IRE 
This father of the church mult not he confounded with 
St. I r E N 7E u s the Deacon, who in 27-5 fuffered martyrdom 
inTufcany, under the reign of Aurelian ; nor with St. 
Irenteus, Bilhopof Sirmich, who fuffered martyrdom on 
the 25th of March, 304., during the perfecution of Diocle¬ 
tian and Maximianus. 
IRE'NE, the name of one of the feafons among the 
Greeks, called by the moderns Horae. Her two lifters 
■were Dia and Eunomia, all daughters of Jupiter and 
Themis. Apollodorus. 
IRE'NE, emprefs of Conftantinople, was an Athenian 
orphan, diftinguilbed only by her accomplifhments, when, 
at the age of feventeen, fhe was married, in the year 769, 
to Leo, Ion of the emperor Conftantine V. He afterwards 
reigned under the name of Leo IV. and at his death, in 
7S0, left his wife guardian of their foil Conftantine VI. 
then ten years old. It was her objefl to keep her fon as 
long as poflible in a ftate of nonage; and the ftruggle for 
power between Irene and her fon terminated, in 797, with 
the horrid cataftrophe of his being barbaroully deprived 
of fight by the emiflaries of his unnatural mother. She 
thereupon entered Conftantinople in a chariot of ftate, 
attended by feveral patricians as her Haves, and affumed 
the reins of empire. The Saracens, defpifing a female 
fovereignty, made an irruption into the ealtern provinces, 
and, having routed the forces fent againft them, carried 
their devaluations almoft to the gates of the capital. I rene 
was fortunate enough to defeat a confpiracy formed againft 
her by her favourite minifter; and ftudied to lecure her 
crown by popular meafures, among which the molt ac¬ 
ceptable were the favour fhe fhowed to the worlhip of 
images, and her hoftility to the fe£t of iconoclafts, which 
had been foftered by the preceding emperors. See Icono¬ 
clast, vol. x. p. 753. In order to ftrengthen her intereft 
abroad, Ihe received with great honour an embaffy from 
Charlemagne, and liftened with complacence to a propofal 
of marriage from that powerful prince, who was in hopes 
by that means to unite the ealtern empire with the weft- 
ern. Whether or not there was any thing real in this 
project, the report of it was employed to Irene’s preju¬ 
dice among her fubjefts, who apprehended that fuch an 
■union would render the eaft a mere province; and the 
nobles, affembling, took pofleffion of the perfon of the 
emprefs without oppofition, depofed her, and raifed the 
great-treafurer Nicephorus to the throne, A.D. 802. He 
treated her with refpeft and fair promifes till Ihe was in¬ 
duced to difeover where her treafures were concealed, 
■when he exiled her to the ifle of Lelbos, with no other 
maintenance than Hie could procure by her diftaff. In 
this forlorn condition fhe died in the fucceeding year. 
Her zeal for orthodoxy, and her liberality to the church 
and the poor, have, in the eyes of the ecclefiaftical liiffo- 
rians, almoft obliterated her cruelty and injuftice towards 
her fon. That fhe Was endowed with a ftrong under- 
ftanding and with talents for government, is admitted 
by all. 
I'RETON (Henry), an eminent commander and ftatef- 
man of the parliament party in the civil wars of Charles I. 
was defeended from a good family, and brought up to the 
law. When, in the. contefts of the time, appeal was made 
to the fword, Ireton joined the parliament army ; and by 
his.ability, together with the intereft cf Cromwell, whole 
daughter Bridget he married, rofe to the poll of commif- 
fary-general. He commanded the left wing at the battle 
of Nafeby, which, notwithftanding all his efforts, was. 
