Rick Steves Ireland 2019

Ireland is rich with history, culture, and language. The country continues to transform and grow today, learning from its experience with the Celtic Tiger economy, making progress toward peace, and reexamining some of its long-held social customs.

Irish History

PREHISTORY

Ireland became an island when rising seas covered the last land bridge (7000 B.C.), a separation from Britain that the Irish would fight to maintain for the next 9,000 years. Snakes were too slow to migrate before the seas cut Ireland off, despite later legends about St. Patrick banishing them. By 6000 B.C., Stone Age hunter-fishers had settled on the east coast, followed by Neolithic farmers (from the island of Britain). These early inhabitants left behind impressive but mysterious funeral mounds (passage graves) and large Stonehenge-type stone circles.

THE CELTS (500 B.C.-A.D. 450)

Perhaps more an invasion of ideas than of armies, the Celtic culture from Central Europe (particularly that of the most influential tribe, called the Gaels) settled in Ireland, where it would dominate for a thousand years. A warrior people with more than a hundred petty kings, they feuded constantly with rival clans and gathered in ring forts for protection. There were more than 300 tuatha (kingdoms) in Ireland, each with its own rí (king), who would’ve happily chopped the legs off anyone who called him “petty.” The island was nominally ruled by a single Ard Rí (high king) at the Hill of Tara (north of Dublin), though there was no centralized nation.

Druid priests conducted pagan, solar-calendar rituals among the megalithic stones erected by earlier inhabitants. The Celtic people peppered the countryside with thousands of Iron Age monuments. While most of the sights are little more than rock piles that take a vigorous imagination to reconstruct (ring forts, wedge tombs, standing stones, and so on), just standing next to a megalith that predates the pharaohs is stirring.

The Celtic world lives on today in the Gaelic language and in legends of Celtic warriors such as Finn MacCool, who led a merry band of heroes in battle and in play. Tourists marvel at large ritual stones decorated with ogham (rhymes with “poem”) script, the peculiar Celtic-Latin alphabet that used lines as letters. The Tara Brooch and elaborately inscribed, jewel-encrusted daggers in Dublin’s National Museum attest to the sophistication of this warrior society.

In 55 B.C., the Romans conquered the Celts in England, but Ireland and Scotland remained independent, their history forever skewed in a different direction—Gaelic, not Latin. The Romans called Ireland Hibernia, meaning Land of Winter; it was apparently too cold and bleak to merit colonization. The biggest nonevent in Irish history is that the Romans never invaded. While the mix of Celtic and Roman is part of what makes the French French and the English English, the Irish are purely Celtic. Hurling, the wild Irish national pastime, goes back more than 2,000 years to Celtic days, when it was played almost as a substitute for warfare. Perhaps best described as something like airborne hockey with no injury time-outs, hurling is as central to the Irish culture as cricket is to the English, or boules to the French.

THE AGE OF SAINTS AND SCHOLARS (A.D. 450-800)

When Ancient Rome fell and took the Continent—and many of the achievements of Roman culture—with it, Gaelic Ireland was unaffected. There was no Dark Age here, and the island was a beacon of culture for the rest of Europe. Ireland (population c. 750,000) was still a land of many feuding kings, but the culture was stable.

Christianity and Latin culture arrived first as a trickle from trading contacts with Christian Gaul (France), then more emphatically in A.D. 432 with St. Patrick, who persuasively converted the sun-and-nature-worshipping Celts. (Perhaps St. Patrick had an easy time converting the locals because they had so little sun to worship.) Patrick (c. 389-461), a Latin-speaking Christian from Roman Britain, was kidnapped as a teenager and carried off into slavery for six years in Ireland. He escaped back to Britain, then traveled to Gaul to study for a life in the clergy. Inspired by a dream, he eventually returned to Ireland, determined to convert the pagan, often hostile, Celtic inhabitants. Legends say he drove Ireland’s snakes (symbolic of pagan beliefs) into the sea and explained the Holy Trinity with a shamrock—three leaves on one stem.

Later monks (such as St. Columba, 521-597) continued Christianizing the island, and foreign monks flocked to isolated Ireland. They withdrew to scattered, isolated monasteries, living in stone beehive-shaped huts, translating and illustrating (illuminating) manuscripts. Perhaps the greatest works of art from all of Dark Age Europe are these manuscripts, particularly the ninth-century Book of Kells, which you’ll see at Dublin’s Trinity College Library. Irish monks—heads shaved crosswise across the top of the skull from ear to ear, like the druids before them—were known throughout Europe as ascetic scholars.

St. Columbanus (c. 600; different from St. Columba) was one of several traveling missionary monks who helped to bring Christianity back to Western Europe, which had reverted to paganism and barbarism after the fall of the Roman Empire. The monks established monastic centers of learning that produced great Christian teachers and community builders. One of the monks, St. Brendan, may even have sailed to America.

By 800, Charlemagne was importing educated and literate Irish monks to help organize and run his Frankish kingdom. Meanwhile, Ireland remained a relatively cohesive society based on monastic settlements rather than cities. Impressive round towers from those settlements still dot the Irish landscape—silent reminders of this scholarly age.

VIKING INVASION AND DEFEAT (800-1100)

In 795, Viking pirates from Norway invaded, first testing isolated island monasteries, then boldly sailing up Irish rivers into the interior. The many raids immediately wreaked havoc on the monasteries and continued to shake Irish civilization for two chaotic centuries. The Vikings raped, pillaged, and burned Christian churches, making off with prized monastic booty such as gold chalices, silver candlestick holders, and the jeweled book covers of sacred illuminated manuscripts. Monks stood guard from their round towers to spy approaching marauders, ring the warning bells, and protect the citizens. In 841, a conquering Viking band decided to winter in Ireland. The idea caught on as subsequent raiders eventually built the island’s first permanent walled cities, Dublin and Waterford. Viking raiders slowly evolved into Viking traders. They were the first to introduce urban life and commerce to Ireland.

In response, High King Brian Ború led a Gaelic revival, briefly controlling the entire island in the late 900s. His rule ended at the Battle of Clontarf (1014), near Dublin. Though he defeated a mercenary Viking army, which had allied with rebellious clans, Ború and most of his sons died in the battle, and his unified kingdom quickly fell apart. Over the centuries, Viking settlers married Gaelic natives and slowly blended in.

ANGLO-NORMAN ARRIVAL (1100-1500)

The Normans were Ireland’s next aggressive guests. In 1169, a small army of well-armed and fearless soldiers of fortune invaded Ireland under the pretense of helping a deposed Irish king regain his lands. With the blessing of the only English pope in history (Adrian IV and his papal bull), a Welsh conquistador named Strongbow (c. 1130-1176) took Dublin and Waterford, married the local king’s daughter, then succeeded his father-in-law as king of Leinster. This was the spearhead of a century-long invasion by the so-called Anglo-Normans—the French-speaking rulers of England, descended from William the Conqueror and his troops, who had invaded and conquered England a hundred years earlier at the Battle of Hastings (1066).

King Henry II of England soon followed (1171) to remind Strongbow who was boss, proclaiming the entire island under English (Anglo-Norman) rule. By 1250, the Anglo-Normans occupied two-thirds of the island, controlling the best land while clustered in walled cities surrounded by hostile Gaels. These invaders, who were big-time administrators, ushered in a new age in which society (government, cities, and religious organizations) was organized on a grander scale. They imposed feudalism and scoffed at the old Gaelic clan system. Riding on the coattails of the Normans, monastic orders (Franciscans, Augustinians, Benedictines, and Cistercians) came over from the Continent and eclipsed Ireland’s individual monastic settlements, once the foundation of Irish society.

