Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Iran ... Irish system

Iran: a mountainous, arid, ethnically diverse country of southwestern Asia. Much of Iran consists of a central desert plateau, which is ringed on all sides by lofty mountain ranges that afford access to the interior through high passes. Most of the ...
Iran hostage crisis: international crisis (1979-81) in which militants in Iran seized 66 American citizens at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding 52 of them hostage for more than a year. The crisis, which took place during the chaotic aftermath of Iran's Islamic ...
Iran, ancient: historic region of southwestern Asia that is only roughly coterminous with modern Iran. The term Persia was used for centuries, chiefly in the West, to designate those regions where Persian language and culture predominated, but it more correctly refers to ...
Iran-Contra Affair: U.S. political scandal in which the National Security Council (NSC) became involved in secret weapons transactions and other activities that either were prohibited by the U.S. Congress or violated the stated public policy of the government. In early 1985 the ...
Iran-Iraq War: (1980-90), prolonged military conflict between Iran and Iraq during the 1980s. The war began on September 22, 1980, when Iraqi armed forces invaded western Iran along the countries' joint border.
Iranian languages: subgroup of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Iranian languages are spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and parts of Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, and scattered areas of the Caucasus Mountains.
Iranian literature: body of writings produced in the area traditionally known as Persia, in Farsi, the Modern Persian language. See Persian literature.
Iranian religion: diverse beliefs and practices of the culturally and linguistically related group of ancient peoples who inhabited the Iranian Plateau and its borderlands, as well as areas of Central Asia from the Black Sea to Khotan (modern Ho-t'ien, China). The northern ...
Irapuato: city, west-central Guanajuato estado ("state"), north-central Mexico. Situated in the fertile Bajio, a valley of the central plateau, the city lies along the Irapuato River, a tributary of the Lerma River, at 5,656 feet (1,724 m) above sea level. It ...
Iraq: country of southwestern Asia.
Iraqi: one of the most outstanding poets of 13th-century Persia.
Irazu, Mount: active volcano in the Cordillera Central, east-central Costa Rica. The highest mountain in the Cordillera Central, Irazu reaches an elevation of 11,260 feet (3,432 m). It is a popular ascent for tourists, as its cone offers views of both the ...
Irbid: town, northern Jordan. The town is built on successive Early Bronze Age settlements and was possibly the biblical Beth Arbel and the Arbila of the Decapolis, a Hellenistic league of the 1st century BC through the 2nd century AD. Modern ...
Irbil: ancient town, northern Iraq. It is situated 48 miles (77 km) east of Mosul in the foothills of the mountains that rise to the east. It is a trade centre for agricultural produce. A rail terminus, it is also linked ...
Iredell, James: associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1790-99).
Ireland: country of western Europe occupying five-sixths of the westernmost island of the British Isles.
Ireland, Church of: independent Anglican church within both Ireland and Northern Ireland. It traces its episcopal succession from the pre-Reformation church in Ireland.
Ireland, John: Scottish writer, theologian, and diplomatist, whose treatise The Meroure of Wyssdome is the earliest extant example of original Scots prose.
Ireland, John: English composer known for his songs and his programmatic orchestral works.
Ireland, John: first archbishop of St. Paul; head of the liberal Roman Catholic clergy who promoted the integration of predominantly immigrant parishes into the life of the U.S. church (and society as a whole)-in opposition to the separatist tendency of many ethnic ...
Ireland, William Henry: English forger of Shakespearean works.
Irenaeus, Saint: bishop of Lugdunum (Lyon) and leading Christian theologian of the 2nd century. His work Adversus haereses (Against Heresies), written in about 180, was a refutation of Gnosticism. In the course of his writings Irenaeus advanced the development of an authoritative ...
Irene: Byzantine ruler and saint of the Greek Orthodox Church who was instrumental in restoring the use of icons in the Eastern Roman Empire.
Irene Ducas: wife of the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus, known from the description of her in the Alexiad of their daughter, Anna Comnena.
Irenidae: songbird family, order Passeriformes, consisting of the leafbirds, ioras, and fairy bluebirds, about 14 species of small brightly coloured birds of the forests and farms of southeastern Asia.
Ireton, Henry: English soldier and statesman, a leader of the Parliamentary cause during the Civil Wars between the Royalists and Parliamentarians.
Irgun Zvai Leumi: Jewish right-wing underground movement in Palestine, founded in 1931. At first supported by many non-Socialist Zionist parties, in opposition to the Haganah, it became in 1936 an instrument of the Revisionist Party, an extreme nationalist group that had seceded from ...
Iri: city, Cholla-pukto (North Cholla province), western South Korea. It is located 16 miles (26 km) east of the port city of Kunsan. It lies in the northern part of the Honam Plain (the largest granary of South Korea) and is ...
