The resilient Irish character was born of dark humor, historical reverence, and a scrappy, “we’ll get ’em next time” rebel spirit. The Irish people maintain an unsinkable and optimistic belief in the future.
The modern Irish state has existed since 1922, but its inhabitants proudly claim their nation to be the only contemporary independent state to sprout from purely Celtic roots (sprinkled with a few Vikings and shipwrecked Spanish Armada sailors to spice up the gene pool). The Romans never bothered to come over and organize the wild Irish. Through the persuasive and culturally enlightened approach of early missionaries such as St. Patrick, Ireland is one of the very few countries to have initially converted to Christianity without much bloodshed. The religious carnage came a thousand years later, with the Reformation. Irish culture absorbed the influences of Viking raiders and Norman soldiers of fortune, eventually enduring the 750-year shadow of English domination (1169-1922).
For most of the 20th century, Ireland was an isolated, agricultural economic backwater that had largely missed out on the Industrial Revolution. Things began to turn around when Ireland joined the European Community (precursor to the EU) in 1973, and really took off during the “Celtic Tiger” boom years (1995-2007), when American corporations saw big tax and labor advantages in locating here. Ireland’s “Silicon Bog” became the European base for such big names as IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Google.
Today, the Republic of Ireland attracts both expatriates returning to their homeland and new foreign investment. As the only officially English-speaking country to have adopted the euro currency, Ireland makes an efficient base from which to access the European marketplace. About 35 percent of the Irish population is under 25 years old, leading many high-tech and pharmaceutical firms to locate here, taking advantage of this young, well-educated labor force. More Viagra is made in Ireland than in any other country...though proudly virile Irish males claim it’s all for export.
Other famous exports from the Republic of Ireland include rock and contemporary music (U2, Thin Lizzy, Hozier, Imelda May, the Corrs, Sinéad O’Connor, Enya), traditional Irish music (the Chieftains, Dubliners, the Clancy Brothers), opera (the Irish Tenors and John McCormack), dance (Riverdance), trivia (Guinness World Records), crystal (Waterford), beer (Guinness), iconic authors (Jonathan Swift, W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, and Oscar Wilde), and a slew of memorable actors (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Farrell, Richard Harris, Michael Gambon, Colm Meaney, Saoirse Ronan, Michael Fassbender, and Maureen O’Hara).
Until recently, Ireland was one of the most ethnically homogenous nations on earth, but the Celtic Tiger economy changed all that, when the country became a destination for immigrants—mostly from the Third World and the newer EU nations. Eastern Europeans (especially Poles) came in search of higher pay...a reversal from the days when many Irish fled to start new lives abroad. A recent census found that over 15 percent of Ireland’s population had been born elsewhere.
Everyone here speaks English, though you’ll encounter Irish Gaelic (commonly referred to as “Irish”) if you venture to the western fringe of the country. The Irish love of conversation shines through wherever you go. All that conversation is helped along by the nebulous concept of Irish time, which never seems to be in short supply. Small shops post their hours as “9:00ish ’til 5:00ish.” The local bus usually makes a stop at “10:30ish.” A healthy disdain for being a slave to the clock seems to be part of being Irish. And the warm welcome you’ll receive has its roots in ancient Celtic laws of hospitality toward stranded strangers. You’ll see the phrase “Céad míle fáilte” in tourism brochures and postcards throughout Ireland—it translates as “a hundred thousand welcomes.”
Founded in the late 1800s to preserve and promote Gaelic culture, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) operates popular Irish hurling and football (not to be confused with soccer) leagues. Other sports in the Republic of Ireland include horse racing and dog racing. And it’s hard to go 25 miles in Ireland without running into a golf course (there are more than 300 on the island).
Long a predominant cultural force, the influence of the Catholic Church is less apparent these days. Thirty percent of Irish weddings are now civil ceremonies, and weekly church attendance in Ireland is below the US average, having decreased dramatically over the years. (It would be even lower if not for the influx of devout Catholic Poles.) But the Church still plays a part in Irish life. Most Irish claim to be Catholic, and shrines to the Virgin Mary still grace rural roadsides. The average Irish family spends almost €500 on lavish celebrations for the First Holy Communion of each child. And the national radio and TV station, RTE, pauses for 30 seconds at noon and at 18:00 to broadcast the chimes of the Angelus bells—signaling the start of Catholic devotional prayers. The Irish say that if you’re phoning heaven, it’s a long-distance call from the rest of the world, but a local call from Ireland.
Official Name: The Republic of Ireland (a.k.a. “Ireland” or, in Irish, Éire).
