The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom between 1801 and 1927. In 1922, the majority of Ireland seceded to form the Irish Free State. The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 amended the name of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to reflect the change in the country's boundaries, and the Act is conventionally considered to mark the point when the name of the state changed as well.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland came into being on 1 January 1801 under the terms of the Acts of Union 1800, by which the formerly separate kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were united. The Kingdom of Great Britain had itself been formed in 1707 by the union of the formerly separate kingdoms of England and Scotland.
The present-day United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a continuation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with the same constitutional and parliamentary systems but covering only a portion of the previous territory. The southern part of Ireland that seceded from the union is now the Republic of Ireland. It covers the same territory as the old Irish Free State, but adopted a new constitution in 1937.
Read more about United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Ireland: The Acts of Union, Ireland Under The Union, Early Irish Opposition To The Union, The Campaign For Irish "home Rule" and The British Response, Anglo-Irish War, Legacy, List of Monarchs
Famous quotes containing the words united, kingdom, britain and/or ireland:
“In the United States there is more space where nobody is is than where anybody is.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“He is a strong man who can hold down his opinion. A man cannot utter two or three sentences, without disclosing to intelligent ears precisely where he stands in life and thought, namely, whether in the kingdom of the senses and the understanding, or, in that of ideas and imagination, in the realm of intuitions and duty.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The proposition that Muslims are welcome in Britain if, and only if, they stop behaving like Muslims is a doctrine which is incompatible with the principles that guide a free society.”
—Roy Hattersley (b. 1932)
“In Ireland they try to make a cat cleanly by rubbing its nose in its own filth. Mr. Joyce has tried the same treatment on the human subject. I hope it may prove successful.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)