1. Question: What are some of the “things” or activities that people in Ireland do for fun?

Answer:

It’s endless: Golf – with over 300 golf courses, Ireland has one of the most golf courses per capita in the world – and hiking in Ireland’s brilliantly coloured green terrain quickly come to mind. Team sports such as Gaelic football, rugby and camogie (camógaíocht) – an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women, which is almost identical to the game of hurling – is played by over 100,000 women in Ireland alone. Equestrian sports are also very popular, like racing, show-jumping, and cross-country riding. During the summer there is bowling on the roads in the evenings. From the stationary to the active, the Irish enjoy traditional Irish music pub crawls and an awesome walls climbing centre in Dublin. For a famous walk of remembrance, there’s an annual famine walk between Louisburgh and Doolough in southwest County Mayo, which commemorates the Doolough Tragedy that took place during the Great Irish Famine. The walk retraces the route where hundreds of destitute and starving people had undertaken to a location where they were promised to receive food, only to be turned away. Later, the bodies of people, including women and children, were subsequently discovered on the roadside between Delphi and Louisburgh. A monument in Doolough Valley has an inscription from Mahatma Gandhi: “How can men feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.”

2. What are a few things the public probably does NOT know about Ireland?

Answer:

Being drunk in public is against the law: Despite what many tourists believe about the Irish and our drinking habits, drinking in public is actually illegal across Ireland. The only day of the year when this law is slightly bent is on St. Patrick’s Day when there simply aren’t enough police officers to monitor the one million plus tourists on the streets of Dublin. The law is a fairly new one. It is also illegal to be drunk in a pub… but that’s a law that’s rarely enforced!

St. Patrick wasn’t Irish: Contrary to popular belief, and despite being the Patron Saint of Ireland, St. Patrick was not actually from Ireland. Born in Wales around 386 AD, he was captured by the Irish and sold into slavery, working as a shepherd in the West of Ireland. Later in life, he returned to Ireland as a missionary, helping to spread Christianity in Ireland.

There were never any snakes in Ireland: While many tell the tale of St. Patrick banishing snakes from Ireland, the truth is that there have never been wild snakes on the island of Ireland. After the Ice Age, the snakes inhabiting Britain were never able to make it across the water to the island.

The shamrock is not the national symbol of Ireland: The shamrock is recognised around the world as a symbol of Ireland, but the harp is actually the official National Symbol of Ireland.

Halloween originated in Ireland: Halloween as we know it today actually originates from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when the people would light bonfires and wear scary costumes to ward off unwelcome spirits. Samhain is an old Gaelic word which translates to ‘darker half’, thus marking the beginning of winter.

3. Share some aspect of what Ireland has contributed to the world.

Our artists (a remarkable list for a population so small):

WRITERS– Here’s ten

James Joyce:  Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Finnegans Wake
William Butler Yeats:  Dancing at Lughnasa, The Second Coming, Memoirs, A Vision, The Countess Cathleen
Bram Stoker:  Dracula, The Lair of the White Worm, The Lady of the Shroud
Jonathan Swift:  Gulliver’s Travels, A Tale of a Tub, Correspondence
George Bernard Shaw:  Pygmalion, Major Barbara
Oscar Wilde:  The Picture of Dorian Gray, Salome, The importance of being Earnest
Samuel Beckett:  Waiting for Godot, The Unnamable, Murphy
Seán O’Casey:  Juno and the Paycock, Rose and crown, The letters of Sean O’Casey
Brendan Behan:  Borstal Boy, The Hostage, The Quare Fellow
Frank McCourt:  Angela’s Ashes, ‘Tis: A Memoir, Teacher Man

ACTORS – Here’s ten

Richard Harris
Barry Fitzgerald
Maureen O’Hara
Michael Gambon
Liam Neeson
Gabriel Byrne
Kenneth Branagh
Brendan Gleeson
Pierce Brosnan
Colin Farrell

MUSIC – Here’s five

The Dubliners
Van Morrison
U2
Altan
Frank Patterson

Erin go Bragh!

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Numerous publications have listed an end-of-the-year in memoriam of the passing of famous figures we lost in 2017. Here’s list of actors that are still with us, but have slipped from the limelight.

Vera Miles
Sporadic post 1990 work. Retired

Angie Dickinson
Retired from film in 2009

Rip Torn
Still active with obscure films, Video Games, VO.

Don Stroud
Sporadic work on obscure films in 90s until bit part in 2012’s Django Unchained. Retired

Kim Novak
Uneven sporadic  work on obscure TV Films. Retired 1991

John Saxon
Active. Low-budget films

INTERNATIONAL

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1. What are a few things the public probably does NOT know about Northern Ireland?

Answer:

We’re surprised how many tourists are unaware that Northern Ireland, along with England, Scotland and Wales, make up the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.” We share the island with our friends in the Republic of Ireland. The land that makes up Belfast has been occupied since the Bronze Age. Belfast’s location at the mouth of the River Lagan made an ideal location for the shipbuilding industry. Harland and Wolff had the largest shipyard in the world when it built the RMS Titanic during 1911-1912. Titanic Belfast is the World’s largest Titanic visitor experience and must-see attraction in Northern Ireland. By 2014, the Catholic population in Belfast has risen to 49 percent, while the Protestant population has dropped to 42 percent, according to BBC News. Northern Ireland’s Tayto crisps are made at a 500-year-old castle. They are sent to Northern Irish people all around the world as a “taste of home.” The Game of Thrones TV series employs more locals than the civil service.

2. Question: What are some of the “things” or activities that people in Northern Ireland do for fun?

Answer:

The Golden Mile describes the area between Belfast City Hall and Queen’s University, with some of the best bars and restaurants in the city. Sports in Northern Ireland is important in the lives of many people. Most sports are organized on an all-Ireland basis, for example rugby union, gaelic games, basketball, rugby league, hockey and cricket, where as others, like association football and netball are organized on a separate basis for Northern Ireland. There’s also an annual bog snorkeling competition.

3. Share some aspect of what Northern Ireland has contributed to the world.

Answer:

We’re the country that built the Titanic, and the birthplace of Bushmills Irish Whiskey, the world’s oldest (legal) whiskey distillery.

We’ve also contributed to the world:

Van Morrison – musician
Kenneth Branagh – actor and director
George Best – Gaelic footballer
Liam Neeson – actor
Derek Mahon – poet
Phil Coulter – songwriter, pianist
Paula Malcomson – actress
Sam Neill – actor
Peter Canavan – Gaelic footballer
James Nesbitt – actor
Stephen Rea – actor

For further information, go to Discover Northern Ireland

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