title: John Bunyan

text: John Bunyan had six children, five of whom are known to have married, of whom four had children. Moot Hall Museum (in Elstow) has a record of Bunyan's descendants, down to the nineteenth century, but , no verifiable trace of later descendants has been found.


title: John Bunyan

text: The best collection of Bunyan's writing is "The Works of John Bunyan", edited by George Offor and published in London in three volumes between 1853 and 1855, containing 61 unique works. (A revised edition was published in 1862.) The misnamed "Complete Works of John Bunyan", edited by John Gulliver and published in one volume by Bradley, Garretson & Co. in 1871, omits 28 works and lacks the biblical references and editorial footnotes present in Offor's collection.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The Delaware Valley is a metropolitan region on the East Coast of the United States that comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation as of 2020 and 68th largest city in the world. The toponym Delaware Valley is therefore commonly used to refer to Greater Philadelphia, the Philadelphia metropolitan area, or the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area. The Delaware Valley region includes portions of four U.S. states (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) and four regions in the area (Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, northern Delaware, and the northern Eastern Shore of Maryland) along the central and lower Delaware River. The Delaware Valley has a total 2020 population of 6.245 million, making it the seventh largest metropolitan region in the U.S. and 35th largest metropolitan region in the world.


title: Delaware Valley

text: Philadelphia is by far the largest municipality in the Delaware Valley and serves as the region's major commercial, cultural, educational, and industrial center. Other major urban population centers in the Delaware Valley include the cities of Reading, Upper Darby Township, and Chester in Pennsylvania; Atlantic City, Camden, Vineland, and Cherry Hill in New Jersey; and Wilmington and Dover in Delaware. The Delaware Valley Metropolitan Area is located in the Northeastern United States and forms part of the Northeast megalopolis, the most populated region of the nation with over 50 million residents. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Philadelphia metropolitan area has a gross domestic product of $431 billion, the ninth-largest among U.S. metropolitan areas.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The Delaware Valley has been influential in American history and industry. The area has hosted many people and sites significant to American culture, history, and politics. Philadelphia is sometimes known as "The Birthplace of America", as both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drafted and signed in Philadelphia. The Delaware Valley was home to many other instrumental moments in the American Revolution, and Philadelphia served as the capital of the U.S. for much of the 18th century.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The region is home to a number of nationally known universities, including the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, one of the top universities in the world. Other regional universities and colleges include Drexel University, Thomas Jefferson University, Villanova University, Saint Joseph's University, Temple University, Rutgers University–Camden, La Salle University, the University of Delaware, Stockton University, and others. Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley have become a biotechnology and venture capital hub.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The Delaware Valley is geographically associated and proximate to the Delaware River's main watershed, which encompass the Delaware River's two primary tributaries, the Schuylkill and Lehigh Rivers, and their respective valleys and sub-basins. These extensions also apply culturally because the ease of land travel in the region affords a great deal of daily interaction, creating a regional culture and value structure that largely blends and is parallel throughout it.


title: Delaware Valley

text: In the course of their work, United States government agencies have reached various definitions of the Delaware Valley and the Greater Philadelphia Area.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines metropolitan statistical area (MSAs), which are regions with relatively high population densities at their cores and close economic ties throughout their respective areas. MSAs are further combined into combined statistical areas (CSAs), reflecting commuting patterns. Neither is a formal administrative division.


title: Delaware Valley

text: Philadelphia is located in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes:


title: Delaware Valley

text: Some counties to the north of the Philadelphia MSA and CSA, such as Hunterdon County, New Jersey, lie partly in the Delaware Valley as a geographic concept, that is, the drainage basin of the Delaware River. Local businesses and the Delaware Valley Regional High School carry the name. However, Hunterdon County does not belong to the Philadelphia CSA, but rather to the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), part of the larger New York-Newark Combined Statistical Area (CSA).


title: Delaware Valley

text: The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) serves all of the counties of the MSA above, except for the counties in the Wilmington, DE-MD-NJ Metropolitan Division. However the DVRPC does include, additionally, Mercer County, New Jersey, which the OMB classifies as the Trenton-Princeton, NJ MSA, part of the larger New York-Newark CSA.


title: Delaware Valley

text: According to 2016 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area ranks as the seventh-largest MSA in the U.S. with 6,070,500 people. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington MSA had a gross domestic product of $431 billion, the ninth-largest among U.S. metropolitan areas. 2016 Census Bureau estimates rank the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden Combined Statistical Area as the ninth-largest CSA in the U.S., with 7,179,357 people.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area's population of roughly 6 million people is comparable to that of countries such as Lebanon, Denmark, and Nicaragua. The MSA's nominal gross domestic product of $431 billion is comparable to countries such as Belgium, Iran, and Thailand. The MSA also ranks as the second most populous in the Northeastern U.S. after the New York metropolitan area, while the CSA is third-largest in the Northeast after the New York and Boston metropolitan areas. The Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area, which is part of Northeast Megalopolis but is considered part of the Southeastern U.S. under Census Bureau definitions, is also larger than the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Philadelphia itself is the sixth-most populous city in the U.S. and the third-most populous U.S. city east of the Mississippi River, after New York City and Chicago. Philadelphia's media market ranks fourth, behind New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, in Nielsen Media Market size rankings.


title: Delaware Valley

text: Educational institutions such as Delaware Valley Regional High School in Alexandria Township and Delaware Valley College in Doylestown Township are named after the region. Frenchtown's now defunct newspaper "The Delaware Valley News" was another example of the usage.


title: Delaware Valley

text: Sixteen counties in four states constitute the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden Combined Statistical Area. The five Pennsylvania counties in the MSA are collectively known as Southeastern Pennsylvania, and the four suburban counties from this region are sometimes called the "collar counties." Aside from Philadelphia, major municipalities in Southeastern Pennsylvania include the inner suburbs of Upper Darby Township and Bensalem Township. Berks County, which forms its own MSA and contains the CSA's second largest city, Reading, is generally not considered to be part of Southeastern Pennsylvania and is sometimes assigned to South Central Pennsylvania.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The seven New Jersey counties in the CSA form South Jersey, although Ocean County, which is part of the New York CSA, is also sometimes considered to be part of South Jersey. Atlantic County, Cape May County, and Cumberland County each form their own respective metropolitan statistical areas. Atlantic City, Cape May County, and the southern Jersey Shore (including Margate City, Ventnor City, the Wildwoods, and Sea Isle City) are major tourist destinations for people from inside and outside of the Delaware Valley. Other major municipalities in South Jersey include Cherry Hill and Camden, which is across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The two counties of Delaware in the CSA constitute a majority of Delaware's land mass and population. Wilmington is the most populous city in Delaware and the fifth-most populous municipality in the Delaware Valley. The lone Maryland county in the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden Combined Statistical Area is part of the region known as the Eastern Shore of Maryland.


title: Delaware Valley

text: Although Mercer County in Central Jersey is often considered part of the Delaware Valley from a cultural perspective, it is classified as part of New York's CSA by the OMB. Mercer County and three counties in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, Carbon County, Lehigh County and Northampton County, are part of the Philadelphia media market. Caroline County, Maryland is also part of the Philadelphia media market, and other counties within the Philadelphia media market include Monroe County, Pennsylvania, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and Ocean County, New Jersey.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The following municipalities are all within the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden Combined Statistical Area and part of the Delaware Valley:


title: Delaware Valley

text: When metropolitan areas were originally defined in 1950, most of the area now in the Delaware Valley was split between four metropolitan areas, or "standard metropolitan areas," as they were called. The Philadelphia SMA comprised Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania and Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties in New Jersey. The Wilmington SMA comprised New Castle County in Delaware and Salem County in New Jersey, while Berks County was the Reading SMA and Atlantic County was the Atlantic City SMA.


title: Delaware Valley

text: In 1960, Cecil County was added to what was now the Wilmington Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA). In 1980, Cumberland County was defined as the Vineland-Millville-Bridgeton SMSA.


title: Delaware Valley

text: In 1990, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Vineland-Millville-Bridgeton SMSAs were merged with the Trenton SMSA as the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Trenton Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the same time, Cape May County was added to the Atlantic City SMSA. "Philadelphia-Wilmington-Trenton" became obsolete one census later, with Trenton moving to the New York-Newark-Bridgeport CSA, and the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Vineland CSA consisting only of the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Camden MSA and the Vineland-Millville-Bridgeton MSA. Kent County became the Dover MSA in 2000, and it and Atlantic City were added to the Philadelphia CSA in 2010, for a total of six MSA components; as a result of new 2010 definitions based on a threshold of 15% labor interchange between MSAs, two more MSAs were added to the CSA, for a total of six. With Ocean City, NJ, and Reading, PA, the CSA is now known as Philadelphia-Reading-Camden.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The Delaware Valley is home to extensive populations of Irish Americans, German Americans, English Americans, Ukrainian Americans, Italian Americans, Swedish-Americans (which have a museum located at FDR Park in South Philadelphia), Polish Americans, Scottish Americans, Ulster Scot or "Scotch-Irish" Americans, Welsh Americans, Jewish Americans, Greek Americans, African Americans, Chinese Americans, Indian Americans, Russian Americans, Korean Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Armenian Americans, Arab Americans, Turkish Americans, Pakistani Americans, Israeli Americans, various African immigrant groups, particularly from West Africa, including Nigerian Americans, Ghanaian Americans, and Sierra Leonean Americans, as well as East African immigrants, such as Ethiopian Americans; various West Indian American groups, including Jamaican Americans and Haitian Americans; and various Hispanic American groups. Within the Hispanic population, the vast majority are Puerto Ricans, though other significant groups include Dominican Americans and Mexican Americans, as well as significant populations from Central America. There is even a small Native American community known as "Lenapehoking" for Lenni-Lenape Indians of West Philadelphia.


