Ireland is situated in the extreme northwest of Europe, with the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Irish Sea to the east separating Ireland from Britain. Ireland's current population is 3.8 million people, with 1.2 million people located in the greater Dublin area. The Irish Free State was formed in 1921, the Republic of Ireland was then established in 1948, and Ireland formally joined the European Union in 1973. Article 8 of the Constitution makes the Irish language, as the national language, the first official language of the State. The national flag is a tricolour of green, white and orange (some call it gold).
Ireland is a parliamentary democracy. There are two houses of the Oireachtas (National Parliament), Dail Eireann (House of Representatives) has 166 members and Seanad Eireann (the Senate) has 60 members. The Head of Government is the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) while the Tanaiste is the Deputy Prime Minister. The President is the Head of State. The current President is Mary MacAleese, and the current Taoiseach is Bertie Ahern. The main political parties are Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour, Progressive Democrats, Sinn Fein, the Green Party and the Socialist Party.
Since 1 January 1999, Ireland has participated in the Economic and Monetary union, and from January 2002, the euro is its national currency, along with 13 other EU member states.