New Ireland (island)

File:NewIreland2022OSM.png

File:New Ireland Topography.png

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The island is part of the Bismarck Archipelago and is often described as having the shape of a musket. New Ireland is surrounded by the Bismarck Sea in the southwest and by the Pacific Ocean in the northeast.{{cite web |author=US Army Map Service |year=1964 |title=New Guinea Topographic Map Book, TK250, Sheet SB 56-3 |url=http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/new_guinea/txu-oclc-6552576-sb56-3.jpg |publisher=University of Texas at Austin}}

For much of its {{convert|360|km|mi|abbr=on}} in length, the island's width varies between less than {{convert|10|km|mi|abbr=on}} to {{convert|40|km|mi|abbr=on}}, yet the central mountainous spine is very steep and rugged. The highest peak is Mount Taron in the Hans Meyer Range ({{convert|2,340|m|ft|abbr=on|disp=comma}}).{{cite web |title=Mount Taron, Papua New Guinea |url=https://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=11805 |website=Peakbagger.com}} Other mountain ranges are Tirpitz, Schleinitz, Verron and Rossel.{{cite web|title=NI mountains tell a tale|url=http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20060922/weekend06.htm |access-date=19 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405200422/http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20060922/weekend06.htm |archive-date=5 April 2012}} The island lies between two and five degrees south of the equator. The original land cover was primarily dense rainforest.

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 Tubuan.{{cite web |url=http://www.newirelandtourism.org.pg/culture.htm |title=People & Culture |publisher=New Ireland Tourism |access-date=16 August 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603104812/http://www.newirelandtourism.org.pg/culture.htm |archive-date=3 June 2013 }}

In 1616 the Dutch sailors Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten were the first Europeans to set foot on the island. Louis Antoine de Bougainville anchored here on 6 July 1768, eleven months after Philip Carteret.{{cite book|last1=Salmond|first1=Anne|title=Aphrodite's Island|date=2010|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=9780520261143|pages=[https://archive.org/details/aphroditesisland00salm/page/114 114]|url=https://archive.org/details/aphroditesisland00salm/page/114}}

Whaling ships often called at the island in the 19th century, for water, wood and provisions. The first recorded whaler to visit was the Resource in 1799.Robert Langdon (ed.) Where the whalers went: an index to the Pacific ports and islands visited by American whalers (and some other ships) in the 19th century, Canberra, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, 1984, p.187. {{ISBN|0-86784-471-X}} Islanders sometimes served as crewmen on these vessels. The last known whaling visitor was the Belvedere in 1884.Langdon, p.187.

In the 1870s and 1880s, the Marquis de Rays, a French nobleman, attempted to establish a French colony on the island called New France.{{cite web |first=Ben |last=Cahoon |url=http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Papua_New_Guinea.htm |title=Papua New Guinea |publisher= Worldttatesmen.org |year= 2000}} 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, Neumecklenburg was renamed New Ireland and was controlled by Australia under a League of Nations mandate.{{cite book |last1=Johnson Clay |first1=Brenda |title=Unstable Images: Colonial Discourse on New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, 1875-1935 |date=2005 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |location=Google Books |isbn=9780824874612 |page=96 }} In January 1942, during World War II, the island was captured by Japanese forces and was under their control.

The island is part of two ecoregions. The New Britain–New Ireland lowland rain forests extend from sea level to 1000 meters elevation. The New Britain-New Ireland montane rain forests cover the mountains of New Ireland above 1000 meters elevation.

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% of their forests are accessible to logging, and by 2002, 63% of the accessible forests had been deforested or degraded.{{cite web|url=http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=8842|title=Forest Change on New Ireland, Papua New Guinea|first=NASA's Visible|last=Earth|date=11 August 2009|website=visibleearth.nasa.gov}}

{{see also|New Ireland languages}}

• Malagan – funerary arts that originate in Tabar Group, and have been imported to the northern region of New Ireland.{{cite book| last = Gunn| first = Michael| author2 = Phillipe Feltier| title = New Ireland: Art of the South Pacific| publisher = Continents Editions| year = 2006| location = Milan| isbn = 88-7439-369-5| url-access = registration| url = https://archive.org/details/newirelandartofs0000unse}}
• 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."{{cite book|last=d'Alleva|first=Anne|editor=Kara Hattersley-Smith|title=Arts of the Pacific Islands|year=1998|publisher=Perspectives – Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers|location=New York|isbn=0-8109-2722-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/artsofpacificisl00dall/page/75 75]|url=https://archive.org/details/artsofpacificisl00dall/page/75}}
• Kulap – chalk limestone funerary sculptures.{{cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nwir/ho_1981.331.5.htm |title=Male Figure (Kulap) [Southern New Ireland] (1981.331.5) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art |publisher=Metmuseum.org |date=2 June 2014 |access-date=16 August 2014}}

{{reflist}}

{{commons category|New Ireland}}

{{Collier's Poster|New Ireland}}

• [http://www.ida.liu.se/~g-robek/PNG-NiuAilan.htm Entry] at the Linköping University
• {{WWF ecoregion|id=aa0111|name=New Britain-New Ireland lowland rain forests}}
• [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/jso_0300-953x_1997_num_105_2_2023 Persée : Archaeological survey in southern New Ireland]
• [http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=AM05175.pdf Wallaby extinctions at the Macropodid frontier]
• {{Cite NIE|wstitle=New Mecklenburg|short=x}}

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{{Districts of New Ireland Province}}

{{Islands of Papua New Guinea}}

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Category:Bismarck Archipelago

Category:New Ireland Province

Category:Islands of Papua New Guinea