title: Delaware Valley

text: Philadelphia's suburbs contain a high concentration of malls, the two largest of which have at least of office space, and at least of retail. These are the King of Prussia mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, which is the largest in the U.S. (leasable sq. feet of retail space), and the Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, which was the first enclosed mall on the East Coast. In addition, the Christiana Mall in Newark, DE is a popular destination due to its proximity to Interstate 95 and because of the availability of tax-free shopping in Delaware. Malls, office complexes, strip shopping plazas, expressways, and tract housing are common sights, and more and more continue to replace rolling countryside, farms, woods, and wetlands. However, due to strong opposition by residents and political officials, many acres of land have been preserved throughout the Delaware Valley. Older townships and large boroughs such as Cheltenham, Norristown, Jenkintown, Upper Darby and West Chester retain distinct community identities while engulfed in suburbia. The fastest-growing counties are Chester, Montgomery, Bucks, and Gloucester. Upper Darby, in Delaware County is the largest township in the United States. Sometimes Reading is included in the Delaware Valley Metro Area.


title: Delaware Valley

text: Mid-Atlantic American English and its subset, Philadelphia English, are two common dialects of American English in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The Delaware Valley has four distinct seasons with ample precipitation and is divided by the 0 °C (32 °F) January isotherm. Philadelphia and the New Jersey portion of the area, almost all of the Delaware and Maryland portions, most of Delaware County and lower Bucks County, lowland southern Chester County, and some southern and lowland areas of Montgomery County have a humid subtropical climate ("Cfa" according to the Köppen climate classification.) The remainder of the Delaware Valley has a hot-summer humid continental climate ("Dfa".) Snow amounts may vary widely year-to-year and normally do vary widely within the Delaware Valley.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The region has only two ski areas: Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Longswamp Township, Berks County and Spring Mountain Adventures in central Montgomery County. Global warming endangers skiing at the latter, where the climate narrowly remains "Dfa" and the owners have diversified to year-round activities.


title: Delaware Valley

text: Using the -3 °C January isotherm as a boundary, all of the Delaware Valley is humid subtropical except for higher portions of Berks County. The warm-summer humid continental climate ("Dfb") only exists in higher areas of Berks where all monthly temperatures average below 22 °C. The hardiness zone in the region ranges from 6a in higher areas of Berks to 8a in parts of Atlantic City and Cape May.


title: Delaware Valley

text: Using the Trewartha climate classification system, which requires eight months to average at least 50°F for the climate to be considered subtropical, the region only has seven such months, so the areas considered "Cfa" by Köppen are oceanic ("Do") in the Trewartha system.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The valley was the territory of the Susquehannock and Lenape, who are recalled in place names throughout the region. The region became part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland after the exploration of Delaware Bay in 1609. The Dutch called the Delaware River the "Zuyd Rivier", or South River, and considered the lands along it banks and those of its bay to be the southern flank of its province of New Netherland. In 1638, it began to be settled by Swedes, Forest Finns, Dutch, and Walloons and became the colony of New Sweden, though this was not officially recognized by the Dutch Empire which re-asserted control in 1655. The area was taken by the English in 1664.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The name Delaware comes from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, who had arrived at Jamestown, Virginia in 1610, just as original settlers were about to abandon it, and thus maintaining the English foothold on the North American continent. In the early 1700s, Huguenot refugees from France by way of Germany and then England began settling in the Delaware River Valley. Specifically, they left their mark in Hunterdon County, New Jersey (Frenchtown) and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.


title: Delaware Valley

text: Many residents commute to jobs and travel in Philadelphia, Camden, Wilmington, and the surrounding suburbs with the help of expressways, trains, and buses. There are currently no transit connections to Reading, the second largest municipality in the region.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The Cape May–Lewes Ferry crosses the mouth of the Delaware Bay between Cape May County, NJ and Sussex County, DE. U.S. Route 9 uses this ferry.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The two main newspapers are The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, owned by the Philadelphia Media Network. Local television channels include KYW-TV 3 (CBS), WPVI 6 (ABC), WCAU 10 (NBC), WHYY-TV 12 (PBS), WPHL-TV 17 (MyNetworkTV), WTXF 29 (FOX), WPSG 57 (CW), and WPPX 61 (Ion). Radio stations serving the area include: WRTI, WIOQ, WDAS (AM), and WTEL.


title: Delaware Valley

text: Philadelphia itself is heavily Democratic, having voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election since 1936. The surrounding suburban counties are key political areas in Pennsylvania, which itself is an important swing state in federal politics. South Jersey has consistently voted Democratic at the presidential level in recent years, although the region is slightly more Republican-leaning than North Jersey and has voted for Republicans at the state and local level. New Castle County's Democratic lean and large share of Delaware's population has tended to make Delaware as a whole vote for Democrats, while the less populous Kent County is more competitive. Recent well-known political figures from the Greater Philadelphia area include current U.S. President Joe Biden, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and late former U.S. Senator Arlen Specter.


title: Delaware Valley

text: The following congressional districts of the United States House of Representatives are located partly or entirely in the Delaware Valley CSA. "Italicized" counties are not part of the CSA.


title: Delaware Valley

text: Additionally, the Delaware Valley is represented in the United States Senate by the eight Senators from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: Prince was the 15th and last "shōgun" of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He resigned of his position as shogun in late 1867, while aiming at keeping some political influence. After these efforts failed following the defeat at the battle of Toba-Fushimi in early 1868, he went into retirement, and largely avoided the public eye for the rest of his life.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: Tokugawa Yoshinobu was born in Edo as the seventh son of Tokugawa Nariaki, "daimyō" of Mito. Mito was one of the "gosanke", the three branch families of the Tokugawa clan which were eligible to be chosen as "shōgun". His birth name was Matsudaira Shichirōmaro (七郎麻呂) His mother, Princess Arisugawa Yoshiko, was a member of the Arisugawa-no-miya, a cadet branch of the imperial family; through her, he was a third cousin (once removed) of the then-Emperor Ninkō. Shichirōmaro was brought up under strict, spartan supervision and tutelage. His father Nariaki followed the example of the second Mito daimyo, Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1661-1690), who had sent all his sons after the firstborn to be raised in Mito. Shichirōmaro was seven months old when he arrived in Mito in 1838. He was taught in the literary and martial arts, as well as receiving a solid education in the principles of politics and government at Kōdōkan.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: At the instigation of his father, Shichirōmaro was adopted by the Hitotsubashi-Tokugawa family in order to have a better chance of succeeding to the shogunate and changed his first name to (昭致). He became family head in 1847, coming of age that year, receiving court rank and title, and taking the name Yoshinobu. Upon the death of the 13th "shōgun", Iesada, in 1858, Yoshinobu was nominated as a potential successor. His supporters touted his skill and efficiency in managing family affairs. However, the opposing faction, led by Ii Naosuke, won out. Their candidate, the young Tokugawa Yoshitomi, was chosen, and became the 14th "shōgun" Iemochi. Soon after, during the Ansei Purge, Yoshinobu and others who supported him were placed under house arrest. Yoshinobu himself was made to retire from Hitotsubashi headship.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: The period of Ii's domination of the Tokugawa government was marked by mismanagement and political infighting. Upon Ii's assassination in 1860, Yoshinobu was reinstated as Hitotsubashi family head, and was nominated in 1862 to be the , receiving the position soon afterwards. At the same time, his two closest allies, Matsudaira Yoshinaga and Matsudaira Katamori, were appointed to other high positions: Yoshinaga as , Katamori as . The three men then took numerous steps to quell political unrest in the Kyoto area, and gathered allies to counter the activities of the rebellious Chōshū Domain. They were instrumental figures in the "kōbu gattai" political party, which sought a reconciliation between the shogunate and the imperial court.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: In 1864, Yoshinobu, as commander of the imperial palace's defense, defeated the Chōshū forces in their attempt to capture the imperial palace's in what is called the Kinmon Incident. This was achieved by use of the forces of the Aizu–Satsuma coalition.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: After the death of Tokugawa Iemochi in 1866, Yoshinobu was chosen to succeed him, and became the 15th "shōgun". He was the only Tokugawa "shōgun" to spend his entire tenure outside of Edo: he never set foot in Edo Castle as "shōgun". Immediately upon Yoshinobu's ascension as "shōgun", major changes were initiated. A massive government overhaul was undertaken to initiate reforms that would strengthen the Tokugawa government. In particular, assistance from the Second French Empire was organized, with the construction of the Yokosuka arsenal under Léonce Verny, and the dispatch of a French military mission to modernize the armies of the "bakufu".


