Interesting facts about Ireland
People & Culture
The Irish consume in average 131.1 liters of beer per year - the 2nd highest per-capita consumption after the Czech Republic.
Famous Irish breweries include Guinness, Smithwicks (Kilkenny), and Harp Lager.
The three most famous symbols of Ireland are the green Shamrock, the harp, and the Celtic cross.
88% of Irish citizens are nominally Roman Catholic. The Republic of Ireland has one of the highest rates of church attendance in the Western World (around 45% of regular Mass attendance).
The ancestral language of Irish people is Irish Gaelic. Nowadays 1.6 million people claiming a self-reported competence in Irish, but only 380,000 fluent speakers remain.
Many Irish family names start with "Mac" or "O'...", which means respectively "son of ..." and "grandson of ..." in Gaelic.
Famous Irish people
Notable Hollywood actors from the Republic of Ireland include Barry Fitzgerald, Maureen O'Sullivan, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne, Daniel Day Lewis (by citizenship), Colm Meaney, Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy.
Other actors or actresses of Irish descent include : Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin, George Clooney, Macaulay Culkin, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Heather Graham, and Bill Murray.
Ireland is one of the world leader for pop music, with singers and bands like Horslips, U2, Thin Lizzy, Boomtown Rats, The Corrs, Clannad, Boyzone, Ronan Keating, The Cranberries, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Westlife and Enya. Add to this artists of Irish descent like Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison of the Beatles, Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher of Oasis, Bruce Springsteen, or Johnny Rotten (lead singer of the Sex Pistols).
History
Prior to the annexation to England, then the United Kingdom, Ireland was never unified under a single monarchy like other European countries. Instead there were hundreds of minor kings waging war with one another on a nearly permanent basis. In this regard and many others, Irish society remained very much like ancient Britain, Gaul or Iberia before the Roman conquest.
Ireland was one of the last countries in Europe to adopt the feudal system (it was introduced by the English). Throughout the Middle Ages, Irish society preserved the traditional Celtic organisation of society based on tribes/clans. The absence of feudalism means that there were no serfs, but slaves. Ireland was one of the last European nation to abolish slavery of its own people (as opposed to slaves imported from abroad).
The land in Ireland was not suitable for grain agriculture (except a small part of the South-East) until the introduction of modern machiery and fertilizers in the 20th century. This is the main reason why the potato became the staple food from the early 17th century onwards. Before that, the Irish relied mostly on stockbreeding, probably since the Proto-Celts (descending from the Indo-Europeans from the Pontic steppes) settled on the island around 2000 BCE.
The Irish are now some of the most fervently Catholic Europeans (along with the Poles). Yet, Ireland was the last Western European country to adopt Catholicism. Until the 15th century the Irish belonged to the Celtic Church, and mass was universally given in Gaelic, not Latin (as was the norm then). Ironically the Irish joined the Roman Catholic Church at the time when Henry VIII founded the Anglican Church, independent from Rome.
Irish people around the world
It is estimated that over 80 million people of Irish descent live outside Ireland, in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa and states of the Caribbean and continental Europe. This is 14 times more than the population of Ireland (including Northern Ireland) itself ! 3 million of these emigrants still hold Irish nationality.
Roughly 34 million Americans reported Irish ancestry in the 2000 US Census, which makes it the second largest ethnic group after the German Americans. The highest concentration of Irish Americans is in the North-East (New York and New England).
About half of the population of Australia can claim Irish ancestry.
Many prominent politicians in the Western world were of Irish descent. For instance :
John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States.
Brian Mulroney, 18th Prime Minister of Canada
Patrice MacMahon, duc de Magenta, first President of the Third French Republic.
James Callaghan was Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979.
James Scullin, Prime Minister of Australia from 1929 to 1932.
Joseph Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia from 1932 to 1939.
John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia from 1941 to 1945.
Paul Keating, Prime Minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996.
Bernardo O'Higgins, first President of Chile, and his father, Viceroy of Peru Ambrosio O'Higgins, Marquis of Osorno.
Chaim Herzog, 6th President of Israel
Government & Economy
Ireland is the only EU country where abortion is still illegal (except to protect the mother's life).
The Republic of Ireland has experienced a dramatic economic boom since the late 20th century. It now boasts the 2nd highst GDP per capita in the EU (after Luxembourg), 4th highest Human Development Index in world, 3rd highest economic freedom worldwide, and the best political rights and civil liberties.
American hi-tech companies have been investing massively in Ireland. 25% of Europe's computers are now made in Ireland. Ireland is the world's largest exporter of software. The European (or regional) headquarters and/or customer service operations of Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Dell, Intel, Motorola, Oracle, Lotus, and Boeing Computer Services are all located in Ireland.