Interesting Fun Facts About Ireland

Interesting fun facts about Ireland? Where to start?

Initially I was just going to list 10 interesting fun facts about Ireland but this was too restrictive. There are so many areas to be covered and even at that what I might consider to be fun facts, another might consider them not to be in the least bit interesting.

So what I am going to do with these Ireland facts is just reel off these facts about Ireland in loosely appropriate groups and hope that some of them are either fun or interesting or even better both fun and interesting. I will add more over time and when I figure out how to categorizes them a little better. It's very subjective, and just like our sense of humor, not to everyone's taste. So here goes.

Interesting Fun Facts About Ireland ~Part 1

Fact from the last Irish census, Sean was the most popular boys name and Emma was the most popular girls name.

Ireland has won the Nobel prize for literature on four occasions with George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney.

Irish aviation fact = Shannon became the worlds first duty free airport in 1947

There is no death penalty in Ireland.

Ireland is a neutral state and is not a member of N.A.T.O.

The famous Titanic ship was built in Belfast.

Henry Ford of Ford Motor Company was the son of an Irish emigrant.

John Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the U.S.A.was born in Massachusetts in 1917. The Kennedy family were descendants of Irish emigrants to the U.S.A. in the nineteenth century.

Kilkenny born architect James Hoban designed the White House and also the official residence of the Irish president, Aras an Uachtarain.

Bushmills, Couny Antrim is the Worlds Oldest Whiskey Distillery based on the undisputed fact that a seven year licence to distil dating from April 20th 1608 is attributed to the distillery. Located near the village of Bushmills in Co. Antrim. It is though that distilling may have begun on the site as early as the thirteenth century, but the first permit was granted by James VI and I to Sir Thomas Phillipps, a local landowner, in 1608.

The home of Guinness is in Dublin.The famous Guinness Brewery at St.James' Gate, Dublin has a 9,000 year lease.

One of the largest and most famous festivals in the world starts on St.Patrick's Day ,March 17th when over 500,00 people will throng the streets of Dublin to watch the St.Patrick's Day Parade.

The island of Ireland is politically seperated into two divisions the Republic of Ireland with 26 counties and Northern Ireland with 6 counties.Ireland is traditionally divided into the four provinces of Leinster, Munster, Connacht, and Ulster. Most of Ulster is now part of Northern Ireland.

The Republic of Ireland is divided into 26 counties. They are the counties of Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford, and Wicklow, in Leinster Province; Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford, in Munster Province; Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo, in Connacht Province; and Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan, in Ulster Province. Each county is governed by at least one county council.

The Irish Police force,Gardai, are unarmed, detectives however do carry firearms.

An interesting fact is that The Book of Kells is sometimes referred to as The Book of Columbia.

Did you know this fact? Dublin's O'Connell street is named after Daniel O'Connell but was called Sackville Street Prior to this.

Interesting Fun Facts About Ireland ~Part 2

How about this fact, there is a village in Kerry called Inch and on a road sign outside the village there is this "Inch 1 Mile". Confusing or what?

An Irish person will often greet you with the expression "how are ye(you)?, the simple fact is that they are being polite, they do not want your medical history, the normal reply would be along the lines of, "not too bad now, and yourself?" or "can't complain now, thanks." You might also be asked "how ye keeping?" this means the same thing as above and merits the same reply.

There are more mobile phones in Ireland than there are people.

Interesting facts recently released show that there are now more Polish speakers in Ireland than native Irish Speakers. Over 5% percent of the population of Ireland is Polish.

Watch out for the Irish sense of humor particularly in regard to death and religion and relationships. There are many many examples , this is just a taste.

It is a fact that Irish humor can be hilarious,morbid and scathing at the same time these are just a few examples.

An Irishman will always soften bad news, so that a major coronary is no more than 'a bad turn' and a near hurricane that leaves thousands homeless is 'good drying weather'.Hugh Leonard

My grandmother made dying her life's work.Hugh Leonard

There are so many strange things in the world beyond our knowledge, and maybe there are ghosts too, though I do not understand why they should come back to this world when they have gone from it. Peig Sayers

Definition of an 'Irish fact':That which tells you not what is the case but what you want to hear.Hugh Kenner

Interesting Fun Facts About Ireland in General

Ireland is the third largest island in Europe and the twenty sixth largest island in the world.

Ireland has an area of 70,273 sq km (27,133 sq miles)

The longest river in Ireland, the Shannon is also the longest river in the British Isles.

Ireland is a country of many rivers and lakes, lakes are referred to as loughs (pronounced as locks)e.g. Lough Swilly.

Ireland has no snakes.

Ireland’s constitution guarantees freedom of worship.

As I said at the outset it is difficult to know exactly what is interestng and what is fun about these facts of Ireland. It depends on your perspective, I hope however that you have found some of these to be interesting fun facts about Ireland. Return to homepage of Irish Recipes from Interesting Fun Facts About Ireland

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