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: The national army and navy, which had already been formed under Tokugawa command, were strengthened by the assistance of the Russians, and the Tracey Mission provided by the British Royal Navy. Equipment was also purchased from the United States. The outlook among many was that the Tokugawa Shogunate was gaining ground towards renewed strength and power; however, it fell in less than a year.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: Fearing the renewed strengthening of the Tokugawa shogunate under a strong and wise ruler, samurai from Satsuma, Chōshū and Tosa formed an alliance to counter it. Under the banner of "sonnō jōi" ("revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians!") coupled with a fear of the new "shōgun" as the "Rebirth of Ieyasu" (家康の再来) who would continue to usurp the power of the Emperor, they worked to bring about an end to the shogunate, though they varied in their approaches. In particular, Tosa was more moderate; it proposed a compromise whereby Yoshinobu would resign as "shōgun", but preside over a new national governing council composed of various "daimyōs". To this end, Yamanouchi Toyonori, the lord of Tosa, together with his advisor, Gotō Shōjirō, petitioned Yoshinobu to resign in order to make this possible.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: On November 9, 1867, Yoshinobu tendered his resignation to the Emperor and formally stepped down ten days later, returning governing power to the Emperor. He then withdrew from Kyoto to Osaka. However, Satsuma and Chōshū, while supportive of a governing council of "daimyōs", were opposed to Yoshinobu leading it. They secretly obtained an imperial edict calling for the use of force against Yoshinobu (later shown to be a forgery) and moved a massive number of Satsuma and Chōshū troops into Kyoto. There was a meeting called at the imperial court, where Yoshinobu was stripped of all titles and land, despite having taken no action that could be construed as aggressive or criminal. Any who would have opposed this were not included in the meeting. Yoshinobu opposed this action, and composed a message of protest, to be delivered to the imperial court; at the urging of the leaders of Aizu, Kuwana, and other domains, and in light of the immense number of Satsuma and Chōshū troops in Kyoto, he dispatched a large body of troops to convey this message to the court.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: When the Tokugawa forces arrived outside Kyoto, they were refused entry, and were attacked by Satsuma and Chōshū troops, starting the Battle of Toba–Fushimi, the first clash of the Boshin War. Though the Tokugawa forces had a distinct advantage in numbers, Yoshinobu abandoned his army in the midst of the fight once he realized the Satsuma and Chōshū forces raised the Imperial banner, and escaped to Edo. He placed himself under voluntary confinement, and indicated his submission to the imperial court. However, a peace agreement was reached wherein Tayasu Kamenosuke, the young head of a branch of the Tokugawa family, was adopted and made Tokugawa family head; On April 11, Edo Castle was handed over to the imperial army, and the city spared from all-out war.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: Together with Kamenosuke (who took the name Tokugawa Iesato), Yoshinobu moved to Shizuoka. Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, had also retired to Shizuoka, centuries earlier. Iesato was made the "daimyō" of the new Shizuoka Domain, but lost this title a few years later, when the domains were abolished. Even after losing his position as ruling shogun, Yoshinobu strove to promote his son Iesato’s political career so that he could attain the highest level of influence in the Japanese Imperial court, and also serve as a bridge between old world Japan and modern emerging Japan both domestically and internationally. The close relationship between father and son is highlighted in the illustrated biography on Prince Tokugawa Iesato titled The Art of Peace.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: Many of the "hatamoto" also relocated to Shizuoka; a large proportion of them did not find adequate means to support themselves. As a result, many of them resented Yoshinobu, some of them to the point of wanting him dead. Yoshinobu was aware of this, and was so afraid of assassination that he redesigned his sleeping arrangement to confuse any potential assassin.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: Living a life in quiet retirement, Yoshinobu indulged in many hobbies, including oil painting, Kyudo (archery), hunting, photography, and cycling. Some of Yoshinobu's photographs have been published in recent years by his great-grandson, Yoshitomo. His other great-grandson, Yasuhisa Tokugawa of the Mito line, is the former Chief Priest at Yasukuni Shrine and current Kaicho of the Kokusai Budoin (IMAF).


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: In 1902, the Emperor Meiji allowed him to re-establish his own house as a Tokugawa branch ("bekke") with the highest rank in the peerage, that of prince ("kōshaku"), for his loyal service to Japan. He took a seat in the House of Peers, and resigned in 1910. Tokugawa Yoshinobu died on 21 November 1913 at 16:10 and is buried in Yanaka Cemetery, Tokyo.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: On 9 January 1896, his ninth daughter Tsuneko Tokugawa (1882–1939) married Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu, a second cousin to both Emperor Shōwa and Empress Kōjun and nephew of Prince Kan'in Kotohito.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: On 26 December 1911, his granddaughter Kikuko Tokugawa was born. She married Prince Takamatsu, the brother of Emperor Shōwa, to become Princess Takamatsu.


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: The years in which Yoshinobu was "shōgun" are more specifically identified by more than one era name or "nengō".


title: Tokugawa Yoshinobu

text: His grandson Tokugawa Hiromi graduated as part of the 65th Class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in March 1938. On July 12, 1943, he was killed in action during World War II when his ship, the submarine , was sunk with all hands in Indispensable Strait near Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Astronomical symbols are abstract pictorial symbols used to represent astronomical objects, theoretical constructs and observational events in European astronomy. The earliest forms of these symbols appear in Greek papyrus texts of late antiquity. The Byzantine codices in which many Greek papyrus texts were preserved continued and extended the inventory of astronomical symbols. New symbols have been invented to represent many planets and minor planets discovered in the 18th to the 21st centuries.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: These symbols were once commonly used by professional astronomers, amateur astronomers, alchemists, and astrologers. While they are still commonly used in almanacs and astrological publications, their occurrence in published research and texts on astronomy is relatively infrequent, with some exceptions such as the Sun and Earth symbols appearing in astronomical constants, and certain zodiacal signs used to represent the solstices and equinoxes.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Unicode has encoded many of these symbols, mainly in the Miscellaneous Symbols, Miscellaneous Symbols and Arrows, Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs,


title: Astronomical symbols

text: The use of astronomical symbols for the Sun and Moon dates to antiquity. The forms of the symbols that appear in the original papyrus texts of Greek horoscopes are a circle with one ray () for the Sun and a crescent for the Moon. The modern Sun symbol, a circle with a dot (☉), first appeared in Europe in the Renaissance.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: In modern academic writing, the Sun symbol is used for astronomical constants relating to the Sun. T represents the solar effective temperature, and the luminosity, mass, and radius of stars are often represented using the corresponding solar constants (, , and , respectively) as units of measurement.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Symbols for the classical planets appear in many medieval Byzantine codices in which many ancient horoscopes were preserved. The written symbols for Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn have been traced to forms found in late Greek papyrus texts. The symbols for Jupiter and Saturn are identified as monograms of the corresponding Greek names, and the symbol for Mercury is a stylized caduceus. According to A.S.D. Maunder, antecedents of the planetary symbols were used in art to represent the gods associated with the classical planets; "Bianchini's planisphere", discovered by Francesco Bianchini in the 18th century, produced in the 2nd century, shows Greek personifications of planetary gods charged with early versions of the planetary symbols: Mercury has a caduceus; Venus has, attached to her necklace, a cord connected to another necklace; Mars, a spear; Jupiter, a staff; Saturn, a scythe; the Sun, a circlet with rays radiating from it; and the Moon, a headdress with a crescent attached.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: A diagram in Byzantine astronomer Johannes Kamateros's 12th century "Compendium of Astrology" shows the Sun represented by the circle with a ray, Jupiter by the letter Zeta (the initial of Zeus, Jupiter's counterpart in Greek mythology), Mars by a shield crossed by a spear, and the remaining classical planets by symbols resembling the modern ones, without the cross-mark at the bottom of the modern versions of the symbols for Mercury and Venus. These cross-marks first appear around the 16th century. According to Maunder, the addition of crosses appears to be "an attempt to give a savour of Christianity to the symbols of the old pagan gods."


