Irish Church
or CHURCH OF IRELAND, a popular name sometimes given, prior to 1871, to what was not an independent denomination, but was an integral part of the United Church of England and Ireland. It constituted the Established Church of the two countries.
When on Jan. 1, 1871, the Act of Parliament disestablishing and disendowing the portion of the United Church which was in Ireland, took effect, those affected by the measure, rejecting the name proposed by the government for the new organization, adopted that of the Irish Church or the Church of Ireland. It comprehends within its pale about 1/8 of the Irish people.