"North Ireland ~ Irlanda del Norte"

Ireland is an island in the extreme north-west of Europe, situated between 51.5 and 55.5 degrees north latitude and between 5.5 and 10.5 degrees west longitude. Its nearest neighbor is the island of Britain to the east, separated from it by the Irish Sea.

Christianity arrived in Ireland in the 5th century AD, from which period also we date the first written documents. Irish Christianity in its early period achieved an almost symbiotic affinity with the pagan culture of the island, giving the early church a distinctive, some might now say an heretical, character. Early Ireland was never united politically, though 150 or so minor kingdoms shared a common culture. The first attempts to unite the island politically began with the Norman invasion of 1169, and over the next 700 years, ruled with varying degrees of success by the English, later the British, Crown, Ireland could be said to have become a discrete, if colonized, political entity