title: Astronomical symbols

text: The symbols for Uranus were created shortly after its discovery. One symbol, , invented by J. G. Köhler and refined by Bode, was intended to represent the newly discovered metal platinum; since platinum, commonly called white gold, was found by chemists mixed with iron, the symbol for platinum combines the alchemical symbols for the planetary elements iron, ♂, and gold, ☉.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Another symbol, , was suggested by Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande in 1784. In a letter to William Herschel, Lalande described it as ""un globe surmonté par la première lettre de votre nom"" (""a globe surmounted by the first letter of your name""). Today, Köhler's symbol is more common among astronomers, and Lalande's among astrologers, although it is not uncommon to see each symbol in the other context.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Several symbols were proposed for Neptune to accompany the suggested names for the planet. Claiming the right to name his discovery, Urbain Le Verrier originally proposed the name "Neptune" and the symbol of a trident, while falsely stating that this had been officially approved by the French Bureau des Longitudes. In October, he sought to name the planet "Leverrier", after himself, and he had loyal support in this from the observatory director, François Arago, who in turn proposed a new symbol for the planet (). However, this suggestion met with stiff resistance outside France. French almanacs quickly reintroduced the name "Herschel" for "Uranus", after that planet's discoverer Sir William Herschel, and "Leverrier" for the new planet. Professor James Pillans of the University of Edinburgh defended the name "Janus" for the new planet, and proposed a key for its symbol. Meanwhile, German-Russian astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve presented the name "Neptune" on December 29, 1846, to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In August 1847, the Bureau des Longitudes announced its decision to follow prevailing astronomical practice and adopt the choice of "Neptune", with Arago refraining from participating in this decision.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: The International Astronomical Union discourages the use of these symbols in journal articles, though they do occur. In certain cases where planetary symbols might be used, such as in the headings of tables, the "IAU Style Manual" permits certain one- and (to disambiguate Mercury and Mars) two-letter abbreviations for the names of the planets.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Following the discovery of Ceres in 1801 by the astronomer and Catholic priest Giuseppe Piazzi, a group of astronomers ratified the name, which Piazzi had proposed. At that time, the sickle was chosen as a symbol of the planet.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: The symbol for 2 Pallas, the spear of Pallas Athena, was invented by Baron Franz Xaver von Zach, who organized a group of twenty-four astronomers to search for a planet between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The symbol was introduced by von Zach in 1802.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: In a letter to von Zach, discoverer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers (who had discovered and named Pallas) expressed his approval of the proposed symbol, but wished that the handle of the sickle of Ceres had been adorned with a pommel instead of a crossbar, to better differentiate it from the sign of Venus.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding created the symbol for 3 Juno. Harding, who discovered this asteroid in 1804, proposed the name Juno and the use of a scepter topped with a star as its astronomical symbol.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: The symbol for 4 Vesta was invented by German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. Dr. Olbers, having previously discovered and named 2 Pallas, gave Gauss the honor of naming his newest discovery. Gauss decided to name the new asteroid for the goddess Vesta, and also designed the symbol (): the altar of the goddess, with the sacred fire burning on it. Other contemporaneous writers use a more elaborate symbol () instead.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Karl Ludwig Hencke, a German amateur astronomer, discovered the next two asteroids, 5 Astraea (in 1845) and 6 Hebe (in 1847). Hencke requested that the symbol for 5 Astraea be an upside-down anchor; however, a weighing scale was sometimes used instead. Gauss named 6 Hebe at Hencke's request, and chose a wineglass as the symbol.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: As more new asteroids were discovered, astronomers continued to assign symbols to them. Thus, 7 Iris had for its symbol a rainbow with a star; 8 Flora, a flower; 9 Metis, an eye with a star; 10 Hygiea, an upright snake with a star on its head; 11 Parthenope, a standing fish with a star; 12 Victoria, a star topped with a branch of laurel; 13 Egeria, a buckler; 14 Irene, a dove carrying an olive branch with a star on its head; 15 Eunomia, a heart topped with a star; 16 Psyche, a butterfly wing with a star; 17 Thetis, a dolphin with a star; 18 Melpomene, a dagger over a star; and 19 Fortuna, a star over Fortuna's wheel.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: In most cases the discovery reports only describe the symbols and do not draw them. The discovery reports for Melpomene and Fortuna do not even describe the symbols; the symbols are drawn in the reports for Astraea, Hebe, and Thetis. Benjamin Apthorp Gould criticised the symbols in 1852 as being often inefficient at suggesting the bodies they represented and difficult to draw, and pointed out that the symbol that had been described for Irene had to his knowledge never actually been drawn.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: The last edition of the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch (BAJ, Berlin Astronomical Yearbook) to use asteroid symbols was for the year 1853, published in 1850: although it includes eleven asteroids up to Parthenope, it only includes symbols for the first nine (up to Metis), noting that the symbols for Hygiea and Parthenope had not yet been made definitively known. The last edition of the British "The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris" to include asteroid ephemerides was that for 1855, published in 1852: despite fifteen asteroids being known (up to Eunomia), symbols are only included for the first nine.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Johann Franz Encke made a major change in the BAJ for the year 1854, published in 1851. He introduced encircled numbers instead of symbols, although his numbering began with Astraea, the first four asteroids continuing to be denoted by their traditional symbols. This symbolic innovation was adopted very quickly by the astronomical community. The following year (1852), Astraea's number was bumped up to 5, but Ceres through Vesta were not listed by their numbers until the 1867 edition. The "Astronomical Journal" edited by Gould adopted the symbolism in this form, with Ceres at 1 and Astraea at 5. The circle later became a pair of parentheses, and the parentheses were sometimes omitted altogether over the next few decades.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: A few asteroids were given symbols by their discoverers after the encircled-number notation became widespread. 26 Proserpina, 28 Bellona, 35 Leukothea, and 37 Fides, all discovered by German astronomer Robert Luther between 1853 and 1855, were assigned, respectively, a pomegranate with a star inside; a whip and spear; an antique lighthouse; and a cross. These symbols were drawn in the discovery reports. 29 Amphitrite was named and assigned a shell for its symbol by George Bishop, the owner of the observatory where astronomer Albert Marth discovered it in 1854, though the symbol was not drawn in the discovery report.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: All these symbols are rare or obsolete in modern astronomy. The major use of symbols for minor planets today is by astrologers, who have invented symbols for many more objects, though they sometimes use symbols that differ from the historical symbols for the same bodies. The astrological symbols for 4 Vesta, 5 Astraea, and 10 Hygiea, that are relatively standard among astrologers but differ from the historical astronomical symbols, are included below for reference as they are in Unicode.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: The symbol, a monogram of the letters PL, could be interpreted to stand for Pluto or for Percival Lowell, the astronomer who initiated Lowell Observatory's search for a planet beyond the orbit of Neptune. Pluto has an alternative symbol consisting of a planetary orb over Pluto's bident: it is more common in astrology than astronomy, and was popularised by the astrologer Paul Clancy, but has been used by NASA to refer to Pluto as a "dwarf" planet. There are a few other astrological symbols for Pluto that are used locally. Pluto also had the IAU abbreviation P when it was considered the ninth planet.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: The other large trans-Neptunian objects were only discovered around the dawn of the 21st century. They were not generally thought to be planets on their discovery, and planetary symbols had in any case mostly fallen out of use among astronomers by then. Denis Moskowitz, a software engineer in Massachusetts, proposed astronomical symbols for the dwarf planets Quaoar, Sedna, Orcus, Haumea, Eris, Makemake, and Gonggong. These symbols are somewhat standard among astrologers (e.g. in the program Astrolog), which is where planetary symbols are most used today. Moskowitz has also proposed symbols for Varuna, Ixion, and Salacia, and others have done so for additional TNOs, but there is little consistency between sources.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: NASA has used Moskowitz's symbols for Haumea, Makemake, and Eris in an astronomical context, and Unicode labels the symbols for Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, and Orcus (added to Unicode in 2022) as "astronomy symbols". Therefore, symbols mentioned in the Unicode proposal for Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, and Orcus have been shown below to fill out the list of named TNOs down to 600 km diameter, even though not all of them are actually attested in astronomical use. (Grundy et al. suggest 600 to 700 km diameter as a speculative upper limit for a trans-Neptunian object to retain substantial pore space.)


title: Astronomical symbols

text: The zodiac symbols have several astronomical interpretations. Depending on context, a zodiac symbol may denote either a constellation, or a point or interval on the ecliptic plane.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Lists of astronomical phenomena published by almanacs sometimes included conjunctions of stars and planets or the Moon; rather than print the full name of the star, a Greek letter and the symbol for the constellation of the star was sometimes used instead.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: and the "sign" component of ecliptic longitude was expressed either with a number from 0 to 11. or with the corresponding zodiacal symbol.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: In modern astronomical writing, all the constellations, including the twelve of the zodiac, have dedicated three-letter abbreviations, which specifically refer to "constellations" rather than "signs".


title: Astronomical symbols

text: The zodiac symbols are also sometimes used to represent points on the ecliptic, particularly the solstices and equinoxes. Each symbol is taken to represent the "first point" of each "sign", rather than the place in the visible "constellation" where the alignment is observed.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Although the use of astrological sign symbols is rare, the particular symbol ♈ for Aries, is an exception; it is commonly used in modern astronomy to represent the location of the (slowly) moving reference point for the ecliptic and equatorial celestial coordinate systems.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Ophiuchus has been proposed as a thirteenth sign of the zodiac by astrologer Walter Berg in 1995, who gave it a symbol that has become popular in Japan.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: None of the constellations have official symbols. However, occasional symbols for the modern constellations, as well as older ones that occur in modern nomenclature, have appeared in publication. The symbols below were devised by Denis Moskowitz (except those for the thirteen constellations already listed above).


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Symbols for aspects and nodes appear in medieval texts, although medieval and modern usage of the node symbols differ; the modern ascending node symbol (☊) formerly stood for the descending node, and the modern descending node symbol (☋) was used for the ascending node. In describing the Keplerian elements of an orbit, ☊ is sometimes used to denote the ecliptic longitude of the ascending node, although it is more common to use Ω (capital omega, and inverted ℧), which were originally typographical substitutes for the astronomical symbols.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: The symbols for aspects first appear in Byzantine codices. Of the symbols for the five Ptolemaic aspects, only the three displayed here — for conjunction, opposition, and quadrature — are used in astronomy.


title: Astronomical symbols

text: Symbols for a comet (☄) and a star () have been used in published astronomical observations of comets. In tables of these observations, ☄ stood for the comet being discussed and for the star of comparison relative to which measurements of the comet's position were made.


title: Zoonosis

text: A zoonosis (; plural zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a bacterium, virus, parasite or prion) that has jumped from a non-human (usually a vertebrate) to a human. Typically, the first infected human transmits the infectious agent to at least one other human, who, in turn, infects others.


title: Zoonosis

text: Major modern diseases such as Ebola virus disease and salmonellosis are zoonoses. HIV was a zoonotic disease transmitted to humans in the early part of the 20th century, though it has now evolved into a separate human-only disease. Most strains of influenza that infect humans are human diseases, although many strains of bird flu and swine flu are zoonoses; these viruses occasionally recombine with human strains of the flu and can cause pandemics such as the 1918 Spanish flu or the 2009 swine flu. "Taenia solium" infection is one of the neglected tropical diseases with public health and veterinary concern in endemic regions. Zoonoses can be caused by a range of disease pathogens such as emergent viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites; of 1,415 pathogens known to infect humans, 61% were zoonotic. Most human diseases originated in non-humans; however, only diseases that routinely involve non-human to human transmission, such as rabies, are considered direct zoonoses.


title: Zoonosis

text: Zoonoses have different modes of transmission. In direct zoonosis the disease is directly transmitted from non-humans to humans through media such as air (influenza) or through bites and saliva (rabies). In contrast, transmission can also occur via an intermediate species (referred to as a vector), which carry the disease pathogen without getting sick. When humans infect non-humans, it is called reverse zoonosis or anthroponosis. The term is from Greek: ζῷον "zoon" "animal" and νόσος "nosos" "sickness".


title: Zoonosis

text: Host genetics plays an important role in determining which non-human viruses will be able to make copies of themselves in the human body. Dangerous non-human viruses are those that require few mutations to begin replicating themselves in human cells. These viruses are dangerous since the required combinations of mutations might randomly arise in the natural reservoir.


