New Ireland (island)

For the political strategy of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin meaning New Ireland in English, see Éire Nua.

New Ireland

Native name: Niu Ailan
New Ireland's main towns and nearby islands
New Ireland (island)
Geography
Coordinates
Archipelago	Bismarck Archipelago
Area
Length	360 km (224 mi)
Width	10 km (6 mi) - 40 km (25 mi)
Highest elevation	2,379 m (7,805 ft)
Highest point	Mount Taron
Country
Papua New Guinea
Province	New Ireland Province
Largest settlement	Kavieng (pop. 10,600)
Demographics
Population	118,350 (as of 2002)

New Ireland (Tok Pisin: Niu Ailan) is a large island in Papua New Guinea, approximately 7,404 km² in area with ca. 120,000 people. It is the largest island of the New Ireland Province, lying northeast of the island of New Britain. Both islands are part of the Bismarck Archipelago, named after Otto von Bismarck, and they are separated by Saint George's Channel. The administrative centre of the island and of New Ireland province is the town of Kavieng located at the northern end of the island. While the island was part of German New Guinea, it was named Neumecklenburg ("New Mecklenburg").

Geography

Topographic map of New Ireland

The island is part of the Bismarck Archipelago and is often described as having the shape of a musket. For much of its 360 kilometers in length, the island's width varies between less than 10 km to 40 km, yet the central mountainous spine is very steep and rugged. The highest peak is Mount Taron in the Hans Meyer Range (2,379 meters). Other mountain ranges are Tirpitz, Schleinitz, Verron and Rossel. The island lies between two and five degrees south of the equator. The original land cover was primarily dense rainforest.

New Ireland is surrounded by the Bismarck Sea in the southwest and by the Pacific Ocean in the northeast.

History

The first inhabitants of the Bismarck Archipelago arrived around 33,000 years ago after sailing from what is now Papua New Guinea. Later arrivals included the Lapita people approximately 3,000 years ago. Three distinct cultural practices are characteristic of the native people of New Ireland: Kabai, Malagan and Tumbuan.

In 1616 the Dutch sailors Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten were the first Europeans to set foot on the island.

In the 1870s and 1880s, the Marquis de Rays, a French nobleman, attempted to establish a French colony on the island called New France. He sent four ill-fated expeditions to the island, the most famous of which caused the death of 123 settlers.

From 1885 to 1914 New Ireland was a part of German New Guinea and bore the name Neumecklenburg. Germans managed several highly profitable copra plantations and built a road to transport the goods. This road is currently in service and is named the Boluminski Highway after the German administrator of German New Guinea, Franz Boluminski. After World War I New Ireland was ceded to Australia. Australia renamed the island New Ireland, after the island of Ireland. In January 1942, during World War II, the island was captured by Japanese forces and was under their control.

Ecology

Widespread deforestation and degradation of lowland rainforest is an issue on New Ireland and the other eastern islands of Papua New Guinea (New Britain, Bougainville Island) as well as on Papua New Guinea mainland. Nearly 60 percent of their forests are accessible to logging, and by 2002, 63 percent of the accessible forests had been deforested or degraded.

Culture

See also: New Ireland languages

• Malagan - funerary arts that originate in Tabar Group, and have been imported to the northern region of New Ireland.
• Tatanua - "The person who organises a tatanua performance must select the music and dancers, assemble a male chorus and acquire the masks. The masks are usually rented from one of the sculptors who makes them."
• Kulap - chalk limestone funerary sculptures

External links

• Entry at the Linköping University
• Persée : Archaeological survey in southern New Ireland
• Wallaby extinctions at the Macropodid frontier