Size: 27,000 square miles—half the size of New York State—it occupies the southern 80 percent of the island of Ireland. The country is small enough that radio broadcasts cover traffic snarls nationwide. Population 4.8 million people (same as Louisiana).
Geography: The isle is mostly flat, ringed by a hilly coastline. The climate is moderate, with cloudy skies about every other day.
Latitude and Longitude: 53˚N and 8˚W. The latitude is equivalent to Alberta, Canada.
Biggest Cities: The capital of Dublin (550,000 people) is the only big city; more than one in four Irish live in the greater Dublin area (1.9 million). Cork has about 125,000 people, Limerick 94,000, Galway 79,000, and Waterford 53,000.
Economy: The Gross Domestic Product is $294 billion, and the GDP per capita is $62,562—one of Europe’s highest and 30 percent more than Britain’s. Major moneymakers include tourism and exports (especially to the US and UK) of machines, medicine, Guinness, glassware, crystal ware, and software. Traditional agriculture (potatoes and other root vegetables) is fading fast, but dairy still does well.
Government: The elected president, Michael Higgins, appoints the Taoiseach (TEE-shock) or prime minister (youthful Leo Varadkar), who is nominated by Parliament. The Parliament consists of the 60-seat Senate, chosen by an electoral college, and the House of Representatives, with 166 seats apportioned after the people vote for a party. Major parties include Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Sinn Fein—the political arm of the (fading) Irish Republican Army. Ireland is divided into 28 administrative counties (including Kerry, Clare, Cork, Limerick, and so on).
Flag: The Republic of Ireland’s flag has three vertical bands of green, white, and orange.
The Average Irish: A typical Irish person is 5’7”, 37 years old, has 1-2 kids, and will live to be 80. An Irish citizen consumes nearly 5 pounds of tea per year and spends $5 on alcohol each day. He or she speaks English, though Irish Gaelic is spoken in pockets along the country’s west coast (less than 5 percent of Irish people are fluent in the Irish language). Nearly eight in 10 are nominally Catholic (a sharp decline in the last few years), though only one in three attends church.
Modern sensibilities continue to make inroads in once-traditional Ireland. A 2003 law required shops to charge customers for plastic sacks for carrying goods, with revenue going to an environmental fund—one of the world’s first plastic-bag taxes. In 2004, smoking was banned in all Irish workplaces (including pubs). The Irish were the first nation in the world to enact such a comprehensive law (some pubkeepers initially grumbled about lost business, but the air has cleared). In the past decade, the Irish Department of Health has reported a 30 percent reduction in strokes and a 25 percent reduction in heart disease. Tourism is up as well.
Keeping up this progressive trend, in 2015 Ireland became the first country to legalize marriage equality by popular vote. And the republic in 2017 selected as its new prime minister (known as the “Taoiseach,” meaning “Chieftain”) the 38-year-old Leo Varadkar, a first-generation son of an Indian emigrant. A medical doctor, the openly gay Varadkar now leads a nation that, only a generation earlier, officially considered homosexuality unlawful as well as immoral.
As time has passed, relations between Ireland and her former colonial master Britain have improved. In May 2011, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since Ireland’s 1921 split from the United Kingdom, which occurred during her grandfather’s reign. Her four-night visit (to Dublin, Cashel, and Cork) unexpectedly charmed the Irish people and did much to repair old wounds between the two countries, establishing them, in the words of the Queen, as “firm friends and equal partners.”
The big question now is how Brexit (Britain’s impending exit from the EU) might complicate Ireland’s easy trading relationship with their UK neighbors. Although the UK as a whole voted to leave the EU, the citizens of Northern Ireland voted to remain (recognizing the advantage of their soft border with the Republic). A possible “hardening” of this border is generally seen as a step backward that both countries want to avoid.
At first glance, Ireland’s landscape seems unspectacular, with few mountains higher than 3,000 feet and an interior consisting of grazing pastures and peat bogs. But its seductive beauty slowly grows on you. The gentle rainfall, called “soft weather” by the locals, really does create 40 shades of green—and quite a few rainbows as well. Ancient, moss-covered ring forts crouch in lush valleys, while stone-strewn monastic ruins and lone castle turrets brave the wind on nearby hilltops. Charming fishing villages dot the coast near rugged, wave-battered cliffs.
You can’t drive too far without running into road construction, as the recently affluent Irish improve their infrastructure with new motorways aimed at making travel between bigger cities faster. But the country is still laced with plenty of humble country lanes—perfect for getting lost in the wonders of Ireland. Slow down to contemplate the checkerboard patterns created by the rock walls outlining the many fields. Examine the colorful small-town shop fronts that proudly state the name of the proprietor. Embrace the laid-back tempo of Irish life.