title: Zoonosis

text: The emergence of zoonotic diseases originated with the domestication of animals. Zoonotic transmission can occur in any context in which there is contact with or consumption of animals, animal products, or animal derivatives. This can occur in a companionistic (pets), economic (farming, trade, butchering, etc.), predatory (hunting, butchering or consuming wild game) or research context.


title: Zoonosis

text: Recently, there has been a rise in frequency of appearance of new zoonotic diseases. "Approximately 1.67 million undescribed viruses are thought to exist in mammals and birds, up to half of which are estimated to have the potential to spill over into humans," says a study led by researchers at the University of California, Davis. According to a report from the United Nations Environment Programme and International Livestock Research Institute large part of the causes are environmental like climate change, unsustainable agriculture, exploitation of wildlife, land use change. Others are linked to changes in human society like more mobility. The organizations propose a set of measures to stop the rise.


title: Zoonosis

text: The most significant zoonotic pathogens causing foodborne diseases are , "Campylobacter", "Caliciviridae", and "Salmonella".


title: Zoonosis

text: In 2006 a conference held in Berlin focused on the issue of zoonotic pathogen effects on food safety, urging government intervention and public vigilance against the risks of catching food-borne diseases from farm-to-table dining.


title: Zoonosis

text: Many food-borne outbreaks can be linked to zoonotic pathogens. Many different types of food that have an animal origin can become contaminated. Some common food items linked to zoonotic contaminations include eggs, seafood, meat, dairy, and even some vegetables.


title: Zoonosis

text: Outbreaks involving contaminated food should be handled in preparedness plans to prevent widespread outbreaks and to efficiently and effectively contain outbreaks.


title: Zoonosis

text: Contact with farm animals can lead to disease in farmers or others that come into contact with infected farm animals. Glanders primarily affects those who work closely with horses and donkeys. Close contact with cattle can lead to cutaneous anthrax infection, whereas inhalation anthrax infection is more common for workers in slaughterhouses, tanneries and wool mills. Close contact with sheep who have recently given birth can lead to infection with the bacterium "Chlamydia psittaci," causing chlamydiosis (and enzootic abortion in pregnant women), as well as increase the risk of Q fever, toxoplasmosis, and listeriosis, in the pregnant or otherwise immunocompromised. Echinococcosis is caused by a tapeworm, which can spread from infected sheep by food or water contaminated by feces or wool. Bird flu is common in chickens and, while rare in humans, the main public health worry is that a strain of bird flu will recombine with a human flu virus and cause a pandemic like the 1918 Spanish flu. In 2017, free-range chickens in the UK were temporarily ordered to remain inside due to the threat of bird flu. Cattle are an important reservoir of cryptosporidiosis, which mainly affects the immunocompromised. Reports have shown mink can also become infected. In Western countries, Hepatitis E burden is largely dependent on exposure to animal products, and pork is a significant source of infection, in this respect.


title: Zoonosis

text: Veterinarians are exposed to unique occupational hazards when it comes to zoonotic disease. In the US, studies have highlighted an increased risk of injuries and lack of veterinary awareness of these hazards. Research has proved the importance for continued clinical veterinarian education on occupational risks associated with musculoskeletal injuries, animal bites, needle-sticks, and cuts.


title: Zoonosis

text: A July 2020 report by the United Nations Environment Programme stated that the increase in zoonotic pandemics is directly attributable to anthropogenic destruction of nature and the increased global demand for meat, and that the industrial farming of pigs and chickens in particular will be a primary risk factor for the spillover of zoonotic diseases in the future.


title: Zoonosis

text: The wildlife trade may increase spillover risk because it directly increases the number of interactions across animal species, sometimes in small spaces. The origin of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is traced to the wet markets in China.


title: Zoonosis

text: Pets can transmit a number of diseases. Dogs and cats are routinely vaccinated against rabies. Pets can also transmit ringworm and "Giardia", which are endemic in both animal and human populations. Toxoplasmosis is a common infection of cats; in humans it is a mild disease although it can be dangerous to pregnant women. Dirofilariasis is caused by "Dirofilaria immitis" through mosquitoes infected by mammals like dogs and cats. Cat-scratch disease is caused by "Bartonella henselae" and "Bartonella quintana", which are transmitted by fleas that are endemic to cats. Toxocariasis is the infection of humans by any of species of roundworm, including species specific to dogs ("Toxocara canis)" or cats ("Toxocara cati"). Cryptosporidiosis can be spread to humans from pet lizards, such as the leopard gecko. "Encephalitozoon cuniculi" is a microsporidial parasite carried by many mammals, including rabbits, and is an important opportunistic pathogen in people immunocompromised by HIV/AIDS, organ transplantation, or CD4+ T-lymphocyte deficiency.


title: Zoonosis

text: Pets may also serve as a reservoir of viral disease and contribute to the chronic presence of certain viral diseases in the human population. For instance, approximately 20% of domestic dogs, cats and horses carry anti-Hepatitis E virus antibodies and thus these animals probably contribute to human Hepatitis E burden as well. For non-vulnerable populations (people who are not immunocompromised) the associated disease burden is, however, small.


title: Zoonosis

text: Outbreaks of zoonoses have been traced to human interaction with, and exposure to, other animals at fairs, live animal markets, petting zoos, and other settings. In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an updated list of recommendations for preventing zoonosis transmission in public settings. The recommendations, developed in conjunction with the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians, include educational responsibilities of venue operators, limiting public animal contact, and animal care and management.


title: Zoonosis

text: Kate Jones, Chair of Ecology and Biodiversity at University College London, says zoonotic diseases are increasingly linked to environmental change and human behaviour. The disruption of pristine forests driven by logging, mining, road building through remote places, rapid urbanisation and population growth is bringing people into closer contact with animal species they may never have been near before. The resulting transmission of disease from wildlife to humans, she says, is now "a hidden cost of human economic development". In a guest article, published by IPBES, President of the EcoHealth Alliance and zoologist Peter Daszak, along with three co-chairs of the 2019 "Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services", Josef Settele, Sandra Díaz, and Eduardo Brondizio, wrote that "rampant deforestation, uncontrolled expansion of agriculture, intensive farming, mining and infrastructure development, as well as the exploitation of wild species have created a 'perfect storm' for the spillover of diseases from wildlife to people."


title: Zoonosis

text: Joshua Moon, Clare Wenham and Sophie Harman said that there is evidence that decreased biodiversity has an effect on the diversity of hosts and frequency of human-animal interactions with potential for pathogenic spillover.


title: Zoonosis

text: An April 2020 study, published in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society" journal, found that increased virus spillover events from animals to humans can be linked to biodiversity loss and environmental degradation, as humans further encroach on wildlands to engage in agriculture, hunting and resource extraction they become exposed to pathogens which normally would remain in these areas. Such spillover events have been tripling every decade since 1980. An August 2020 study, published in "Nature", concludes that the anthropogenic destruction of ecosystems for the purpose of expanding agriculture and human settlements reduces biodiversity and allows for smaller animals such as bats and rats, who are more adaptable to human pressures and also carry the most zoonotic diseases, to proliferate. This in turn can result in more pandemics.


title: Zoonosis

text: In October 2020, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services published its report on the 'era of pandemics' by 22 experts in a variety of fields, and concluded that anthropogenic destruction of biodiversity is paving the way to the pandemic era, and could result in as many as 850,000 viruses being transmitted from animals – in particular birds and mammals – to humans. The increased pressure on ecosystems is being driven by the "exponential rise" in consumption and trade of commodities such as meat, palm oil, and metals, largely facilitated by developed nations, and by a growing human population. According to Peter Daszak, the chair of the group who produced the report, "there is no great mystery about the cause of the Covid-19 pandemic, or of any modern pandemic. The same human activities that drive climate change and biodiversity loss also drive pandemic risk through their impacts on our environment."


title: Zoonosis

text: According to a report from the United Nations Environment Programme and International Livestock Research Institute, entitled "Preventing the next pandemic – Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission," climate change is one of the 7 human-related causes of the increase in the number of zoonotic diseases. The University of Sydney issued a study, in March 2021, that examines factors increasing the likelihood of epidemics and pandemics like the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers found that "pressure on ecosystems, climate change and economic development are key factors" in doing so. More zoonotic diseases were found in high-income countries.


title: Zoonosis

text: In 2022, a big study dedicated to the link between climate change and Zoonosis was published. The study found a strong link between climate change and the epidemic emergence in the last 15 years, as it caused a massive migration of species to new areas, and consequently contact between species which do not normally come in contact with one another. Even in a scenario with weak climatic changes, there will be 15,000 spillover of viruses to new hosts in the next decades. The areas with the most possibilities for spillover are the mountainous tropical regions of Africa and southeast Asia. Southeast Asia is especially vulnerable as it has a large number of bat species that generally do not mix, but could easily if climate change forced them to begin migrating.


title: Zoonosis

text: A 2021 study found possible links between climate change and transmission of COVID-19 through bats. The authors suggest that climate-driven changes in the distribution and robustness of bat species harboring coronaviruses may have occurred in eastern Asian hotspots (southern China, Myanmar and Laos), constituting a driver behind the evolution and spread of the virus.


title: Zoonosis

text: During most of human prehistory groups of hunter-gatherers were probably very small. Such groups probably made contact with other such bands only rarely. Such isolation would have caused epidemic diseases to be restricted to any given local population, because propagation and expansion of epidemics depend on frequent contact with other individuals who have not yet developed an adequate immune response. To persist in such a population, a pathogen either had to be a chronic infection, staying present and potentially infectious in the infected host for long periods, or it had to have other additional species as reservoir where it can maintain itself until further susceptible hosts are contacted and infected. In fact, for many "human" diseases, the human is actually better viewed as an accidental or incidental victim and a dead-end host. Examples include rabies, anthrax, tularemia and West Nile virus. Thus, much of human exposure to infectious disease has been zoonotic.


