In the early days of the French Revolution while searching for a lost scientific expedition the vessel La Recherche passed by New Ireland.

On board was the prominent botanist Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière who noted in his journal fine stands of teak (Tectona grandis) trees growing at the southern end of the island.

This marks the easternmost occurrence of teak, an important timber tree that extends naturally from India to Thailand on the Asian mainland and also is present on Java in the Indonesian archipelago.

It was initially believed by Europeans to be part of New Britain, but the British explorer Philip Carteret established in 1767 that the island was physically separate, and gave it the name Nova Hibernia, Latin for 'New Ireland'.

[3] Missionary activity did not begin until 1877, and New Ireland was colonised by Germany in 1886 under the name Neu-Mecklenburg, as part of the German partition comprising the northern half of present-day Papua New Guinea.

[4] The population during the year 2000 census was 118,350 people, the vast majority of whom (about 90%) live in small rural villages.

Probably the most famous cultural system of New Ireland is "Malagan", a Nalik word for an ancient and revered set of practices and ceremonies practised throughout much of the main island.

During the colonial era, significant quantities of Malagan masks were collected by European administrators and can be seen in museums all over Europe.