Normans lived in tightly packed settlements surrounded by their superior fortifications. But when the Black Death came in 1348, it spread more rapidly and fatally in these tight Norman quarters than it did in rural, far-flung Gaelic clan settlements. The plague, along with Normans intermarrying with Gaels, eventually diluted Norman identity and shrank English control.

England, preoccupied with the Hundred Years’ War with France and its own internal Wars of the Roses, “ruled” Ireland through deputized locals such as the earls of Kildare. Many Irish landowners actually resided in England, a pattern of absentee-landlordism that would persist for centuries. England’s laws were fully enforced only in a 50-mile foothold around Dublin (the Pale—from the Norman-French word for a defensive ditch). A couple of centuries after invading, the Anglo-Normans saw their area of control shrink to only the Pale (perhaps 20 percent of the island)—with the rest of the island “beyond the Pale.”

Even as their power eroded, the English kings considered Ireland theirs. To keep their small islands of English culture undiluted by Irish heathen ways, they passed the Statutes of Kilkenny (1366). These laws prohibited the settlers from going native and being seduced by Gaelic ways...or people. Intermarriage between Irish locals and English settlers, adoption of Irish dress, and the speaking of the Irish Gaelic language were all outlawed. In practice, the statutes were rarely enforced.

THE END OF GAELIC RULE (1500s)

As European powers raced west to establish profitable colonies in North and South America, Ireland’s location on the western edge of Europe took on more strategic importance. England’s naval power grew to threaten Spain’s monopoly on New World riches. Meanwhile, Spain viewed Ireland as England’s vulnerable back door—the best place to attack. (Think of how the USSR used Cuba to threaten the US in the early 1960s.) Martin Luther’s Reformation split the Christian churches into Catholic and Protestant, making Catholic Ireland an even hotter potato for newly Protestant England to handle. Catholic Spain and, later, France would use their shared Catholicism with Ireland as divine justification for alliances against heretical England.

In 1534, angered by Henry VIII and his break with Catholicism (and taking advantage of England’s Reformation chaos), the Earls of Kildare (father, then son) led a rebellion. Henry crushed the revolt, executed the earls, and confiscated their land. Henry’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, gave the land to colonists (“planters”), mainly English Protestants. The next four centuries would see a series of rebellions by Catholic, Gaelic-speaking Irish farmers fighting to free themselves from rule by Protestant, English-speaking landowners.

Hugh O’Neill (1540-1616), a Gaelic chieftain educated in Queen Elizabeth’s court, was angered by planters and English abuses. He soon led a Gaelic revolt, in 1595. The rebels were supported by the Spanish, who were fellow Catholics and England’s archrival on the high seas. At the Battle of Yellow Ford (1598), guerrilla tactics brought about an initial Irish victory.

But the Battle of Kinsale (1601) ended the revolt. The exhausted Irish, who had marched the length of Ireland in winter, arrived to help Spanish troops, who were pinned down inside the town. Though the Irish were skilled at guerrilla warfare on their own turf, they were no match for the English cavalry on open and unfamiliar ground, and were crushed before they could join the Spanish. The Spanish soon surrendered, and O’Neill knelt before the conquering general, ceding half a million acres to England. Then he and other proud, Gaelic, Ulster-based nobles unexpectedly abandoned their remaining land and sailed to the Continent (the Flight of the Earls, 1607). They searched for further support on the Continent, but died before they could enlist additional armies to bring back to Ireland. Their flight signaled the end of Gaelic Irish rule.

ENGLISH COLONIZATION AND IRISH REBELLIONS (1600s)

King James I took advantage of the Gaelic power vacuum and sent 25,000 Protestant English and Scottish planters into the confiscated land (1610-1641), making Ulster (in the northeast) the most English area of the island. The Irish responded with two major rebellions.

In 1642, with England embroiled in a civil war between a divine-right monarch (who answered only to God) and a power-hungry Parliament, Irish rebels capitalized on the instability. Tensions were already high, as tenant farmers had recently taken up pitchforks against their English landlords, slaughtering 4,000 in the Massacre of the Planters (1641). The landless, Irish-speaking rebels hadn’t attacked the middle tier of Irish society—the English-speaking, but still Irish, landed gentry (descendants of the first Anglo-Norman invaders, they were called, rather confusingly, “Old English”). Like the peasant rebels, the “Old English” were Catholic, and they wanted more autonomy for Ireland. Both groups feared the rise of Protestant power in England, and together they formed a pro-Royalist confederation in opposition to the new Protestant Parliament of Oliver Cromwell. (This meant, oddly enough, that the Irish now found themselves on the side of the English monarchy.)

Once Cromwell had pulled off his coup d’état and executed King Charles I, he invaded Ireland with 12,000 men (1649-1650). Out to obliterate the last Royalist forces and to exact retaliation for the Massacre of the Planters, and armed with puritanical, anti-Catholic religious zeal, he conquered the country—brutally. Thousands were slaughtered, priests were tortured, villages were pillaged, and rebels were sold into slavery. Cromwell confiscated 11 million acres of land from Catholic Irish landowners to give to English Protestants. Cromwell’s scorched-earth invasion was so harsh that it became known as the “curse of Cromwell”—and it still raises hackles in Ireland (for more on Cromwell, see the sidebar on here). After Cromwell died in 1658, the English were fed up with austerity and asked Charles II to come back to Ireland and retake the monarchy that his father had lost.

In 1688-1689, rebels again took advantage of England’s political chaos. They rallied around Catholic King James II, who had been deposed by the English Parliament in the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 and then had fled to France. He wound up in Ireland, where he formed an army to retake the crown. In the Siege of Londonderry, James’ Catholic army surrounded the city, the last loyal Protestant power base. But some local apprentice boys locked them out, and after months of negotiations and a 105-day siege, James went away empty-handed.

The showdown came at the massive Battle of the Boyne (1690), north of Dublin. Catholic James II and his 25,000 men were defeated by the 36,000 troops of Protestant King William III of Orange. From this point on, the color orange became a symbol in Ireland for pro-English, pro-Protestant Irish forces.

As the 17th century came to a close, Protestant England had successfully put down every rebellion. To counter Irish feistiness, the ruling English out-and-out attacked the indigenous Gaelic culture through legislation called the Penal Laws. Catholics couldn’t vote, hold office, buy land, join the army, play the harp, or even own a horse worth more than £5. Catholic education was banned and priests were outlawed. But the Penal Laws were difficult to enforce, and many Catholics were taught at hidden outdoor “hedge schools,” and worshipped in private or at secluded “Mass rocks” in the countryside.

PROTESTANT RULE (1700s)

During the 18th century, urban Ireland thrived economically, and even culturally, under the English. Dublin in the 1700s (pop. 50,000) was Britain’s second city, one of Europe’s wealthiest and most sophisticated. It’s still decorated in Georgian (Neoclassical) style, named for the English kings of the time (consecutive kings George I, II, III, and IV, who ruled for more than a century).