title: Zoonosis

text: Many diseases, even epidemic ones, have zoonotic origin and measles, smallpox, influenza, HIV, and diphtheria are particular examples. Various forms of the common cold and tuberculosis also are adaptations of strains originating in other species. Some experts have suggested that all human viral infections were originally zoonotic.


title: Zoonosis

text: Zoonoses are of interest because they are often previously unrecognized diseases or have increased virulence in populations lacking immunity. The West Nile virus first appeared in the United States in 1999, in the New York City area. Bubonic plague is a zoonotic disease, as are salmonellosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Lyme disease.


title: Zoonosis

text: A major factor contributing to the appearance of new zoonotic pathogens in human populations is increased contact between humans and wildlife. This can be caused either by encroachment of human activity into wilderness areas or by movement of wild animals into areas of human activity. An example of this is the outbreak of Nipah virus in peninsular Malaysia, in 1999, when intensive pig farming began within the habitat of infected fruit bats. The unidentified infection of these pigs amplified the force of infection, transmitting the virus to farmers, and eventually causing 105 human deaths.


title: Zoonosis

text: Similarly, in recent times avian influenza and West Nile virus have spilled over into human populations probably due to interactions between the carrier host and domestic animals. Highly mobile animals, such as bats and birds, may present a greater risk of zoonotic transmission than other animals due to the ease with which they can move into areas of human habitation.


title: Zoonosis

text: Because they depend on the human host for part of their life-cycle, diseases such as African schistosomiasis, river blindness, and elephantiasis are "not" defined as zoonotic, even though they may depend on transmission by insects or other vectors.


