The OED says that the “diphthongation” of the Great Vowel Shift appears to have happened before the “syncopation”, i.e. the dropping of the second syllable:
"In the standard Eng. īren, īron, syncopation app. did not take place until after diphthongation of the ī, whence through a phonetic series (ˈiːrən), (ˈaɪrən), (ˈaɪərən), (ˈaɪər(ə)n), (ˈaɪə(r)n), came the existing (ˈaɪən); cf. the syncopated pa. pples. born, borne, torn, worn, boln, swoln, and Sc. fal'n, fawn, from earlier boren, toren, woren, bollen, swollen, fallen. The 15-16th c. dial. spellings iern, yern, yirn, are ambiguous: in some cases they may have meant (ˈiːərn), (ˈaɪərn), in others yern, (jərn); the latter prob. from Norse jarn, Da. jern."
They appear to think (ˈaɪən) still needs a stress mark, and they don’t have one on 'ire' or anything, but that's hardly likely to be a gesture in the direction of endorsing Gord's disyllabicity – probably just an oversight.
From here
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