c.8000 BC – End of the Ice Age. Beginning of vegetation.

c.7000 BC – First human beings in Ireland. Hunter gatherers live in a climate warmer and drier than today, surrounded by woodlands, abundant rivers and lakes.

c.6500 BC – Rising sea levels divide Ireland from Britain: Ireland becomes an island.

c.4500 BC – First evidence of stone tools, spearheads, and axes with small flint blades.

c.4000 BC – Beginnings of agriculture. Neolithic (lit. New Stone Age) people are the first farmers. Forests are cleared. Cultivation of barley and wheat. Evidence of ‘booleying’ (moving of cattle). Butter and cheese are produced.

c.3000 BC – Axe factories (at Tievbulliagh, Co. Antrim, and Brockley, on Rathlin Island) manufacture porcellanite stone axes and are widely distributed in Ireland and Britain.

c.3000 BC – Communities become more settled. Burial rites become important. Megalithic (lit. great stone) tombs are built. The Proleek Dolmen at Ballymascanlon, Co. Louth, (below right), is one of the oldest.

c.3200-2500 BC – Spectacular Neolithic passage grave of the late Stone Age called ‘Newgrange’, situated in the Boyle valley, Co.Meath. Other burial complexes developed are Dowth, and Knowth, also in Co.Meath.

c.2500 – End of Neolithic (lit. New Stone Age) era. Introduction of first metals into Ireland.

c.2400 BC – Copper mines at Ross Island, Co. Kerry. Tin is imported to make bronze.

c.2300 BC – Beginning of Bronze Age in Ireland.

c.2200 BC – Early work in gold: discs, bands and lunalae (crescent-shaped ornaments).

c.2100 BC – The passage tomb known as the ‘Mound of the Hostages’ is the earliest monument built on the 'Hill of Tara'. The Hill of Tara becomes the coronation place for Ireland’s high kings.

c.2000 BC – Evidence of pottery vessels: food bowls, beakers and funerary urns.

c.1000 BC – More sophisticated bronze and gold working: jewellery, swords, ornaments with continental stylistic influence.  Rich deposits of gold found in the Wickow mountains.

700 BC – Hill forts and ring forts (elaborate systems of stone walls and ramparts), begin to appear from this time. They serve as places of refuge and ritual.

c.250 BC – Gradual incursions by Celtic peoples, many of them highly skilled, arrive in successive waves over the centuries bringing their language, art and religion with them.

The Celts are noted for their high spirits and hospitality. They enjoy feasting, drinking, music, story-telling and fighting. Magic, display, and ritual are extremely important to the Celts. Disputes are often resolved by single combat and naked combat is thought to invoke magical protection.

Irish art is now influenced by the decorative ‘La Tène’ style brought by the Celts from continental Europe (La Tène was a Celtic site in Switzerland). Artefacts (e.g. brooches, shields and scabbards) and stone carvings were decorated with delicate, curving-swirling lines and intricate patterns - abstract, symbolic and inspired by nature - eventually culminating in a Golden Age of Celtic Art c.750.

Celtic culture is united and sophisticated in art and literature but it is politically fragmented. Ireland is divided into about 150 miniature kingdoms each called a tuath. The Celtic way of life develops into a threefold social system consisting of king or queen, warrior and nobel, and freeman farmer/commoner. Women are equal to men and have just as much power. Celtic merchants travel and trade internationally using the seas as their highways.  

Celtic gods are worshiped by the Celts eg. Ana is goddess of fertility; Lug is the god of light, sorcery and crafts and is associated with the harvest; Néit is the god of war; Brigit is the goddess of story-telling, poetry, metalwork and healing. Bards are poets and singers. Druids, later known as filid (lit.’seers’), are the accepted authorities over matters of religion and law. They are considered to have magic powers of prophecy and enjoy a privileged status.

c.250 BC – ‘Bronze Age’ skills now live side-by-side with new ‘Iron Age’ skills.

c.150 BC – Early example of luxury imports (Roman) which would later be found at Broighter, Co Derry: decorated collar and neck chains, a boat, a model cauldron.

51 BC – Julius Caesar’s de Bello Gallico describes the existence of Celts in Ireland. It contains the first written use of the word ‘Hibernia’ to describe Ireland.

A.D.
83 – After defeating the Scots Celts, the Roman general, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, considers invasion of Ireland, but his plans lapse when he is recalled to Rome. Ireland never becomes a province of the Roman Empire. However, there are vigorous trading links with Roman Britain and Rome is to come to Ireland in a spiritual way in the form of Christianity.

c.150 - Ptolemy’s map of Ireland: Ptolemy, Greek mathematician, astronomer and geographer, who lived in Egypt, writes about Ireland and draws the first recognisable outline of the island.

