Ireland

Most Irish people are Roman Catholics because they just are. You could just as easily ask "Why are most Italian people Roman Catholics?", "Why are most Indian people Hinduists?" or "Why are most Thai people Buddhists?".

unlike many other countries and states Ireland doesn't have a list of official gemstones, colours, birds, mascots etc. the only official symbol of the state is the harp. the unofficial gemstone is the emerald.

Most Irish people speak English and there are many very different accents all around Ireland. So to know how they speak, you would have to hear a range of those different accents. Some people also speak the Irish language, which some people call Gaelic. That sounds completely different to English.

Its dependant on what you send letter, parcel etc... and there are various rates for the size of the letter/card/whatever. The best thing to do is to go to your local post office and ask a clerk to help you.

They are stereotyped as heavy drinkers and fighters, strongly catholic, and as a people who were conquered by the potato. Most people (at least Americans) do not fully understand that the potato famine was caused by British tariffs and lead to the death of around 4 million people--it is a forgotten version of the holocaust caused by the British. Ireland still does not have its independence and has been oppressed for a substantial portion of its history, though right now there is a fragile peace accord.

How is it different in the US than in Ireland? It's bigger, everything is a LOT cheaper to buy and to do, and there is more stuff to do. On the other hand, it's less pretty, you have to buy into car and debt culture to survive, there are a lot of very ignorant but well meaning people, and cultural differences create a very factional society.

1) Everything is cheaper in the US. It may be hard to imagine but it is simply cheaper to live in the US then anywhere else.

2) Becoming an American citizen is more a function of getting a credit card, a car loan, and a house loan than passing some test or other. You join the culture here by accumulating debt.

3) The US consists of half a dozen "cultures" depending on which area you visit. It's one federal government, but the northeast, great lakes, plains, south, tex/mex, and northwest cultures are very different - people look, dress, act, and think differently (see 'the Nine Nations Of North America" for a simplistic version) And these cultures have different racial mixes as well as cultural mixes. Really, the USA is an empire at home as well as abroad.

4) it's very big. It takes a long time to get anywhere. Everything is spread out. You spend a lot of time driving. Statistics are misleading: almost all public transportation in the USA is in one city: NYC, and even there, it is a vast minority of people, while the rest of the country operates by car. It's not just a matter of preference. It's a really big place. Parts of the west have very low population density, comparable to polar regions in other countries.

5) the 'friendship' concept in Ireland is very intimate and meaningful. In the USA, especially among the educated, friendships are often related to either business or recreational activities, and people are more likely to 'trade up' in friends than hold them. It is easy to feel alone in the USA.

6) People own their houses. Apartments are only for 'the young and the poor'. It's a status symbol. And American's don't respect raising children in apartments. Nice people will say otherwise, but in practice it's a cultural fact. THus houses are everywhere.

7) People will generally be friendly to you if you are from Ireland. Most major cities have Irish communities. Even Seattle.

8) During the agrarian and industrial revolutions, and certainly post-war, Europeans in general rebelled against nobility, but Americans against the government, since we didn't have a nobility. So the majority of us don't trust the government. Most europeans, even English speakers do not understand this. Likewise, in Europe as well as in Canada and Australia, women rebelled against the church, where in the USA, women rebelled against MEN. Therefore male-female relationships in the USA are frequently (not always but frequently, and especially among the educated) more like partnerships than intimate relationships between men and women. This is slowly changing among women currently under thirty. But if you watch people and wonder what's different, that's what it is.

9) While western europeans are catching up, Americans are FAT, largely because of our car culture, but walking is impractical. Office work is sedentary. And food is very inexpensive. And portions are big. There are a million ways to eat here and it will surprise you how true the statement is, that Americans are 'the people that eat all the time'.

10) Americans invite people to their houses. Americans do not invite people to gather at pubs and restaurants that often unless they are young and dating.

11) America is NY on one end, and San Francisco on the other, and everything else is Cleveland. In other words, the ring of dirty apartments, chain link fences, unkempt yards around Paris, or Vienna, or any other city is present in the USA, although many cities have cleaned up significantly over the past twenty years.

12) There is a LOT of stuff to do. It's unbelievable. Life is a lot more commercial, which means more money moves, and money only creates prosperity when it's moving, and it MOVES in the US, so there are a lot of options for entertainment. This means that while relationships are less intimate they are easier to maintain with casual activities.