broken by the furious charge of prince Rupert, and him- 
felf wounded and taken prifoner. He foon recovered his 
liberty, and had a great fhare in all thole political tranf- 
aftions which firll threw the parliament into the power of 
the army, and finally- changed the conftitution from a 
monarchy to a republic. His councils had great influence 
over his father-in-law; and his education as a lawyer 
caufed him to be employed in the drawing up of moll of 
the public papers of his party. It was from his fuggeftion 
IRE 371 
that Cromwell called a fecret council of officers to deli¬ 
berate concerning the difpofal of the king’s perfon, and 
the fettlement of the government; and he-had,a principal 
hand in framing the ordinance for the king’s trial, at 
which he fat as one of the judges. Through his instiga¬ 
tion, Fairfax put to death, by martial law, Lucas and Lille, 
taken at the fiege of Colchefter. Ireton accompanied 
Cromwell to Ireland in 1649, and in the following year 
was left by him in that iflar.d as lord-deputy. He pro¬ 
ceeded with great vigour and induftry in the plan of re- 
ducingthe natives to obedience,am! fettling the civil affairs 
of the country. He defeated the Irifh in feveral aftions, 
and never fpared any prifoners who appeared to have been 
concerned in the popilh maffacre. Having crowned his 
military career with the capture of Limeric, (fee the ar¬ 
ticle Ireland, p. 316.) he was feized with a peftilential 
difeafe in that place, of which he died in November 36515 
“ fincerely lamented by the republicans, who revered him 
as a foldier, a ftatefman, and a faint.” Granger. Hume 
calls him “ a memorable perlonage, much celebrated for 
his vigilance, induftry, capacity, even for the ItriiSt exe¬ 
cution of jullice in that unlimited command which lie 
poffefled in Ireland. He was inflexible in all his purpofes; 
and it was believed by many that he was animated with a 
fincere and paftionate love of liberty.” In gratitude for 
his fervices, the parliament voted an eftate of 2000I. per 
annum to his family, and honoured him with a public 
funeral. His widow was afterwards married to lieutenant- 
general Fleetwood. 
IRES'lNE,/. [from Gr. wool. Eirso-iitr, Is an olive- 
branch with wool wrapped round it, which the Greeks 
hung up before their houfes to avert famine. J' In botany, 
a genus of the clafs dioecia, order pentandria, natural or¬ 
der of holoraceae, (amaranthi, JnJJ.) The generic charac¬ 
ters are—I. Male. Calyx: perianthium two-leaved, very 
fmall, acute, glofly. Corolla : petals five, feflile, lanceo¬ 
late, ereft ; nedftary of five feales, the ftarnens being inter- 
pofed. Stamina: filaments five, upright; anthene round- 
ifh. II. Female. Calyx and corolla as in male. Piftil- 
lum: germ ovate; flyle none; ftigmas two, roundifh. 
Pericarpium : capfule oblong-ovate. Seeds : downy.— 
EJfential CharaElcr. Calyx, two-leaved; corolla five-pe- 
talled. Male, nedlaries feven. Female, ftigmas two* fef- 
file ; capfule with tomentofe feeds. 
Irefine eelofia,. a fingle fpecies. It is perennial. Stems 
weak, requiring fupport, rifing ten or twelve feet high, 
(Sloane and Browne fay two or three,) having large knots 
at each joint, with oval fmooth leaves. Flowers of a pale 
yellow colour; thefe appear in July and Auguft, and in¬ 
warm feafons the feeds will ripen in autumn. According 
to Sloane, the Hems are cornered, yellowifh-green, hollow, 
fmooth, needing fupport, but not twining, as big as a 
goofe-quill, having few joints, and at them leaves, which 
are oppofite, an inch and a half long, and half as broad 
near the round bafe, ending in a point, and of a yeliow- 
ifh-green colour. Browne deferibes it with male and fe¬ 
male flowers feparate; Swartz, on the contrary, never found 
it but with hermaphrodite flowers : he thinks it very nearly 
allied to Celofia, if not a fpecies of that genus. He thus 
deferibes it : Root annual. Stem upright, from a foot to 
a fathom in height, divided at the top, round, ftriated, 
fmooth, loofe, jointed at the infertion of the branches; joints 
fwelling. Flowers in a fort of fpike, on fnort peduncles, 
fmall, ovate, whitifh ; at the bafe of the flowers are ex¬ 
tremely minute, fhining, yellowifh, imbricate, fcalelets; 
from among which a white wool burfts out after the flow¬ 
ering is pait. Native of Jamaica, and moft of the other 
iflands of the Weft: Indies, among flirubs, chiefly in a 
cretaceous foil. See Celosia and Illecebrum. 
IRE'SUS, a delightful fpot in Libya, near Cyrene, where 
Battus fixed his residence. The Egyptians were once de¬ 
feated there by the inhabitants of Cyrene. Herodotus. 
IREW 7 , a town on the fouth-eaft coail of the ifiand of 
Timor. Lat. 8. 45. S. ion. 226. 3. E. 
IRGANONG'y 
