken into subsections that address pre-famine conditions, the famine itself, and the effects of the famine. This section of the site also provides detailed
maps showing the regional effects.

The site owner does appear to do careful research and strive to provide objective analysis. This is a difficult, perhaps impossible, task when addressing the
issues in Northern Ireland today. A careful reading between the lines shows the political leanings of the site administrator. It is readily apparent that the site
administrator does not support terrorism from any side of the conflict, as evidenced in his choice of language when describing terrorist events. The information
presented on the site is referenced sufficiently of the visitor to locate source information.

Court Services, An tSeirbh’s Chœirteanna, Ireland

This is the official Court Services site of the Republic of Ireland. The site has several areas of interest whether the visitor wants to know more about the
contemporary workings of the Irish legal system, its modern development, or its ancient roots.

For those researching contemporary legal trends in The Republic, there is a section that provides statistics. These can be searched by categories (criminal,
civil, family law, licensing, and small claims) or by court (supreme court, court of criminal appeal, high court, central criminal court, special criminal court,
circuit court, district court, and small claims). There is a section for Freedom of Information that explains in detail the requirements and how to make a
request, provides FOI statistics, and a listing of court decisions on FOI.

The site maintains a section to provide access to educational programs about the legal system. Much of this material is designed for first and second level
 education, but the information is interesting and helpful to adults who are unfamiliar with the legal system in The Republic.

Most interesting to historians will be the Heritage portion of the site. This area of the site contains information on the history and development of law in
Ireland, the ancient Brehon Law system, brief descriptions of a couple of famous trials (a short overview of the trials of Robert Emmet and Michael Davitt),
and an exploration of court traditions. There is also a section that details the architecture and history of many court buildings throughout Ireland.

While there is a considerable breadth of information provided on the site, much of it is very brief. The site is, nonetheless, interesting, easy to navigate,
useful, and a good starting point for research in areas relating to law in Ireland.