13) outside of a few places, most architecture is often hideous. Driving from the north to south ends of Los Angeles is to see literally HOURS of indisinquishable reclaimed desert covered in revolting strip malls, telephone poles, and shoddy buildings that are all to similar to those in Mexico city.

14) There is still real wilderness here and it's really beautiful in many places that are NOT covered with shoddy buildings. The rockies, the northwest, the upper great lakes and Alaska in particular are beautiful. Houston and it's strip clubs, and Texas deserts, are horrible. In fact, if you want to feel particularly alienated, visit Texas. It's a whole different world.

15) there has been a constant movement of wealth to the west coast. A movement of people out of the rural areas into the cities. The southwest has been nearly reclaimed by Mexico. The great lakes region (the manufacturing sector) is impoverished, aging and losing population rapidly, and homes can be bought for less than a third of elsewhere in the country. San francisco and seattle are the growth areas due to money and technology, Los Angeles for the entertainment arts. New york for finance and advertising.

16) Germany (and much of Europe) focused on creating educated average people. Americans focused on creating educated exceptional people. For example, it would be very inappropriate to 'determine' the future of children, so Americans assume everyone can be president or go to Harvard - and that isn't always good. And what that means is that the average Irishman, Brit, and northern European is much more aware, well read, educated than the average American. While the exceptional Americans are indeed, pretty exceptional.

17) Americans are not afraid of failure. The culture rewards risk takers. It does not punish failures. "if you haven't gone bankrupt in business you haven't tried hard enough". To europeans it's odd.

18) America is an empire, not a nation. America is an empire of different nationalities all competing with each other similar to how Europe was organized as tribes across state boundaries before nationalism gave states their ethnic identities. And America is becoming increasingly 'tribal'. So people's behavior (the silly friendliness that europeans tease Americans for) is due to the fact of a highly mobile, highly fractured set of tribal cultures that must interact with each other across lots of class and culture boundaries, when they are all commercially motivated.

19) American society is highly divided, and increasingly so. While the country is center-right (which means that it leans conservatively), the young, immigrants, and single women in particular, and single mothers, minorities, and increasingly affluent urbanites, tend to be left leaning. The coastal areas are more left leaning and the center areas more conservative.

20) Crime is different in the USA. 'Knicking it', or small property crime is oddly common in most European countries on a scale that American's cannot comprehend. In some cities you can still be ticketed for 'jaywalking'. Some visitors say "I don't feel that this country is free, I feel that consumer goods in this country are almost free." Most American violence comes from dense urban areas, and in those areas, and in the criminal industry (and it's an industry here, where drugs are the primary cause - again policing this country is very hard compared to policing a dense urban environment). And the country is more culturally militial than all but perhaps Germany.

21) Americans are VERY ACTION ORIENTED, and very experimental. They will act on very little information, and far less certainty, with less perception of risk.

22) If you drink and drive or drink in public it can be very costly. Dublin (or Sheffield or York) drinking behavior is not as easy to get away with as it used to be.

23) Insurance regulations and our 'irresponsible courts' mean that it's very hard to do a lot of things without feeling like all risk and excitement has been removed from it, and that you're being treated like a child. For example, if Irish castles were in the USA, you'd only be able to look at them from a distance, because of an owner's fear of lawsuits.

That's a start.

Mary Robinson was the first female President of Ireland. She was elected in 1990 and served one 7 year term. She was succeeded by Mary McAleese.

Accurate figures are hard to come by as formal records were not kept. Estimates range from 3000 up to 5000, including fighters and civilians.

Accurate figures are hard to come by as formal records were not kept. Estimates range from 3000 up to 5000, including fighters and civilians.

Accurate figures are hard to come by as formal records were not kept. Estimates range from 3000 up to 5000, including fighters and civilians.

Accurate figures are hard to come by as formal records were not kept. Estimates range from 3000 up to 5000, including fighters and civilians.

Accurate figures are hard to come by as formal records were not kept. Estimates range from 3000 up to 5000, including fighters and civilians.

Accurate figures are hard to come by as formal records were not kept. Estimates range from 3000 up to 5000, including fighters and civilians.

Accurate figures are hard to come by as formal records were not kept. Estimates range from 3000 up to 5000, including fighters and civilians.

