New Ireland Province: History
There have been at least three waves of migration into New Ireland over the last 40,000 years. The Lapita pottery culture was present around 3,300 years ago.
Chinese and South-East Asian contact appears to have been longstanding, though the evidence is thin.
Dutch explorers made the first European contact in 1616. It was initially believed by Europeans to be part of New Britain, but the British explorer Philip Carteret established in 1767 that the island was physically separate, and gave it the name Nova Hibernia, Latin for 'New Ireland'.
In the 1870s and 1880s, Marquis de Rays, a French nobleman, attempted to establish a French colony on the island called La Nouvelle France. He sent four ill-fated expeditions to the island, the most notable of which was the third attempt, now known simply as the De Rays Expedition, which caused the death of 123 of the 350 or so settlers.
Missionary activity did not begin until 1877, and New Ireland was colonised by Germany in 1886 under the name Neu-Mecklenburg, as part of the German partition comprising the northern half of present-day Papua New Guinea.
Blackbirding, the removal, often by force, of local young men to work on plantations in northern Australia and other Pacific islands, was widespread in New Ireland in the late 19th century, especially from Lihir Island and the Tanga Islands.
Australia took control in 1914, in the early stages of World War I, and renamed the island New Ireland after the island of Ireland. It became part of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea declared in 1921 by the League of Nations and administered by Australia.
During World War II, New Ireland was occupied by Japanese forces from January 1942 to September 1945.
Australian colonial administration continued until Papua New Guinea became independent in September 1975.
The core of New Ireland's economy is agriculture, livestock, and forestry and marine products. Additionally, there is significant gold mining activity, particularly in Lihir and Simberi.