title: Zoonosis

text: The first vaccine against smallpox by Edward Jenner in 1800 was by infection of a zoonotic bovine virus which caused a disease called cowpox. Jenner had noticed that milkmaids were resistant to smallpox. Milkmaids contracted a milder version of the disease from infected cows that conferred cross immunity to the human disease. Jenner abstracted an infectious preparation of 'cowpox' and subsequently used it to inoculate persons against smallpox. As a result, smallpox has been eradicated globally, and mass vaccination against this disease ceased in 1981. There are a variety of vaccine varieties, including traditional inactivated pathogen vaccines, Subunit vaccines, live attenuated vaccines. There are also new vaccine technologies such as viral vector vaccines and DNA/RNA Vaccines, which includes the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus vaccines.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The Ireland national rugby union team is the men's representative national team for the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ireland competes in the annual Six Nations Championship and in the Rugby World Cup. Ireland is one of the four unions that make up the British & Irish Lions – players eligible to play for Ireland are also eligible for the Lions.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The Ireland national team dates to 1875, when it played its first international match against England. Ireland reached number 1 in the World Rugby Rankings for the first time in 2019. Eleven former Ireland players have been inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Dublin University was the first organised rugby football club in Ireland, having been founded in 1854. The club was organised by students who had learnt the game while at public schools in Great Britain. During the third quarter of the nineteenth century, and following the adoption of a set of official rules in 1868, rugby football began to spread quickly throughout Ireland, resulting in the formation of several other clubs that are still in existence, including NIFC (1868); Wanderers (1869); Queen's University (1869); Lansdowne (1873); Dungannon (1873); Co. Carlow (1873); UCC (1874); and Ballinasloe (1875) which amalgamated with Athlone to form Buccaneers.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In December 1874, the Irish Football Union was formed. Initially, there were two unions: the Irish Football Union, which had jurisdiction over clubs in Leinster, Munster and parts of Ulster and the Northern Football Union of Ireland which formed in January 1875 and controlled the Belfast area. The IRFU was formed in 1879 as an amalgamation of these two organisations, convening for the first time on 5 February 1880.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland lost their first test match against England 0–7 at the Oval on 15 February 1875. Both teams fielded 20 players in this match, as was customary in the early years of rugby union; it was not until 1877 that the number of players was reduced from 20 to 15. That same year Ireland's first home match, also against England, was held at Leinster Cricket Club's Observatory Lane ground in Rathmines, as Lansdowne Road was deemed unsuitable. The first match at Lansdowne Road was held on 11 March 1878, with England beating Ireland by two goals and a try to nil.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Following a six-year period of defeats, in 1881 Ireland finally achieved their first test victory, beating Scotland at Ormeau in Belfast, following a late drop goal from John C Bagot. Ireland turned up two men short for their test in Cardiff in 1884 and had to borrow two Welsh players. Ireland's first test match victory at Lansdowne Road on 5 February 1887, was also their first win over England, with the final score of two goals to nil. On the third of March 1888, Ireland recorded their first win over Wales with a goal, a try and a drop goal to nil.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In 1894, Ireland followed the Welsh model of using seven backs instead of six for the first time. After victory over England at Blackheath, Ireland won back-to-back matches for the first time when recording their first win over Scotland on 24 February 1894. Ireland went on to beat Wales in Belfast and win the Triple Crown for the first time.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In the 1890s, Rugby was primarily a game for the Protestant middle class; the only Catholic in Edmund Forrest's 1894 team was Thomas Crean. Of the eighteen players used in the three games, thirteen were from three Dublin clubs – Wanderers, Dublin University and Bective Rangers – and the remaining five were from Ulster. They went on to win the Home international championship twice more before the century was out (1896 and 1899), so that by 1901 all four of the Home Unions had tasted success at a game that was growing in popularity with players and spectators.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Such was the level of interest in the visit of the first New Zealand team to Dublin in November 1905 that the IRFU made the match the first all-ticket rugby international in history. Ireland played only seven forwards, copying the then New Zealand method of playing a "rover". The game ended New Zealand 15 Ireland 0.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: On 20 March 1909, Ireland played France for the first time, beating them 19–8. This was Ireland's biggest victory in international rugby at that time, their highest points tally and a record five tries. 30 November 1912 was the first time the Springboks met Ireland at Lansdowne Road, the 1906 tour game having been played at Ravenhill. Ireland with seven new caps were overwhelmed by a record margin of 38–0, still a record loss to South Africa who scored 10 tries. In 1926, Ireland went into their final Five Nations match unbeaten and with the Grand Slam at stake lost to Wales in Swansea. Ireland again came close to a grand slam in 1927 when their sole loss was an 8–6 defeat by England.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In 1948, Ireland clinched their first Grand Slam in the Five Nations. Ireland were champions and Triple Crown winners again in 1949. In 1951, Ireland were once more crowned Five Nations champions.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: 1952 saw only Ireland's second overseas tour, the first for over half a century – as they headed to Argentina for a nine-match trip. The tour included two test matches, their Test record being won one, drawn one. In total, out of the nine matches played, the Irish side was only defeated once by Club Pucará.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: On 27 February 1954, Ireland played Scotland at Ravenhill in Belfast. The 11 Republic-based players protested "God Save the Queen", and an abbreviated anthem known as "the Salute" was instead played. Ireland beat Scotland 6–0, and did not play in Northern Ireland again until 2007.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In 1958, Ireland beat Australia 9–6 in Dublin, the first time a major touring team had been defeated.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In the 1958–59 season Ireland came second in the Five Nations beating both Scotland and France who had already won the series.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland managed just three victories in the Five Nations Championship during the early 1960s: against England in 1961, Wales in 1963 and England again in 1964. 1965 saw an improvement as Ireland beat England and Scotland.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: On 10 April 1965 at Lansdowne Road Ireland recorded their first ever win over South Africa. In January 1967 Ireland again beat Australia in Dublin, 15–8. Ireland became the first of the home nations to win in the Southern Hemisphere and the first of the Five Nations sides to win in Australia, when they beat Australia 5–11, in Sydney in May 1967. On 26 October 1968, Ireland made it four successive wins over the Wallabies.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In 1969, Ireland claimed a 17–9 victory over France in the Five Nations, a first victory over Les Bleus in 11 years. In the autumn of 1969, the Irish Rugby Football Union appointed a coach for the national team for the first time, the role went to Ronnie Dawson.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The 1972 Five Nations Championship was not completed when Scotland and Wales refused to play in Ireland following threatening letters to players, purportedly from the IRA. The championship remained unresolved with Wales and Ireland unbeaten. In 1973, despite similar threats, England fulfilled their fixture and were given a five-minute standing ovation. Ireland won 18–9. Ireland came close to a first win over the All Blacks on 20 January 1973, but drew 10–10. In 1974, Ireland won their first Five Nations Championship since 1951.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The decision to play two tests in apartheid-era South Africa in May 1981 led to boycotts of Irish athletes in other codes, and was not supported by the Irish government. Several prominent players refused to participate in the tour, while others were refused leave by their employers for the tour.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Willie John McBride was coach until 1984. In 1982, Ireland, led by out-half Ollie Campbell, won the Five Nations and their first Triple Crown in 33 years. Three years later in 1985, Ireland won the Five Nations and the Triple Crown again. It was Ireland's last silverware until 2004.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland scored 10 tries against Romania in a 60–0 win on 1 November 1986, the biggest win by a Tier One country in international rugby at the time.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: At the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup, victories over Tonga and Canada saw Ireland through to the quarter-finals, where they were beaten 33–15 by joint hosts Australia.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland failed to win the Five Nations in the whole of the 1990s, never finishing outside the bottom two. In 1991, they lost their test series against Namibia.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: At the second Rugby World Cup in 1991, after wins over Japan and Zimbabwe, Ireland lost 15–24 at Murrayfield. Ireland played the Wallabies at Lansdowne Road in the quarter-finals and appeared to be on the verge of a shock victory over Australia, when Michael Lynagh scored the winning try to clinch a 19–18 win for Australia.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: At the 1995 World Cup, Ireland came through their group to make their third consecutive quarter-final appearance. France proved too strong, with Ireland going down 12–36 in the quarter-finals.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The start of the professional era was disappointing for Ireland, who finished bottom of the Five Nations Championship three years in succession (1996, 1997 and 1998) and lost to Italy three times, at home (29–37) and abroad (12–22 and 22–37). Warren Gatland took over as coach in 1998, but was unable to produce immediate success. The 1999 World Cup was staged primarily in Wales, though Ireland played all their pool games in Dublin. In a play-off, Ireland were beaten 28–24 by Argentina, marking the first time that Ireland failed to reach the quarter-finals.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: From this nadir, however, Irish rugby improved. The Irish Rugby Football Union converted the four representative provincial sides into "de facto" club sides, and the formation in 2001 of the Celtic League (now called the Pro14) provided Irish provincial sides with regular competitive rugby.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The advent of the new Six Nations format coincided with this Irish resurgence. In 2001, Ireland finished second. Eddie O'Sullivan took over as coach in November 2001 after Warren Gatland was sacked.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The 2003 Six Nations Championship saw Ireland lose to England in the Grand Slam decider at Lansdowne Road, ending a home unbeaten run that stretched to 10 tests since September 2002.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In the 2004 Six Nations, Ireland finished second overall and won the Triple Crown. In the 2005 Six Nations, Ireland finished in third place.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In the 2006 Six Nations, Ireland won the Triple Crown for the second time in three years. In the last autumn international at Lansdowne Road, Ireland beat Australia 21–6.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: With the rebuilding of Lansdowne Road, a new venue was required. Croke Park, home of the Gaelic Athletic Association, hosted some games from 2007 to 2010. Ireland's 2008 Six Nations campaign included three losses. Eddie O'Sullivan resigned as Ireland coach and Declan Kidney was appointed.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland won the 2009 Six Nations Championship and Grand Slam, their first Six Nations win since 1985 and their first Grand Slam since 1948. After a draw against Australia and victories against Fiji and South Africa, Ireland ended 2009 unbeaten.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In Ireland's final game of the 2010 Six Nations, and the last-ever game at Croke Park, Ireland lost to Scotland 20–23 and failed to win the Triple Crown. Ireland began their 2010 Autumn Tests with a 21–23 loss to South Africa, the first international at the new Aviva Stadium.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In the 2011 Six Nations Championship, Ireland lost 22–25 to France in the first Six Nations match to be played at the Aviva Stadium. During a 13–19 loss against Wales, Ireland's Ronan O'Gara became the first Irishman, and only the fifth player, to score 1,000 points. In Ireland's 24–8 win against England, Brian O'Driscoll scored his 25th try to set a new Six Nations record for tries scored.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In their 2012 Six Nations Championship campaign Ireland finished third overall. Ireland's 2012 summer tour of New Zealand included a 22–19 loss, followed by a 60–0 thrashing, Ireland's heaviest ever defeat.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The 2013 Six Nations Championship saw Ireland finish with one win, three losses, and one draw, including their first home loss to England in 10 years; and their first ever loss to Italy in the Six Nations. The IRFU declined to extend Declan Kidney's contract, and Joe Schmidt was announced as the new Ireland coach.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In their 2013 end-of-year rugby union tests, Ireland lost 22–24 to New Zealand, having led throughout the match.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland opened their 2014 Six Nations Championship with wins over Scotland and Wales. Ireland lost 10–13 to England. Ireland won their next match against Italy 46–7. Ireland beat France 22–20 in the final round to claim the Six Nations title. In November they defeated South Africa 29–15 and Australia 26–23 at Dublin.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland retained the 2015 Six Nations Championship, and became Six Nations Champions for the second year running on points difference. Following wins against Wales and Scotland during warm-up matches for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Ireland briefly reached its highest-ever position of second in the World Rugby rankings. Ireland won its pool at the 2015 Rugby World Cup with a 24–9 victory over France, but lost in the quarter-finals to Argentina 20–43.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Entering the 2016 Six Nations competition with a squad depleted by injury, Ireland won only two matches in the tournament (58–15 against Italy in Round 4, and 35–25 against Scotland in Round 5), and only achieved a 16–16 draw against Wales. The team went on to win the first of their three-match tour of South Africa 26–20, before losing the second and third tests 26–32 and 13–19. In autumn of the same year, Ireland defeated the New Zealand All Blacks for the first time ever on 5 November 2016 in Chicago by 40–29. This was New Zealand's only loss all year, and ended their record-breaking win streak of 18 test matches. Despite New Zealand winning the return fixture in Dublin the following week 21–9, Ireland moved up to fourth in the world rankings.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland placed second in the 2017 Six Nations Championship, behind defending champions England, who the Irish defeated in the final of round of the competition by 13–9, ending England's record-equalling run of 18 victories since 2015. However, they lost to Scotland 22–27 in Round 1 and Wales 9–22 in Round 4 during the same tournament. With many first-choice players selected to tour with the British & Irish Lions, Ireland took a development squad into their summer games that year, which included a 55–19 win over the USA, and a 2–0 test series victory against Japan. In November 2017, Ireland moved to third in the world rankings following their biggest-ever win over South Africa, 38–3, and victories over Fiji and Argentina.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: After winning the 2018 Six Nations Championship with a Grand Slam, Ireland moved up to second in the world rankings. A 2–1 series win over Australia in summer that year was followed by a second victory in two years against the world number one All Blacks, by 16–9 which cemented Ireland's number two ranking and most accumulated rating points (91.17) in their history. Following their success in the Six Nations, the Australia tour and the autumn internationals, Ireland were named 2018 World Rugby Team of the Year with Joe Schmidt claiming World Rugby Coach of the Year.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The 2019 Six Nations started with a defeat to England, by 20–32. After this, they beat Scotland, Italy and France, but the competition concluded with a loss against Grand Slam winners Wales which ended 7–25. The Welsh led the Irish by 25–0 going into overtime, until a last-gasp try from replacement half-back Jordan Larmour. However, Ireland achieved some redress when they defeated Wales back-to-back, home and away, in the 2019 Rugby World Cup warm-up matches and subsequently reached number 1 in the World Rugby Rankings for the first time in their history, which they retained going in to the 2019 Rugby World Cup.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The 2019 Rugby World Cup ended in disappointment for the Irish, who opened their campaign with a rousing 27–3 win over Scotland, but were felled the following round in a shock 12–19 defeat to tournament hosts Japan. Ireland overcame their other pool opponents Russia (35–0) and Samoa (47–5) to reach the quarter-finals, but were knocked out by New Zealand 46–14. The loss to the All Blacks represented Ireland's seventh exit at the quarter-finals of a World Cup, having never reached a semi-final, and saw their place in the world rankings fall from 1st going into the tournament to 5th by its conclusion.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: 2020 saw Ireland´s first Six Nations campaign under former defense coach Andy Farrell, who replaced Joe Schmidt after the World Cup, interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the disruption, Ireland notched wins against Scotland (19–12) and Wales (24–14) before losing against England 12–24. Ireland´s fourth round game against Italy was delayed until October that year, with the Irish recording a 50–17 win, going on to a 27–35 defeat against France to finish the truncated tournament in 3rd place. In the subsequent Autumn Nations Cup, Ireland again defeated Wales (32–9) and Scotland (31–16) but were beaten once again by England, 7–18. Their performance in the game against Georgia, although a comfortable win on the scoreboard (23–10) was criticized for a perceived lack of spirit or tactical ingenuity. Ireland finished 2020 with their ranking unchanged, at 5th in the world.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The 2021 Six Nations took place again amidst the ongoing pandemic, with spectators still excluded. In this changed environment Ireland would have an indifferent campaign, once again finishing 3rd with wins over Italy (48–10), Scotland (27–24) and England (32–18), after losing their opening two matches to France (13–15) and eventual champions Wales (16–21). Ireland played most of the game against Wales down to 14 men after veteran flanker Peter O'Mahony became the first Irish player to be red carded in a Six Nations match, for a foul on Wynn Jones in the 14th minute. Ireland achieved two victories in the 2021 July tests against Japan (39–31) and the United States (71–10). Ireland finished the season with an 8–2 record, following a clean sweep in the Autumn Nations series, defeating Japan (60–5), New Zealand (29–20) and Argentina (53–7).