But beyond the Pale surrounding Dublin, rebellion continued to brew. Over time, greed on the top and dissent on the bottom led to more repressive colonial policies. The Enlightenment provided ideas of freedom, and the Revolutionary Age emboldened the Irish masses. Irish nationalists were inspired by budding democratic revolutions in America (1776) and France (1789). The Irish say, “The Tree of Liberty sprouted in America, blossomed in France, and dropped seeds in Ireland.” Increasingly, the issue of Irish independence was less a religious question than a political one, as poor, disenfranchised colonists demanded a political voice.

In Dublin, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), the dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, published his satirical Gulliver’s Travels with veiled references to English colonialism. He anonymously wrote pamphlets advising, “Burn all that’s British, except its coal.”

The Irish Parliament was an exclusive club, and only Protestant male landowners could be elected to a seat (1 percent of the population qualified). In 1782, led by Henry Grattan (1746-1820), the Parliament negotiated limited autonomy from England (while remaining loyal to the king) and fairer treatment of the Catholics. England, chastened by the American Revolution (and soon preoccupied with the French Revolution), tolerated a more-or-less independent Irish Parliament for two decades.

Then, in 1798, came the bloodiest Irish Rebellion. Inspired by the American and French revolutionary successes and buoyed by an “if they can do it, so can we” attitude, a band of Irish idealists rose up. The United Irishmen (whose goals included introducing the term “Irishman” for all Irish, rather than labeling people as either Protestant or Catholic) revolted against Britain, led by Wolfe Tone (1763-1798), a Protestant Dublin lawyer. Tone, trained in the French Revolution, had gained French aid for the Irish cause (though a French naval invasion in 1796 already had failed after a freakish “Protestant wind” blew the ships away from Ireland’s shores). The Rebellion was marked by bitter fighting—30,000 died over six weeks—before British troops crushed the revolt.

England tried to solve the Irish problem politically by forcing Ireland into a “Union” with England as part of a “United Kingdom” (Act of Union, 1801). The 500-year-old Irish Parliament was dissolved, with its members becoming part of England’s Parliament in London—but Catholics were not allowed. When the movers and shakers of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy followed members of Parliament in moving to London, Dublin slowly began to decay. From then on, “Unionists” have been those who oppose Irish independence, wanting to preserve the country’s union with England.

VOTES, VIOLENCE, AND THE FAMINE (1800s)

Irish politicians lobbied in the British Parliament for Catholic rights, reform of absentee-landlordism, and for Home Rule—i.e., the return of an Irish Parliament and more self-government. Meanwhile, secret societies of revolutionaries pursued justice through violence.

Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), known as The Liberator, campaigned for Catholic equality and for the repeal of the Act of Union (to gain autonomy). Having personally witnessed the violence of the French Revolution in 1789 and the 1798 United Irishman Rebellion, O’Connell chose peaceful, legal means to achieve his ends. He was a charismatic speaker, drawing half a million people to one of his “monster meeting” demonstrations at the Hill of Tara (1843). But any hope of an Irish revival was soon snuffed out by the biggest catastrophe in Irish history: the Great Potato Famine.

The Great Potato Famine (1845-1849) was caused by a fungus (Phytophthora infestans) that destroyed Ireland’s main food crop. Legions of people starved to death or died of related diseases (estimates range between 500,000 and 1.1 million). Another one to two million emigrated—most to America and others to Canada and Australia.

The poorest were hardest hit. They depended on potatoes because other crops—grown by tenant farmers on their landlords’ land—went to pay the rent and were destined for export.

Britain—then the richest nation on earth, with an empire stretching around the globe—could seemingly do nothing to help its starving citizens. A toxic combination of laissez-faire economic policies, racial bigotry, and religious self-righteousness conspired to blind the English to the plight of the Irish. While the British tend to blame the Famine on overpopulation among the undisciplined and backward Irish (Ireland’s population had doubled in the 45 years leading up to this period), some Irish believe it was a calculated attempt to take advantage of a natural disaster to starve down the local population through lack of effective relief. While the potato crop failed, there was more than enough food, in the form of other crops and cattle, to feed the starving, but it was exported off the island instead. For this reason, many do not refer to this period as “the Famine” (implying a lack of food) but rather as “An Gorta Mór” (The Great Hunger...imposed by British colonial policies). Over the course of five long years, Ireland was ruined. To this day, Irish weather reports include mention of potential potato-blight conditions.

The island’s population was suddenly cut by almost a third (from 8.4 million to 6 million). Many of their best and brightest had fled, and the island’s economy—and spirit—took generations to recover. The Irish language, spoken by the majority of the population before the Famine, became a badge of ignorance and was considered useless to those hoping to emigrate.

By 1900, emigration had further cut the island’s population to just over 4 million (half of what it had been just before the Famine). Before the Famine, land was subdivided—each son got a piece of the family estate (so individual plots shrunk with each generation). Afterwards, the oldest son got the estate, and the younger siblings—with fewer options for making a living in Ireland (primarily joining the priesthood)—emigrated to Britain, Australia, Canada, or the US. Meanwhile, women could make more money than men abroad by working as domestic servants, thus more quickly saving up enough to bring their siblings over. As a result, women often beat men to new homes in foreign lands.

The tradition of an “American Wake” was a sad farewell by family and friends who gathered the night before an emigrant boarded the ship (likely never to be seen by them again, but at least heard from by letter). Because of the huge emigration to the US (today there are 45 million Irish Americans), US influence increased. (During the negotiations between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, US involvement in the talks was welcomed and considered essential by nearly all parties.)

Occasional violence demonstrated the fury of Irish nationalism, with the tragedy of the Famine inflaming the movement. In 1848, the Young Irelander armed uprising was easily squelched. In 1858, the Irish Republican Brotherhood was formed (the forerunner of the IRA). Also called the Fenians, they launched a campaign for independence by planting terrorist bombs. Irish Americans sent money to help finance these revolutionaries. Uprising after uprising made it clear that Ireland was ready to close this 800-year chapter of invasions and colonialism.

Home Rule Party leader Charles Stuart Parnell (1846-1891), an Irishman educated in England, made “the Irish problem” the focus of London’s Parliament. Parnell lobbied for independence and for the rights of poor tenant farmers living under absentee landlords, pioneering the first boycott tactics. Then, in 1890, at the peak of his power and about to achieve Home Rule for Ireland, he was drummed out of politics by a scandal involving his mistress, scuttling the Home Rule issue for another 20 years (for more on Parnell, see here).

Culturally, the old Gaelic, rural Ireland was being crushed under the Industrial Revolution and the political control wielded by Protestant England. The Gaelic Athletic Association was founded in 1884 to resurrect pride in ancient Irish sports such as hurling (see sidebar on here). Soon after, in 1893, writers and educators formed the Gaelic League to preserve the traditional language, music, and poetry. Building on the tradition of old Celtic bards, Ireland turned out a series of influential writers: W. B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and James Joyce (see “Irish Literature,” later).

EASTER RISING, WAR OF INDEPENDENCE, PARTITION, AND CIVIL WAR (1900-1950)

As the century turned, Ireland prepared for the inevitable showdown with Britain.

The Sinn Fein party (meaning “Ourselves”) lobbied politically for independence. The Irish Volunteers were more Catholic and more militant. Also on the scene was the Irish Citizens Army, with a socialist agenda to protect labor unions and clean up Dublin’s hideous tenements, where 15 percent of children died before the age of one.

Of course, many Irish were Protestant and pro-British. The Ulster Volunteers (Unionists, and mostly Orangemen) feared that Home Rule would result in a Catholic-dominated state that would oppress the Protestant minority.

