Ireland Population

The population of Ireland is falling sharply with couples marrying later and thousands still emigrating in search of jobs, according to an Irish census report published on Thursday. The number of children below the age of 4 in this country of 3.5 million people has dropped by 6.4% over the last five years, and that decline is expected to accelerate, a team of economic consultants reported.

The population of Ireland is falling sharply with couples marrying later and thousands still emigrating in search of jobs, according to an Irish census report published on Thursday. The number of children below the age of 4 in this country of 3.5 million people has dropped by 6.4% over the last five years, and that decline is expected to accelerate, a team of economic consultants reported.

Your report on the divorce referendum in Southern Ireland contained a factual error that may mislead American readers. It incorrectly stated that Ireland is an "island republic" and then goes on to quote figures relating to Southern Ireland alone without giving adequate clarification of the separate status of Northern Ireland. The population of Northern Ireland is not, and has no wish to be part of an island republic of any description. The romantic notion that Ireland is, or should be, an island republic permeates Southern Irish society and gives Irish Republican terrorists a degree of respectability that they would not otherwise enjoy.

Lord Bountiful ought to be ashamed of himself for calling Ireland a Third World country! President Reagan's request for $50 million for Ireland each year for the next five years is enough to make the blood of anti-poverty development workers and citizen activists boil. Ireland's population is 3 million. Its per capita gross national product is $5,000 (compared to India at $260 and the United States at $14,110). Its infant mortality rate is 10 compared to 110 in India and 11 in the United States.

In a major development that could signal an end to one of the world's oldest conflicts, the Irish Republican Army announced Wednesday a "complete cessation" of violence in its struggle to end British control over Northern Ireland. "In order to enhance the democratic peace process and underline our definitive commitment to its success, the leadership of (the IRA has) decided that as of midnight Wednesday, Aug.

In a once desolate downtown, where police searched shoppers for weapons during the deadly conflict known as "the Troubles," dramatic changes happened long before the Irish Republican Army announced the end of its armed struggle. As the threat of IRA bombs receded after the group's 1997 cease-fire, new glass and steel buildings went up, and shops began staying open after dark. The IRA has been expected to give up its weapons since the landmark 1998 Good Friday agreement.

From Sandwich, England — Tuesday was the kind of day the British dearly love when it comes to their golf. After two relatively mild days — there was actually a sunshine sighting midafternoon Monday — the air cooled, the whitecaps reappeared in the English Channel and the flags stiffened, snapped and pointed toward the White Cliffs of Dover. If you didn't have a jacket, you had pneumonia. And then the star of the show, the sudden darling of world golf fans, arrived. It wasn't Jennifer Aniston on the red carpet, but it was close.

On May 4, 1973, a sniper shot Constable Jim Seymour in the head as he opened the gate to a fortified police station. For more than two decades, he lay paralyzed in a coma, a painful symbol in a long line of police casualties from this land's sectarian warfare. There may never have been a more dangerous place to be a cop than the gritty streets of Belfast. Across 25 bloody years, officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary were murdered at an average of one a month.

Construction workers like Tom Deery once took it for granted that if they wanted to cash in on their skills, it meant casting a cold eye on Dublin and toiling instead on foreign soil. But that tradition of no-frills, often lonely labor in London or New York seems a distant memory for Deery and his dozen workmates. For Dublin today is the place to be, the eye of Ireland's "Celtic Tiger" economy, the most buoyant and confident in Europe.

As Irish political leaders maneuver to broker still another shaky coalition government--expected to be formed this week--young Irish citizens across the island are calling for bedrock change. In the European Community's youngest country--half the population is under 25--a new generation of voters seem eager to break out of political and social stereotypes that have tied their elders to the battles and ideas of the past.

Coincidentally, the first shooting of an Israeli soldier by Palestinians during the current uprising came just one day after the Irish Republican Army killing of two undercover British soldiers, believed to be on surveillance duty at an IRA funeral and suspected of far worse by the mourners.