177 – ‘Conn of the Hundred Battles’ becomes high king in Tara. He spends much of his reign fighting the king of Munster, ‘Eoghan the Great’. They decide to divide Ireland between them.

c.250 – High king, Cormac Mac Airt, dies. The Annals of Clonnmacnoise, translated in 1627, describe him as: “absolutely the best king that ever reigned in Ireland before himself...wise, learned, valiant and mild, not given causelessly to be bloody as many of his ancestors were, he reigned majestically and magnificently.” The hero, Fionn mac Cumhaill, is supposed to have lived during Cormac's reign.

367 – The Irish join the Picts, Scots and Saxons in a major attack on Roman Britain.

c.400 – Development of Ogham [oh-um]: a version Early Irish (Gaelic) writing and based on the Latin alphabet. Celts were forbidden by their own precepts to commit their words and traditions to paper. Ogham, named after the god of eloquence, consists of a series of horizontal strokes of varying lengths carved on the edges of stone or wood. There were twenty letters in the Ogham alphabet, also known as the ‘Celtic Tree Alphabet’ and the letters correspond with ancient trees and shrubs.

409 – Romans withdraw from Britain. Rome is sacked by the Visigoths in 410 and the Vandals in 455. The Pope in Rome is the one remaining link with the old imperial system and is increasingly dependent on the military support of Christian kings beyond Italy.

431 – Pope Celestine sends Palladius on a mission to Ireland. Evidence of the presence of a small Christian community in Ireland.

432–461 – St Patrick’s mission to convert Ireland to Christianity.

The early Irish church absorbs and incorporates many of the Celtic pagan traditions and rituals, adapting them to Christianity. Native laws (Brehon) are influenced by the new religion. The cleric is given equal status to the poet and 'seer'. Christianity increases literacy and the influence of European culture (especially Latin). Within two centuries the entire island has been Christianised, with monasteries and churches in every district, covering 60,000 placenames. The bigger monasteries are also developed into centres of scholarship and learning. The Irish contribution to spreading the movement of Christianity is to be critical.

Monetary value is reckoned in cows (a female slave is worth six cows).

c.450 – Saint Brigit founds a monastery and convent in Kildare.

c.450 – Reign of the high king, ‘Niall of the Nine Hostages’, ancestral founder of the O’Neill (Uí Néill) dynasty. Allegedly, Niall leads raiding expeditions to Britain and Wales.

c.450 – Emain Macha, the capital of the 'Ulaid' (people of Ulster), falls to the O’Neills.

450 – Anglo-Saxons conquer Britain.

476 – Fall of the Western Roman Empire.

c.550 – Scholars and craftspeople from all over Europe come to study at Irish monasteries.  Irish priests travel throughout Europe founding monasteries, cathedrals and schools.

546 – Columba/Colum Cille, a Christian evangelist and one of Ireland's patron saints along with Saint Patrick and Saint Brigit, establishes many monasteries, including Derry, Kells, and Durrow. He would go on to write the oldest surviving Irish manuscript, known as the Catach.

547 – Foundation of Clonmacnoise monestery, by Saint Ciarán. It becomes Ireland’s greatest centre of scholarship and religious learning.

549 – Outbreak of plague.

558 – Saint Brendan known as ‘the Voyager’ and ‘the Navigator’ reputedly sails to America.

563 – Saint Columba founds a monastery in Iona, off the coast of Scotland (allegedly, he has been exiled there).

c.590 – Mission of Saint Columbanus to Europe. Saint Columbanus, along with Saint Benedict are  seminal figures in European monastic tradition.

c.630 – Mission of Saint Fursa to East Anglia and parts of northern France.

c.635 – Mission of Saint Aidan to Northumbria, where he founds the monastery of Lindisfarne.

664 – Yellow plague sweeps through Ireland.

c.650 – Composition of the Book of Durrow, the first major illuminated manuscript.

c.700 – Composition of the Lindisfarne Gospels.

c.750 – Golden Age of Celtic art: Tara Brooch, Ardagh Chalice, Derrynaflan Chalice etc.

795 – First Viking raids on the Irish coast, near Dublin. Vikings go on to raid many monasteries for ornaments, jewels (secular valuables deposited for safekeeping) and books. Towards the middle of the ninth century, larger fleets arrive and the Vikings establish permanent bases from where they organize large-scale pillaging expeditions throughout the centre of Ireland.

c.800 – The Book of Kells, the most celebrated and beautiful of Irish illuminated manuscripts, is originally composed in Iona. Following Viking raids in 802, the book is brought to the monastery of Kells, Co.Meath.

807 – Composition of the Book of Armagh containing texts relating to the life of Saint Patrick.

841 – Vikings establish a trading settlement near the mouth of the Liffey. This is the origin of the city of Dublin. It is the largest Viking settlement outside Scandinavia.