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland opened their 2022 Six Nations campaign with an emphatic 29–7 victory over Wales, only to lose to France 30–24 the next week at the Stade De France. They then defeated an ill-disciplined Italy in Dublin 57–6 and got their biggest win over England at Twickenham since 1964 (15–32). On the final day of the tournament, Ireland had to win against Scotland and France had to lose against England in order for Ireland to win the Championship. Ireland won the Triple Crown on the final day of the tournament, beating Scotland 26–5 in Dublin, but failed to win the Championship after France beat England 25–13 in Saint-Denis.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: After losing the opening test match of the 2022 New Zealand tour, Ireland scored their first victory against the All Blacks on New Zealand soil on 9 July 2022, their fourth win over New Zealand. Three days later, they followed up their historic win with their first victory over the Maori All Blacks in four attempts, beating the side 24–30 in Wellington. On 16 July 2022 Ireland became just the fifth touring side and first in the professional era to achieve a series win in New Zealand, beating the All Blacks 22–32 in Wellington for a 2–1 series victory. Following that victory Ireland officially became the world number one team for the second time in their history.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland's traditional strip consists of a green jersey, white shorts, and green socks. Their emblem consists of a shamrock and a rugby ball; a shamrock has been incorporated into the emblem since the side first played in 1874.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Between 1996 and the summer of 2002, Ireland's main shirt sponsor was Irish Permanent who became Permanent TSB after a merger, who continued to sponsor the shirt until the autumn of 2006. O2 were Ireland's main shirt sponsor from then until 2014. Three Ireland were the team sponsors up until the summer of 2016 where Vodafone then became the main sponsor.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Before 1992, Umbro supplied kit to Ireland. Nike were the suppliers between 1992 and the summer of 2000. Canterbury of New Zealand took over after the summer of 2000 and was the supplier until June 2009. In November 2009, Puma took on the supply of Ireland's playing and training kit. In January 2014, the IRFU signed a deal with Canterbury for the supply of Ireland's playing and training kit from November 2014 until 2020, which was then extended to 2024.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The Irish rugby union team is one of many sporting teams that draws its players from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. This has led to issues surrounding the flags and national anthems.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: When Ireland international matches were played alternately in Belfast and Dublin, the British national anthem "God Save the Queen" was played before matches in Belfast and the national anthem of Ireland "Amhrán na bhFiann" was played for matches in Dublin. The British anthem is no longer played. No anthem was played at away games. In the 1987 Rugby World Cup, "The Rose of Tralee" was used as the anthem against Wales, although in the other matches no anthem was played.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Since April 1995, a specially-composed anthem, "Ireland's Call", has been used by the Ireland team at away games. This has prompted some players and supporter complaints that "Amhrán na bhFiann" should also be played. At games played in Dublin, "Ireland's Call" is always played alongside "Amhrán na bhFiann". With Ireland's test match against Italy in the run up to the 2007 Rugby World scheduled to be held in Belfast (the first match played there since 1953), there were calls for "God Save the Queen" to be used alongside "Ireland's Call" but this was turned down by the IRFU with the explanation given that both "Ireland's Call" and "Amhrán na bhFiann" are only played together in Dublin, and that outside the Irish republic only "Ireland's Call" is used.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: At the 2011 Rugby World Cup, 2015 Rugby World Cup and 2019 Rugby World Cup the Ireland team entered the field of play at the beginning of their matches with the Irish tricolour and the Flag of Ulster.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The traditional home of Irish rugby is Lansdowne Road in Dublin, where most of Ireland's home matches were held. The stadium was rebuilt between 2007 and 2010. Naming rights were sold to an insurance company, and the venue is now referred to as the Aviva Stadium.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The original stadium, owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union, was built in 1872, and so the venue continues to hold the distinction as the oldest still in use for international rugby. In 1878 the ground hosted its first rugby Test, with Ireland playing host to the English (the first representative rugby match had taken place prior to the Test, a game between Ulster and Leinster). Lansdowne Road had a capacity of just over 49,000 before it was demolished in summer 2007. The redeveloped stadium seats 51,700 and was opened in May 2010. The final Irish Test prior to work commencing on the remodelled stadium was against the Pacific Islanders in late 2006.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: With Lansdowne Road unavailable for use, Ireland was without a suitable home ground for the subsequent Six Nations. The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) owned Croke Park (an 82,500 capacity stadium), was made available for Ireland's two home games against France and England in 2007. It was the first time ever that rugby had been played at the venue. Croke Park remained in use for Ireland's Six Nations matches and other major Tests until the completion of the redevelopment at Lansdowne Road.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The first Ireland match at the rebuilt stadium was against reigning World Cup champions South Africa on 6 November 2010. South Africa won the match 23–21. Because of the historic significance of this match, South Africa announced that they would wear their change strip to allow Ireland to wear their home green; normally, the home team change their colours in the event of a clash.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Although Ireland has never totally hosted the Rugby World Cup, select games from both the 1991 and 1999 World Cups were played throughout venues in Ireland. Pool B in 1991 was mainly played in Ireland and Scotland, with two games at Lansdowne Road (involving Ireland) and one (Zimbabwe v Japan) played at Ravenhill, Belfast. A quarter-final and a semi-final were also hosted by Dublin. A similar system was used in 1999, though in addition to Lansdowne and Ravenhill, Thomond Park was also a venue. Lansdowne Road was also the host of a quarter-final in 1999. Ireland were set to host matches at Lansdowne Road for the 2007 World Cup, but due to scheduling conflicts with the reconstruction of the stadium, they decided they were not in a position to host any.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The Six Nations Championship, held every year in February and March, is Ireland's only annual tournament. It is contested against England, France, Italy, Scotland and Wales. Ireland was a member of the inaugural Home Nations in 1883, with France and Italy joining later to form the Five and Six Nations respectively. Ireland won their first championship in 1894, also winning the Triple Crown. Ireland's first Grand Slam occurred in the 1948 season and their second in the 2009 season. Following their title in the 2018 Six Nations Championship, Ireland have been outright champions on fourteen occasions and have eight shared wins. Ireland won their third ever Grand Slam in the 2018 Six Nations Championship with a 24–15 win over England at Twickenham on St Patrick's Day.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland have competed at every Rugby World Cup tournament. The furthest they have progressed is the quarter-finals, which they have made seven times out of nine. They have finished top of their pool twice, in 2011, after beating pool favourite Australia, and in 2015 leaving France in 2nd place.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In the first tournament, held in Australia and New Zealand in 1987, Ireland finished second in their pool after a loss to Wales, before Ireland were knocked out by Australia in the quarter-final in Sydney.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In 1991 Ireland again lost one match in pool play, this time to Scotland. Ireland again met Australia in the quarter-finals, losing by one point.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In 1995 Ireland were runner-up in their pool to the New Zealand national rugby union team. Ireland were defeated by France in their quarter-final in Durban.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In 1999 Ireland finished second in their pool behind Australia, and went into the quarter-final play-offs (a system exclusive to the 1999 tournament). There they lost to Argentina, and thus, not being a quarter-finalists, Ireland were not given automatic entry into the 2003 tournament.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In qualifying matches, Ireland defeated Russia and Georgia to advance to the 2003 tournament. Ireland finished second to Australia in their pool, and were knocked out by France in the quarter-finals.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: In the 2007 World Cup Ireland played in the so-called "Group of death" with hosts France, Argentina, Namibia and Georgia. Ireland defeated Namibia in their opening game 32–17. Their progress was then put into doubt when they beat Georgia 14–10, not obtaining a bonus point. Ireland lost to France 3–25. Entering their last group match against Argentina, needing four tries to secure a bonus point without allowing Argentina anything, Ireland were defeated 15–30 and crashed out at the pool stage for the first time.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland were in Pool C for the 2011 Rugby World Cup with Australia, Russia, USA and Italy. Their first pool game, against the United States, ended in a 22–10 victory for Ireland. Ireland's second pool game was against Australia. Despite being underdogs, Ireland recorded their first victory over Australia at a World Cup with a 15–6 win. Ireland comfortably beat Russia 62–12 in their third pool game. Ireland secured first place in the pool with a 36–6 win over Italy, the first time that Ireland were group winners in their World Cup history. Ireland lost their quarter-final to Wales 10–22.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland topped Pool D of the 2015 Rugby World Cup with four victories, two with bonus points. They kicked off their campaign with a 50–7 win over Canada. Another bonus point victory followed in front of a world record Rugby World Cup crowd of 89,267 at the home of England football, Wembley Stadium, when Ireland saw off Romania 44–10. Ireland then faced Italy, coming out on top 16–9, the only try coming from Keith Earls who surpassed Brian O'Driscoll as Ireland's leading Rugby World Cup try scorer with eight.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The final pool game saw Ireland face France. The winner would set up a quarter-final against Argentina and avoid New Zealand Ireland overcame the loss to injury of key players Johnny Sexton, Peter O'Mahony and Paul O'Connell to run out 24–9 winners. The victory set up another game for Ireland in the Millennium Stadium against Pool C runners up Argentina on 18 October 2015. Ireland battled and came back from a 17-point deficit to come within three points of their opponents, but a series of mistakes spelt the end for Ireland's RWC of 2015.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Ireland qualified automatically for the Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan. They played in pool A along with the hosts, Japan, Scotland, Russia and Samoa. They finished the pool with three wins and one loss to finish second behind Japan. They played New Zealand in the quarter-finals where they lost 46–14.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: On 19 October, Ireland named a 37-man squad for the 2022 Autumn Nations series matches against South Africa, Fiji and Australia.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: A further 12 players were included as part of the squad (denoted by *) for the Ireland A fixture against the All Blacks XV.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Twelve former Ireland players have been inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame. The Hall was created in 2006 as the IRB Hall of Fame when the sport's governing body of World Rugby was known as the International Rugby Board. The separate International Rugby Hall of Fame, which had inducted five Ireland players, was merged into the IRB Hall in 2014, shortly before the IRB adopted its current name of World Rugby. All International Hall members who had not been separately inducted to the IRB Hall automatically became members of the renamed World Rugby Hall.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: The table below indicates Irish players inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame and the year they were inducted in brackets.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: Eight players have represented Ireland in 100 tests or more: Brian O'Driscoll with 133 caps, Ronan O'Gara with 128, Rory Best with 124, Cian Healy with 121, Johnny Sexton with 109, Paul O'Connell with 108, John Hayes with 105 and Conor Murray with 100 caps. Including Lions caps, O'Driscoll has 141 caps (fourth highest in rugby), O'Gara has 130, O'Connell and Sexton have 115, and Hayes has 107.


title: Ireland national rugby union team

text: O'Gara also holds the Ireland record for test points with 1,083, placing him fifth all-time in international rugby. He also holds the record for highest points scorer in the Six Nations with 557. O'Driscoll has scored 46 tries for Ireland – an Irish record.