Definition of: Ireland

(īr′lənd)
The westernmost and second largest of the British Isles; 31,838 square miles; divided into:
1 Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom comprising six counties and two boroughs of the former province of Ulster in the north; 5,237 square miles; capital, Belfast; and
2. the Republic of Ireland, independent (1949) of the Commonwealth of Nations and comprising 26 southern counties; 26,600 square miles; capital, Dublin: formerly Irish Free State (Irish Saorstat Eireann), 1922–37; Eire, 1937–49.