Meanwhile, Britain was preoccupied with World War I, where it was “fighting to protect the rights of small nations” (except Ireland’s), and so it delayed granting Irish independence. The increasingly militant Irish rebels, believing that England’s misfortune was Ireland’s opportunity, decided to rise up and take independence while the time was ripe.

On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, 1,500 Irish Volunteers, united with members of the Irish Citizens Army, marched on Dublin, occupied the General Post Office (and six other key buildings across town), and raised a green, white, and orange flag. The teacher and poet Patrick Pearse stood in front of the post office and proclaimed Ireland an independent republic.

British troops struck back—in a week of street fighting and intense shelling, some 300 died. By Saturday, the greatly outnumbered rebels had been killed or arrested. The small-scale rebellion—which failed to go national and was never popular even in Dublin—was apparently over.

The British government, however, overreacted by swiftly executing the 16 ringleaders, including Pearse. Ireland was outraged, no longer seeing the rebels as troublemakers but as martyrs. From this point on, Ireland was resolved to win its independence at all costs. A poem by W. B. Yeats, “Easter, 1916,” captured the struggle with his words: “All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.”

In the 1918 elections, the Sinn Fein party won big, but the new members of Parliament refused to go to London, instead forming their own independent Irish Parliament in Dublin. Then Irish rebels began ambushing policemen—seen as the eyes and ears of British control—sparking two years of confrontations called the War of Independence. The fledgling Irish Republican Army faced 40,000 British troops, including the notorious Black and Tans (named for the color of their clothes: black for police and tan for army-surplus uniforms). More than 1,000 people died in this war of street fighting, sniper fire, jailhouse beatings, terrorist bombs, and reprisals (for a more detailed timeline of the war and events leading up to it, see the sidebar on here).

Finally, Britain, tired of extended war after the slaughterhouse of World War I, agreed to negotiate Irish independence. But Ireland itself was a divided nation—the southern three-quarters of the island was mostly Catholic, Gaelic, rural, and for Home Rule; the northern quarter was 65 percent Protestant, English, industrial, and Unionist. The solution? In 1920, in the Government of Ireland Act, the British Parliament partitioned the island into two independent, self-governing countries within the British Commonwealth: Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State. While the northern six counties (the only ones without a Catholic majority) chose to stay with Britain as Northern Ireland, the remaining counties became the Irish Free State. (For a review of the issues between the North and the Republic, see the Northern Ireland chapter.)

Ireland’s various political factions wrestled with this compromise solution, and the island plunged into a yearlong Civil War (1922-1923). The hard-line IRA opposed the partition, unwilling to accept a divided island, an oath of loyalty to the Crown, or the remaining British navy bases on Irish soil. They waged a street war on the armies of the Irish Free State, whose leaders supported the political settlement as a stepping-stone toward future independence. Dublin and the southeast were ravaged in a year of bitter fighting before the Irish Free State, led by the charismatic young Nationalist Michael Collins, emerged victorious. The IRA went underground, moving its fight north and trying for the rest of the century to topple the government of Northern Ireland.

Out of the ashes of the Civil War came the two parties that still dominate Ireland’s politics today. Fine Gael spawned from those who approved the treaty and the creation of the Irish Free State. Fianna Fáil was founded by Eamon de Valera, the figurehead of the antitreaty side. Interestingly, Fianna Fáil, which developed from the losing side of the Civil War, has been in power 70 percent of the time since its inception.

In 1937, the Irish Free State severed more ties with the British Commonwealth, writing up a new national constitution and taking an old name—Éire (pronounced AIR-uh). This new constitution reflected De Valera’s conservative views, giving the Catholic Church “special status” and decreeing that a woman’s place was in the home. Ireland called World War II “The Emergency” and remained neutral. In 1949, the separation from Britain was completed, as the Irish Free State left the Commonwealth and officially became the Republic of Ireland.

CELTIC TIGER IN THE SOUTH, TROUBLES IN THE NORTH (1950-2000)

In the 1950s, Ireland hemorrhaged its best and brightest as emigration soared. But beginning in the 1960s, the Republic of Ireland—formerly a poor, rural region—began its transformation into a modern, economic nation. The dropping of trade-strangling tariffs lured foreign investors. In 1973, membership in the European Union opened new Continental markets to Irish trade. No longer would Britain be the dominant trade partner. At the same time, reforms to Ireland’s antiquated education system created a new generation of young people prepared for more than life on the farm.

The big social changes in the Republic were reflected in the 1990 election of Mary Robinson (a feminist lawyer who was outspoken on issues of divorce, contraception, and abortion) as the first female president of a once ultraconservative Ireland. Her much-respected seven-year tenure was followed by the equally graceful presidency of Mary McAleese (1997-2011). Born in the North, McAleese is another example of the shrinking divide between the two political states that occupy the island.

Through the late 1990s, the Republic’s booming, globalized economy grew a whopping 40 percent, and Dublin’s property values tripled (between 1995 and 2007), earning the Republic’s economy the nickname “The Celtic Tiger.” (Like elsewhere, the global recession hit hard here in 2008—the property bubble burst, sending home values plummeting and driving up unemployment.)

Meanwhile, as the Republic moved toward prosperity, Northern Ireland—with a slight Protestant majority and a large, disaffected Catholic minority—was plagued by the Troubles. In 1967, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement, inspired by the African American rights movement in the US, organized marches and demonstrations demanding equal treatment for Catholics (better housing, job opportunities, and voting rights). But they didn’t have a moral authority like Martin Luther King Jr. or a Desmond Tutu to advocate for them. Protestant Unionist Orangemen countered by continuing their marches through Catholic neighborhoods, flaunting their politically dominant position (disguised as tradition), and provoking riots. In 1969, Britain sent troops to help Northern Ireland keep the peace and met resistance from the IRA, which saw them as an occupying army supporting the Protestant pro-British majority.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, the North was a low-level battlefield, with the IRA using terrorist tactics to advance their political agenda. The Troubles, which claimed some 3,000 lives, continued with bombings, marches, hunger strikes, rock-throwing, and riots (notably Derry’s Bloody Sunday in 1972—see sidebar on here). These were interrupted by periods of cease-fires, broken cease-fires, and a string of failed peace agreements.

Then came the watershed 1998 settlement known as the Good Friday Peace Accord (to pro-Irish Nationalists) or the Belfast Agreement (to pro-British Unionists).

NORTHERN IRELAND IN THE 21ST CENTURY

The 1998 Good Friday Peace Accord gave Northern Ireland the freedom to leave the UK—if a majority of the population ever approves a referendum to do so. At the same time, the Republic of Ireland withdrew its constitutional claim to the entire island of Ireland. Northern Ireland now has limited autonomy from London, with its own democratically elected, power-sharing government. It will be up to this body to untie this stubborn Gordian knot.

After years of negotiation, in 2005 the IRA formally announced an end to its armed campaign, promising to pursue peaceful, democratic means to achieve its goals. In response, after almost 40 years, in 2007 the British Army withdrew 90 percent of its forces from Northern Ireland. In 2010, the long-awaited Saville Report—the result of a 12-year investigation by the British government—found that the Bloody Sunday shootings were unjustified, and the victims legally innocent.

