For much of the last million years, Ireland was buried and crushed underneath thick masses of ice. The story of Ireland really only gets interesting after the end of the Ice Age. At this time, Ireland was still connected by land to Britain and mainland Europe via land bridges. As the seas warmed and expanded, these land bridges began to disappear into the sea, and Ireland gradually assumed its present form. People arrived in Ireland 9,000 years ago and for many centuries afterwards people lived, loved, fought and died, but we know very little about them apart from the fact that they built some fairly impressive monuments like Newgrange and Knowth, and that they fashioned beautiful items from gold and silver.