Iridaceae: the iris family of flowering plants, belonging to the order Liliales. The family is known for ornamental genera such as Iris, Gladiolus, and Crocus (see ).
iridescence: interference of light either at the surface or in the interior of a material that produces a series of colours as the angle of incidence changes. Best known are the colours seen in precious opal resulting from the interference of ...
iridium: (Ir), chemical element, one of the platinum metals of Group VIII of the periodic table. It is very dense and rare and is used in platinum alloys. A precious, silver-white metal, iridium is hard and brittle, but it becomes ductile ...
iridosmine: mineral consisting of an alloy of iridium and a smaller proportion of osmium. It occurs in gold-bearing conglomerates, as at the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and in gold sands, as in California and Oregon, U.S. Because of their hardness and ...
Iriga: city, southeastern Luzon, Philippines. It is located in the central part of Bicol Peninsula, about 20 miles (30 km) southeast of Naga. Iriga is named for the extinct volcano (3,976 feet [1,212 m]) in whose shadow it stands. The land ...
Irigaray, Luce: French feminist psychoanalyst and philosopher who examined the uses and misuses of language in relation to women.
Irigoyen, Hipolito: Argentine statesman who became his country's first president elected by broad popular suffrage. He was driven from office during his second term by a military coup in 1930.
Iris: genus of about 300 species of plants in the family Iridaceae including some of the world's most popular and varied garden flowers, centred in the North Temperate Zones. Some of its most handsome species, however, are native to the Mediterranean ...
Iris: in Greek mythology, the personification of the rainbow and a messenger of the gods. According to the Greek poet Hesiod, she was the daughter of Thaumas and the ocean nymph Electra. In Hesiod's works, at least, she had the additional ...
iris: in anatomy, pigmented muscular curtain at the front of the eye, between the cornea and the lens and perforated by an opening called the pupil. The iris consists of two sheets of smooth muscle with contrary actions, expansion and contraction. ...
Irish elk: genus (Megaloceros) of extinct giant elk commonly found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits in Europe and Asia (the Pleistocene Epoch began 1,600,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago). The Irish elk, about the size of the modern moose, ...
Irish harp: traditional harp of medieval Ireland and Scotland, characterized by a huge soundbox carved from a solid block of wood; a heavy, curved neck; and a deeply outcurved forepillar-a form shared by the medieval Scottish harp. It was designed to bear ...
Irish language: a member of the Goidelic group of Celtic languages, spoken in Ireland. As one of the national languages of the Republic of Ireland, Irish is taught in the public schools and is required for certain civil-service posts.
Irish literary renaissance: flowering of Irish literary talent at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century that was closely allied with a strong political nationalism and a revival of interest in Ireland's Gaelic literary heritage. The renaissance was ...
Irish literature: either of two literatures, one in the native language (Irish, or Gaelic) of Ireland and the other in the language of the English conquerors; the latter is often called Anglo-Irish literature. For a discussion of the former, see Celtic literature. ...
Irish moss: (Chondrus crispus), species of red algae, a small, tufted seaweed with thin fronds from 5 to 25 cm (2 to 10 inches) long, that grows abundantly along the rocky parts of the Atlantic coast of the British Isles, Europe, and ...
Irish needle lace: lace made with a needle in Ireland from the late 1840s, when the craft was introduced as a famine-relief measure. Technically and stylistically influenced by 17th-century Venetian needle lace, it arose in several centres through the enterprise of individuals, especially ...
Irish Potato Famine: 1845-49, famine that occurred in Ireland in 1845-49 when the potato crop failed in successive years. The crop failures were caused by late blight (q.v.), a disease that destroys both the leaves and the edible roots, or tubers, of the ...
Irish Rebellion: (1798), an uprising of Irish Roman Catholics seeking parliamentary reform and complete Catholic emancipation.
Irish Republican Army: republican paramilitary organization seeking the end of British rule in Northern Ireland and the unification of the province with the republic of Ireland.
Irish Sea: arm of the North Atlantic Ocean that separates Ireland from Great Britain. The Irish Sea is bounded by Scotland on the north, England on the east, Wales on the south, and Ireland on the west. The sea is connected with ...
Irish Sweepstakes: one of the largest lotteries promoted internationally; it was authorized by the Irish government in 1930 to benefit Irish hospitals. A private trust was formed to run the lottery and market tickets throughout the world. During the 57 years of ...
Irish system: penal method originated in the early 1850s by Sir Walter Crofton; it emphasized training and performance as the instruments of reform. The Irish system consisted of three phases: a period of solitary confinement; a period of congregate work, in which ...