Great Britain is also trying to mend its relationship with the Republic. In 2011, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since it broke away in 1921 (she has been to the North numerous times). The Queen took the gutsy step of visiting Dublin’s Croke Park stadium, where British Black and Tan troops massacred 14 people at a 1921 Gaelic football match (see sidebar on here). She also visited Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance, a quiet urban plot devoted to the 1916 Easter Rising. In 2012, she went a step further by shaking hands with ex-IRA leader and then-Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, the late Martin McGuinness. These acts of reconciliation, though controversial and dramatic, were an important step toward building an amicable relationship between the two countries.

In 2016, the unexpected British referendum vote to leave the European Union (the so-called Brexit) reshuffled the political cards in the region. Northern Ireland had voted to remain in the EU, as did Scotland. With Scotland debating its own independence from the UK, the Unionist community in Northern Ireland (which holds both their Britishness and Scottish ancestry dear) is split on whether to remain part of the UK or instead prioritize membership in the EU. One thing is certain: Only extremists want a hard border to replace the soft and cooperative one that exists today between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

GLOBAL NATIONS (2000 AND BEYOND)

In the Republic of Ireland, the challenges of immigration (new arrivals into Ireland) eventually replaced problems associated with the generations of emigration (young people leaving Ireland). Ireland once had the most liberal citizenship laws in the European Union, granting Irish citizenship to anyone born on Irish soil (even if neither parent had an Irish passport). This led to a flood of pregnant immigrant women arriving from Eastern Europe and Africa to give birth in Ireland so their children would gain EU citizenship. A 2004 Irish referendum closed that legal loophole.

During its Celtic Tiger economic boom, the Irish imported labor and temporarily surpassed the English in per-capita income—both for the first time ever. Starting in 1980, when Apple set up its European headquarters here, streams of multinational and US corporations opened offices in Ireland. Ireland has one of the youngest populations in Europe. And those young Irish, beneficiaries of one of Europe’s best education systems, provide these corporations with a highly skilled workforce. Ireland’s big pharmaceutical and software industries (although usually foreign-owned) are well-established—this little country is second only to the US in the exportation of software. The island’s close business ties to its American partners mean its economy is highly reactive to US market fluctuations. The Irish say, “When America sneezes, we get pneumonia.”

By 2003, the rising economic tide had lifted Ireland to float beside Finland as one of the two most expensive countries in the European Union. But in 2008, the irrationally exuberant Irish housing bubble burst, wiping out retirement nest eggs. By 2011 that tide had receded: The global recession was a cold shower on Ireland’s long period of economic good times, and the Irish economy fell further, by percentage, than any other EU country during that period.

The final stage of this humbling financial buzzkill came in the fall of 2010, when the EU bailed out Ireland’s teetering banks (an event wedged painfully between similar bailouts in Greece and Portugal). To Ireland’s credit, it fulfilled its banking obligations and bounced back from the bailout faster than the other troubled European economies. Now the Irish economy is growing again. Help-wanted signs and expanded road construction are visible evidence of a resurgence.

As 2016 marked the hundredth anniversary of the Easter Rising, the Irish could look back in amazement at the highs and lows of its turbulent first hundred years of modern nationhood. No longer an agricultural backwater in the shadow of British colonial domination, the country has forged a unique identity and proved it can compete successfully in the ever-accelerating 21st century. In the past decade, the Irish enjoyed views from their lofty Celtic Tiger peak (with the hottest economy in the EU) and then suffered the helpless free fall of the merciless global recession. But now the roller coaster has bottomed out and tentative “green shoots” have given way to blossoming optimism once again.

While the Irish are embracing the new economies and industries of the 21st century, some still see their island as an oasis of morality and traditional values when it comes to sex and marriage. A seismic shift began when homosexuality was decriminalized in 1993. In 2015, the doors were blown off the closet when the Republic of Ireland became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage by a referendum (62 percent were in favor). In 2017, 38-year-old Leo Varadkar became the new Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland...as the openly gay son of an Indian immigrant. And in 2018, Ireland voted to repeal a decades-old ban on abortion.

Irish Brogue with a Polish Accent

Walking down the street in an Irish city these days, you might overhear an unfamiliar language. It’s Polish, and it is to Ireland what Spanish is to the US: the language needed to communicate with a huge immigrant population. Polish food sections are popping up in grocery stores, and English-Polish menus appearing in some restaurants. Ask that chambermaid or waiter with the unusual accent where they’re from; the likely response is Warsaw or Kraków.

When 10 mostly Eastern European nations joined the EU in 2004, Ireland’s booming economy at that time needed a cheap labor force to fill the growing number of minimum-wage jobs. Hardworking, ambitious young Poles headed west to the land of opportunity. Ireland was their first choice because of its Catholicism, stronger economy, and opportunity to learn English (the international language of business). From 2006 to 2011, the number of Polish residents in the Republic of Ireland increased by 93.7 percent, beating out UK nationals as the largest group of non-Irish nationals living in Ireland. And Polish has replaced Irish Gaelic as Ireland’s second most-spoken language.

The Catholic Church, once the main moral force in Irish society, is becoming less influential. The popular demands of the youngest population in Europe will likely continue to push the Irish government to make changes on birth control (which is employed here at rates lower than in any other EU nation) and divorce (which requires that strict conditions be met).

Irish Art

Megalithic tombs, ancient gold- and metalwork, illuminated manuscripts, high crosses carved in stone, paintings of rural Ireland, and provocative political murals—Ireland comes with some fascinating art. To best appreciate this art in your travels, kick off your tour in Ireland’s two top museums, both in Dublin: the National Museum of Ireland and the National Gallery. Each provides a good context to help you enjoy Irish art and architecture—from ancient to modern and both rural and urban. Here’s a quick survey.

Megalithic Period: During the Stone Age, 5,000 years ago, farmers living in the Boyne Valley, north of Dublin, built a “cemetery” of approximately 40 burial mounds. The most famous of these mound tombs is the passage tomb at Newgrange (part of Brú na Bóinne). About 250 feet across, 40 feet high, and composed of 200,000 tons of loose stone, Newgrange was constructed so that the light from the winter solstice sunrise (Dec 21) would pass through the eastern entrance to the tomb, travel down a 60-foot passage, and illuminate the inner burial chamber (not bad engineering for Stone Age architects). The effect is now re-created daily, so visitors can experience this ancient ritual of renewal and rebirth any time of year (see the Near Dublin chapter).

Some of Europe’s best examples of megalithic (big rock) art are also at Newgrange. Carved on the tomb’s stones are zigzags, chevrons, parallel arcs, and concentric spirals. Scholars think these designs symbolize a belief in the eternal cycle of life and the continuation of the life force, or that they pay homage to the elements in nature on which these ancient peoples depended for their existence.

Exploring these burial mounds (only Newgrange and Knowth are open to the public), you begin to understand the reverence that these ancient people had for nature, and the need they felt to bury their dead in these great mound tombs, returning their kin to the womb of Mother Earth.

Bronze Age: As ancient Irish cultures developed from 2000 B.C., so did their metalworking skills. Gold and bronze were used to create tools, jewelry, and religious objects. (The National Museum: Archaeology in Dublin houses the most dazzling of these works.) Gold neck rings worn by both men and women, cufflink-like dress fasteners, bracelets, and lock rings (to hold hair in place) are just a few of the personal adornments fashioned by the ancient Irish.

Most of these objects were deliberately buried, often in bogs, as votive offerings to their gods or to prevent warring tribes from stealing them. Like the earlier megaliths, they’re decorated with geometric and organic motifs.