Accurate figures are hard to come by as formal records were not kept. Estimates range from 3000 up to 5000, including fighters and civilians.

Accurate figures are hard to come by as formal records were not kept. Estimates range from 3000 up to 5000, including fighters and civilians.

Accurate figures are hard to come by as formal records were not kept. Estimates range from 3000 up to 5000, including fighters and civilians.

Accurate figures are hard to come by as formal records were not kept. Estimates range from 3000 up to 5000, including fighters and civilians.

They were invaded and forced to join.

Scotland was the only country that actively signed a union agreement with England to form the United Kingdom, without the pressure of War.

4 provinces

There are 32 counties in the whole island. 26 in the Republic of Ireland and 6 in Northern Ireland.

There are only 4 provinces in Ireland: Ulster (shared between ROI and NI); Connaught, Leinster, and Munster (ROI).

There are currently four provinces on the island of Ireland: Ulster, Lenister, Munster and Connaught.

However, the term "province" is only an English approximation of the word "cuige" which, strictly specking, means "a fifth" but was also probably meant in older times as "a portion", i.e., a portion of the island.

As the term implies, there was five fifths or provinces in Ireland in former times: Ulaid (more or less what is now Ulster), Midhe (now reduced to a county in Lenister, but which one took up much of the midlands east of the Shannon), Lagain (now Lenister, including Midhe), Mumhan (Munster) and Connacht (which, however, formerly counted Clare as a part of it; it now lies in Munster).

Yet this was never an entirely fixed fact, as other areas, such as Ossary and Airgialla were from time to time counted as fifths.

Take away the first digit of the phone number and add 0044 to the beginning of the phone number

Ireland gained it's independence from England

Under agreements, it will not happen until the majority of people in Northern Ireland want that to happen. That will not happen for a long time yet, as the majority of people still do not want that to happen.

To my knowledge there is no such drink as English Guinness. Guinness made in Dublin is a dark colored ale or stout.

Irish Guinness is different in that sour mash is added during the brewing process. This is not done for the English version, which tastes less bitter (English stout as opposed to Irish stout).

There are many reasons. Broadly speaking, Ireland is a neighbouring country and for many years Britain ruled all of Ireland. Many Irish people have lived in Britain and had influence on the country.

As a political entity Ireland existed for a long time before coming under the influence of Britain, gaining its independence in 1922, at which time partition occured creating Northern Ireland and what was then the Irish Free State. It became a republic in 1949.

Ireland was called Hibernia by the ancient Romans.

Ireland was called Hibernia by the ancient Romans.

Ireland was called Hibernia by the ancient Romans.

Ireland was called Hibernia by the ancient Romans.

Ireland was called Hibernia by the ancient Romans.

Ireland was called Hibernia by the ancient Romans.

Ireland was called Hibernia by the ancient Romans.

Ireland was called Hibernia by the ancient Romans.

Ireland was called Hibernia by the ancient Romans.

It is recorded in history in lots of detail. For Catholics it is not positive as King James lost. He was the Catholic side of the opponents at the battle.

Basically the absentee English landlords and the British government starved them out. Add that to the long lasting potato famine and there was adequate reason to look for a place where there would be a better life. ( the great patato famine).

It is said that St. Patrick Explained trinity through a 3 leaf clover. He did not chase away snakes from Ireland because there weren't any snakes there in the first place.
St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity, and it has been associated with him and the Irish since that time.

Five miles north west of the small city of Cork is the village of Blarney - its name being derived from the Irish An blarna meaning 'the plain'. Near the village, standing almost 90 feet in height, is the solidly built castle of Blarney. Cormac MacCarthy erected the present castle, the third constructed at the site, in 1446. Built on a rock, above several caves, the tower originally had three storeys. On the top storey, just below the battlements on the parapet, is the world famous Blarney Stone, said to give the gift of eloquence to all who kiss it. Kissing the stone is for some people a difficult physical feat. In past times, to kiss the Stone people were hung by their heels over the edge of the parapet. One day a pilgrim broke from the grasp of his friends and went hurtling downward to certain death. Since that time the stone has been kissed by another method. First, you sit with your back towards the stone and then someone sits upon your legs or firmly holds your feet. Next, leaning far back and downward into the abyss while grasping the iron rails, you lower yourself until your head is even with the stone to be kissed.