Iron Age: The Celts, a warrior society from Central Europe, arrived in Ireland perhaps as early as the seventh century B.C. With their metalworking skills and superior iron weaponry, they soon overwhelmed the native population. And, though the Celts may have been fierce warriors, they wreaked havoc with a flair for the aesthetic. Shields, swords, and scabbards were embellished with delicate patterns, often enhanced with vivid colors. The dynamic energy of these decorations must have reflected the ferocious power of the Celts.

The Age of Saints and Scholars: Christianity grew in Ireland from St. Patrick’s first efforts in the fifth century A.D. In the sixth and seventh centuries, its many great saints (such as St. Columba) established monastic settlements throughout Ireland, Britain, and the Continent, where learning, literature, and the arts flourished. During this Golden Age of Irish civilization, monks, along with metalworkers and stonemasons, created imaginative designs and distinctive stylistic motifs for manuscripts, metal objects, and crosses.

Monks wrote out and richly decorated manuscripts of the Gospels. These manuscripts—which preserved the written word in Latin, Greek, and Irish—eventually had more power than the oral tales of the ancient pagan heroes.

The most beautiful and imaginative of these illuminated manuscripts is the Book of Kells (c. A.D. 800), on display in the Old Library at Trinity College in Dublin. Crafted by Irish monks at a monastery on the Scottish island of Iona, the book was brought to Ireland for safekeeping from rampaging Vikings. The skins of 150 calves were used to make the vellum, which is painted with rich pigments from plants and minerals. The entire manuscript is colorfully decorated with flat, stylized human or angelic forms and intricate, interlacing animal and knot patterns. Full-page illustrations depict the life of Christ, and many pages are given over to highly complex yet symmetrical designs that resemble an Eastern carpet. Many consider this book the finest piece of art from Europe’s Dark Ages.

The most renowned metalwork of this period is the Ardagh Chalice, made sometime in the eighth century. Now on display at the National Museum: Archaeology in Dublin, the silver and bronze gilt chalice is as impressive as the Book of Kells. Ribbons of gold wrap around the chalice stem, while intricate knot patterns ring the cup. A magnificent gold ring and a large glass stone on the chalice bottom reflect the desire to please God. (He would see this side of the chalice when the priest drank during the Mass.)

The monks used Irish high crosses to celebrate the triumph of Christianity and to provide a means of educating the illiterate masses through simple stone carvings. The Cross of Murdock (Muiredach’s Cross, A.D. 923) is 18 feet tall, towering over the remains of the monastic settlement at Monasterboice. It is but one of many monumental crosses that you’ll come across throughout Ireland. Typically, stone carvers depicted Bible stories and surrounded these with the same intricate patterns seen in the Book of Kells and the Ardagh Chalice.

Early Irish art focused on organic, geometric, and linear designs. Unlike Mediterranean art, Irish art of this early period was not preoccupied with a naturalistic representation of people, animals, or the landscape. Instead, it reflects Irish society’s rituals and the elements and rhythms of nature.

Suppression and Revival of Native Irish Art: After invading Ireland in 1169, the English suppressed Celtic Irish culture. English traditions in architecture, painting, and literature replaced native styles until the late 19th century, when revivals in Irish language, folklore, music, and art began to surface.

Painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries went to the west of Ireland, which was less affected by English dominance and influence, in search of traditional Irish subject matter. Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957, brother of the poet W. B. Yeats), Belfast-born painter Paul Henry (1876-1958), and Sean Keating (1889-1977) were among those who looked to the west for inspiration. The National Gallery in Dublin holds many of these artists’ greatest works, with an entire gallery dedicated to Jack Yeats. Many of his early paintings illustrate scenes of his beloved Sligo. His later paintings are more expressionistic in style and patriotic in subject matter.

Henry’s paintings depict the rugged beauty of the Connemara region and its people, with scenes of rustic cottages, mountains, and boglands. Keating, the most political of the three painters, featured stirring scenes from Ireland’s struggle against the English for independence.

Contemporary Irish art is often linked to the social, political, and environmental issues that face Ireland today. Themes include the position of the Church in the daily lives of the modern Irish, the effects of development on the countryside, the changing roles of women in Ireland, and the Troubles. Look for this provocative art at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin (on Military Road, www.imma.ie) and at city galleries.

Today’s Irish respect the artistic process, so much so that a provision in the tax system in the Republic of Ireland allows income from art sales to go untaxed. This is one reason many artists immigrate to Ireland.

In Northern Ireland, murals in sectarian neighborhoods (such as the Shankill and Falls roads in Belfast and the Bogside in Derry) are stirring public testaments to the martyrs and heroes of the Troubles.

To learn more about Irish history, consider Europe 101: History and Art for the Traveler, written by Rick Steves and Gene Openshaw (available at www.ricksteves.com).

Irish Literature

Since the Book of Kells, Ireland’s greatest contributions to the world of art have been through words. As there was no Irish Gaelic written language, the inhabitants of Ireland were illiterate until Christianity came in the fourth century. Far from ignorant, Celtic society maintained a complex set of laws and historical records and legends...verbally. The druid priests and bards who passed down this rich oral tradition from generation to generation were the most respected members of the clan, next to the king. After Christianity transformed Ireland into a refuge of literacy (while the rest of Europe crumbled into the Dark Ages), Charlemagne’s imported Irish monks invented “minuscule,” which became the basis of the lowercase letters we use in our alphabet today. The cultural importance placed on the word (spoken, and for the past 1,500 years, written) is today reflected in the rich output of modern Irish writers.

Three hundred years ago, Dublin native Jonathan Swift created his masterpiece, Gulliver’s Travels, as an acidic satire of British colonialism. It pokes fun at religious hard-liners and the pompous bureaucrats in London who shaped England’s misguided Irish policies, and ironically has survived as a children’s classic.

William Butler Yeats, also born and raised in Dublin, dedicated his early writings in the 1880s to the “Celtic Twilight” rebirth of pride in mythic Irish heroes and heroines. His early poems and plays are filled with fairies and idyllic rural innocence, while his later poems reflect Ireland’s painful transition to independence. Yeats’ Nobel Prize for literature (1923) was eventually matched by three later, Nobel-winning Irish authors: George Bernard Shaw (1925), Samuel Beckett (1969), and Seamus Heaney (1995).

Oscar Wilde, born in Dublin and a graduate of Trinity College, wowed London with his quick wit, outrageous clothes, and flamboyant personality. Wilde wrote the darkly fascinating novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) and skewered upper-class Victorian society in witty comedic plays (such as The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895), with characters who speak very elegantly about the trivial concerns of the idle rich. He was the toast of London in the 1890s—before the scandal of his homosexuality turned Victorian society against him. Meanwhile, Bram Stoker was conjuring up a Gothic thriller called Dracula (1897).

Most inventive of all, perhaps, was James Joyce, who broke new ground and captured literary lightning in a bottle when he focused on Dublin’s seedier side in a modern, stream-of-consciousness style. His famous novel Ulysses, set on a single day (June 16, 1904), follows Dubliners on an odyssey through the city’s pubs, hospitals, libraries, churches, and brothels.

The Abbey Theatre (championed by W. B. Yeats) was the world’s first national theater, built to house plays intended to give a voice to Ireland’s flowering playwrights. When J. M. Synge staged The Playboy of the Western World there in 1907, his unflattering comic portrayal of Irish peasant life (and mention of women’s underwear) caused riots. Twenty years later, Sean O’Casey provoked more riots at the Abbey when his Plough and the Stars production depicted the 1916 Rising in a way that was at odds with the audience’s cherished views of their heroes.

In recent decades, the bittersweet Irish literary parade has been inhabited by tragically volcanic characters like Brendan Behan, who exclaimed, “I’m not a writer with a drinking problem...I’m a drinker with a writing problem.” Bleak poverty experienced in childhood was the catalyst for Frank McCourt’s memorable Angela’s Ashes. Among the most celebrated of today’s Irish writers is Roddy Doyle, whose feel for working-class Dublin resonates in his novels of contemporary life (such as The Commitments) as well as in historical slices of life (such as A Star Called Henry). Seamus Heaney, a poet who has won the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, published a new translation in 1999 of the Old English epic Beowulf—wedding the old with the new.

Irish Language

The Irish have a rich oral tradition that goes back to their ancient fireside storytelling days. Part of the fun of traveling here is getting an ear for the way locals express themselves.

Irish Gaelic is one of four surviving Celtic languages, along with Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton (spoken in parts of French Brittany). A couple of centuries ago, there were seven surviving Celtic languages. But Cornish (spoken in Cornwall) is on life support, and two others—Manx (from the Isle of Man) and Gallaic (spoken in Northern Spain)—have died out. Some proud Irish choose to call their native tongue “Irish” instead of “Gaelic” to ensure that there is no confusion with what is spoken in parts of Scotland.

Only 165 years ago, the majority of the Irish population spoke Irish Gaelic. But most of the speakers were of the poor laborer class that either died or emigrated during the Famine. After the Famine, Irish Gaelic was seen as a badge of backwardness. Parents and teachers understood that English was the language that would serve children best when they emigrated to better lives in the US, Canada, Australia, or England. Children in schools wore a tally stick around their necks, and a notch was cut by teachers each time a child was caught speaking Irish. At the end of the day, the child received a whack for each notch in the stick. It wasn’t until the resurgence of cultural pride, brought on by the Gaelic League in 1884, that an attempt was made to promote use of the language again.

These days, less than 5 percent of the Irish population is fluent in their native tongue. However, it’s taken seriously enough that all national laws passed must first be written in Irish, then translated into English. Irish Gaelic can be heard most often in the western counties of Kerry, Galway, Mayo, and Donegal. Each of these counties has a slightly different dialect. You’ll know you’re entering an Irish Gaelic-speaking area when you see a sign saying Gaeltacht (GAIL-takt).

Irish Gaelic doesn’t use the letters j, k, q, x, or z. And there’s no “th” sound—which you can hear today when an Irish person says something like “turdy-tree” (33, mostly in the Dublin accent). There is also no equivalent of the simple words “yes” or “no.” Instead, answers are given in the affirmative or negative rephrasing of the question. For example, a question like “Did you mail the letter today?” would be answered with “I did,” rather than a simple “yes.” Or “It’s a nice day today, isn’t it?” would be answered with “It is,” or “’Tis.”

IRISH PUB AND MUSIC WORDS

The Irish love to socialize. Pubs are like public living rooms, where friends gather in a corner to play tunes and anyone is a welcome guest. Here are some useful pub and music words:

Irish	English
poitín (po-CHEEN)	moonshine, homemade liquor
craic (crack)	fun atmosphere, good conversation
bodhrán (BO-run)	traditional drum
uilleann (ILL-in)	elbow (uilleann pipes are elbow bagpipes)
trad (trad)	traditional Irish music
ceilidh (KAY-lee)	Irish dance gathering
fleadh (flah)	music festival
Slainte! (SLAWN-chuh)	Cheers! (To your health!)
Táim súgach! (taw im SOO-gakh)	I’m tipsy!
lei thras (LEH-hrass)	Toilets
mná (min-AW)	women’s room
fír (fear)	men’s room

IRISH POLITICS

Politics is a popular topic of conversation in Ireland. Whether you pick up a local newspaper or turn on your car radio, you’re likely to encounter these Irish political terms in the media:

Irish	English
Taoiseach (TEE-shock)	Prime minister of Irish Republic
Seanad (SHAN-ud)	Irish Senate
Dáil (DOY-ill)	Irish House of Representatives
Teachta Dála (TD) (TALK-tah DOLL-ah)	Member of Irish Parliament
Fine Gael (FEE-nuh GWAIL)	Political party “Clan of the Gaels”
Fine Fáil (FEE-nuh FOIL)	Political party “Soldiers of Destiny”
Sinn Féin (shin-FAIN)	Political party “We Ourselves”

IRISH WORDS

Here are a few words that appear in Irish place names. You’ll see these on road signs or at tourist sights.

Irish	English
alt (ahlt)	cliff
an lár (ahn lar)	city center
ard (ard)	high, height, hillock
baile (BALL-yah)	town, town land
beag (beg)	little
bearna (bar-na)	gap
boireann (burr-en)	large rock, rocky area
bóthar (boh-er)	road
bun (bun)	end, bottom
caiseal (CASH-el)	circular stone fort
caisleán (cash-LAWN)	castle
cathair (CAHT-her)	circular stone fort, city
cill (kill)	church
cloch (clockh)	stone
doire (dih-ruh)	oak
droichead (DROCKH-ed)	bridge
drumlin (DRUM-lin)	small hill
dún (doon)	fort
fionn (fi-UN)	white, fair-haired person
gaeltacht (GAIL-takt)	Irish language district
gall (gaul)	foreigner
garda (gar-dah)	police officer
gort (gort)	field
inis (in-ish)	island
mileac (MIL-yach)	low marshy ground
mór (mor)	large
muc (muck)	pig
oifig an phoist (UFF-ig un fusht)	post office
poll (poll)	hole, cave
rath (rath)	ancient earthen fort
ros (ross)	wood or headland
sí (shee)	fairy mound, bewitching
slí (slee)	route, way
sliabh (sleeve)	mountain
sráid (shrayd)	street
teach (chockh)	house
trá (traw)	beach, strand

IRISH PLEASANTRIES

When you reach the more remote western fringe of Ireland, you’re likely to hear folks speaking Irish. Although locals in these areas can readily converse with you in English, it’s fascinating to hear their ancient Celtic language spoken. Here are some basic Irish phrases:

Irish	English
Fáilte. (FAHLT-chuh or FAHLT-uh)	Welcome.
Conas tá tú? (CONN-us A-ta too)	How are you?
Go raibh maith agat. (guh rov mah UG-ut)	Thank you.
Slán. (slawn)	Bye.
Dia dhuit. (DEA-gwitch)	God be with you.

IRISH NAMES

Here are some of the most common Celtic first names you’ll encounter in your travels. Amaze your new Irish friends by pronouncing them correctly, or at least not mangling them.

Irish	English
Aoife (EE-fuh)	Ava
Áine (ON-yuh)	Anna
Eammon (A-mun)	Edmond
Liam (LEE-um)	William
Mairéad (mahr-AID)	Margaret
Michael (ME-hall)	Michael
Niall (NILE)	Neil
Pádraig (POD-rig)	Patrick
Peadar (PAD-er)	Peter
Roisín (ROW-sheen)	Rosaleen
Seamus (SHAME-us)	James
Sean (SHAWN)	John
Sinéad (shin-AID)	Jane
Siobhán (shiv-AWN)	Joan

Irish-Yankee Vocabulary

If some of these words seem more British than Irish, those are ones you’re likely to hear more often in Northern Ireland (part of the UK).

advert: advertisement

anticlockwise: counterclockwise

aubergine: eggplant

banger: sausage

bang on: correct

banjaxed: messed up

bank holiday: government holiday

bar: except

beer mat: coaster

bespoke: custom

billion: a thousand of our billions (a trillion)

biro: ballpoint pen

biscuit: cookie

Black Mariah: police van

black pudding: sausage made from pig’s blood

black stuff: Guinness

blather: rambling, empty talk

blinkered: narrow-minded

bloody: damn (from medieval blasphemy: “Christ’s blood”)

blow off: fart

boffin: nerd

bog: slang for toilet

boho: bohemian

bolshy: argumentative

bonnet: car hood

boot: car trunk

braces: suspenders

bridle way: path for walkers, bikers, and horse riders

brilliant: cool

bum: bottom or “backside”

busker: street musician

cacks: trousers, underpants

candy floss: cotton candy

caravan: trailer

car boot sale: temporary flea market, often for charity

car park: parking lot

carry on: nonsense

casualty: emergency room

cat’s eyes: road reflectors

ceilidh (pronounced “KAY-lee”): dance, party

champ: mashed potatoes and onions

chemist: pharmacist

chicory: endive

chippy: fish-and-chips shop

chips: French fries

chock-a-block: jam-packed

chuffed: pleased

cider: alcoholic apple cider

clearway: road where you can’t stop

coach: long-distance bus

concession: discounted admission

cos: romaine lettuce

cotton buds: cotton swabs

courgette: zucchini

craic (pronounced “crack”): fun, good conversation

crèche (pronounced “creesh”): preschool

crisps: potato chips

Croker: Croke Park (GAA Dublin sports stadium)

crusties: New Age hippies

culchie: hick, country yokel

cuppa: cup of tea

CV: résumé (curriculum vitae)

Da: father

deadly: really good

dear: expensive

digestives: round graham crackers

dinner: lunch or dinner

diversion: detour

dodgy: iffy, risky

dole: welfare

done and dusted: completed

donkey’s years: until the cows come home, forever

draughts (pronounced “drafts”): checkers

draw: marijuana

dual carriageway: divided highway (four lanes)

Dubs: people from Dublin

Dutch courage: alcohol-induced bravery

eejit: moron

Emergency, The: World War II

en suite: bathroom attached to room

face flannel: washcloth

fair play (to you): well done, good job

fanny: vagina

fiddler’s fart: worthless thing

first floor: second floor (one floor above ground)

fiver: five-euro note

flat: apartment

fluthered: drunk

flutter: a bet

football: Gaelic football

fortnight: two weeks

full monty: the whole shebang, everything

GAA: Gaelic Athletic Association

gallery: balcony

gammon: ham

gangway: aisle

gaol: jail (same pronunciation)

Garda: police

gargle: to have an alcoholic drink

gasman: the life of the party

give way: yield

giving out: chewing out, yelling at

glen: valley

gob: mouth

gobsmacked: astounded

grand: good, well (“How are you?” “I’m grand, thanks”)

guards: police (Garda)

gurrier: hooligan

half eight: 8:30 (not 7:30)

hen night: bachelorette party

holiday: vacation

homely: likable or cozy

hooley: party or informal shindig

hoover: vacuum cleaner

hurling: Irish field hockey

iced lolly: popsicle

interval: intermission

ironmonger: hardware store

jacket potato: baked potato

jacks: toilet

jars: drinks (alcohol)

jelly: Jell-O

Joe Soap: dim stranger

jumble: sale, rummage sale

jumper: sweater

just a tick: just a second

kipper: smoked herring

knackered: exhausted

knickers: ladies’ panties

knocked: torn down (buildings)

knocking shop: brothel

knock up: wake up or visit

ladybird: ladybug

lash: a try (“give it a lash”)

left luggage: baggage check

let: rent

lift: elevator

listed: protected historic building

lorry: truck

Ma, Mam, Mammy: mother

mac: mackintosh (trench) coat

mangetout: snow peas

mate: buddy (boy or girl)

mean: stingy

mental: crazy

minced meat: hamburger

minerals: soft drinks

mobile (MOH-bile): cellphone

mod cons: modern conveniences (not convicts in bell-bottoms)

naff: dorky, tacky

nappy: diaper

natter: talk and talk

“Norn Iron”: Northern Ireland

nought: zero

noughties: the decade from 2000-2009

noughts & crosses: tic-tac-toe

OAP: old-age pensioner (qualified for senior discounts)

off-license: liquor store

Oirish: exaggerated Irish accent

on offer: for sale

paddywhackery: exaggerated Irish accent

paralytic: passed-out drunk

pasty (PASS-tee): crusted savory (usually meat) pie

pavement: sidewalk

pear-shaped: messed up, gone wrong

petrol: gas

pissed (rude), paralytic, bevvied, wellied, popped up, ratted, pissed as a newt: drunk

pitch: playing field

plaster: Band-Aid

publican: pub manager

pull: to attract romantic attention

punter: partygoer, customer

put a sock in it: shut up

quay (pronounced “key”): waterside street, ship offloading area

queue: line

queue up: line up

quick smart: immediately

quid: pound (money in Northern Ireland, worth about $1.40)

ramps: speed bumps

randy: horny

rat run: shortcut

redundant, made: laid off

return ticket: round-trip

ride: have sex with

ring up: call (telephone)

ROI: Republic of Ireland

roundabout: traffic circle

RTE: Irish Republic’s broadcast network

rubber: eraser

runners: tennis shoes

sanitary towel: sanitary pad

sat-nav: satellite navigation technology

sausage roll: sausage wrapped in a flaky pastry (like a pig in a blanket)

scarlet: embarrassed

Scotch egg: hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat

self-catering: apartment with kitchen

sellotape: Scotch tape

serviette: napkin

session: musical evening

shag: have sex with

shag all: hardly any

shebeen: illegal drinking hole

single ticket: one-way ticket

skint: broke, poor

skip: Dumpster

slag: to ridicule, tease

smalls: underwear

snogging: kissing, making out

solicitor: lawyer

sort out: figure out, organize

spanner: wrench

spend a penny: urinate

splash out: splurge

stag night: bachelor party

starkers: buck naked

starters: appetizers

stick: criticism

stone: 14 pounds (weight)

strand: beach

stroppy: bad-tempered

subway: underground pedestrian passageway

sultanas: golden raisins

surgical spirit: rubbing alcohol

swede: rutabaga

take the mickey: tease

tatty: worn out or tacky

taxi rank: taxi stand

tenner: 10-euro note

theatre: live stage

tick: a check mark

tight as a Scotsman (derogatory): cheapskate

tights: panty hose

Tipp: County Tipperary

tipper lorry: dump truck

tin: can

to let: for rent

top up: refill a drink or your mobile-phone credit

torch: flashlight

towpath: path along a river

trad: traditional music

Travellers: itinerants, once known as Tinkers

turf accountant: bookie

twee: corny, too cute

twitcher: bird-watcher

verge: grassy edge of road

victualler: butcher

wain: small child

way out: exit

wee (v.): urinate

wee (n.): tiny (in the North)

Wellingtons, wellies: rubber boots

whacked: exhausted

whinge (rhymes with hinge): whine

witter on: gab and gab

woolies: warm clothes

your man: that guy, this guy

zebra crossing: crosswalk

zed: the letter Z