{"id":2413,"date":"2022-03-08T04:07:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T12:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/?p=2413"},"modified":"2022-03-22T12:09:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T19:09:20","slug":"3-things-didnt-know-island-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/3-things-didnt-know-island-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Things We Didn\u2019t Know About The Island of Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

This installment of Three Things is courtesy <\/em>of <\/em>Eileen Power, <\/em>Publicity & Communications at Tourism Ireland<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Ireland<\/p>\n

1. Question: What are some of the \u201cthings\u201d or activities that people in Ireland do for fun?<\/h3>\n

Answer:<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s endless: Golf \u2013 with over 300 golf courses, Ireland has one of the most golf courses per capita in the world \u2013 and hiking in Ireland\u2019s brilliantly coloured green terrain quickly come to mind. Team sports such as Gaelic football, rugby and camogie (cam\u00f3ga\u00edocht) \u2013 an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women, which is almost identical to the game of hurling<\/a> \u2013 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<\/a> in Dublin<\/a>. For a famous walk of remembrance, there\u2019s an annual famine<\/a> walk between Louisburgh and Doolough in southwest County Mayo<\/a>, which commemorates the Doolough Tragedy that took place during the Great Irish Famine<\/a>. 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<\/a> and Louisburgh. A monument in Doolough Valley has an inscription from Mahatma Gandhi<\/a>: “How can men feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"coastal<\/p>\n

2. What are a few things the public probably does NOT know about Ireland?<\/h3>\n

Answer:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being drunk in public is against the law<\/strong>: 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!<\/p>\n

St. Patrick wasn’t Irish<\/strong>: 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.<\/p>\n

There were never any snakes in Ireland:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

The shamrock is not the national symbol of Ireland<\/strong>: The shamrock is recognised around the world as a symbol of Ireland, but the harp is actually the official National Symbol of Ireland.<\/p>\n

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

\"outdoor
Photo credit: Failte Ireland, Merrion Square Art Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3. Share some aspect of what Ireland has contributed to the world.<\/h3>\n

Our artists (a remarkable list for a population so small):<\/p>\n

WRITERS\u2013 Here\u2019s ten<\/p>\n

James Joyce<\/a>:<\/strong>  Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Finnegans Wake
\nWilliam Butler Yeats<\/a><\/strong>:  Dancing at Lughnasa, The Second Coming, Memoirs, A Vision, The Countess Cathleen
\nBram Stoker<\/a>:<\/strong>  Dracula, The Lair of the White Worm, The Lady of the Shroud
\nJonathan Swift<\/a><\/strong>:  Gulliver’s Travels, A Tale of a Tub, Correspondence
\nGeorge Bernard Shaw<\/a><\/strong>:  Pygmalion, Major Barbara
\nOscar Wilde<\/strong><\/a>:  <\/strong>The Picture of Dorian Gray, Salome, The importance of being Earnest
\n<\/strong>Samuel Beckett<\/a>:<\/strong>  Waiting for Godot, The Unnamable, Murphy
\nSe\u00e1n O’Casey<\/a><\/strong>:  Juno and the Paycock, Rose and crown, The letters of Sean O’Casey
\nBrendan Behan<\/a><\/strong>:  Borstal Boy, The Hostage, The Quare Fellow
\nFrank McCourt<\/a>:<\/strong>  Angela’s Ashes, ‘Tis: A Memoir, Teacher Man<\/p>\n

ACTORS \u2013 Here\u2019s ten<\/p>\n

Richard Harris
\n<\/a><\/strong>Barry Fitzgerald
\n<\/a><\/strong>Maureen O’Hara
\n<\/a><\/strong>Michael Gambon
\n<\/a><\/strong>Liam Neeson
\n<\/a><\/strong>Gabriel Byrne
\n<\/a><\/strong>Kenneth Branagh
\n<\/a><\/strong>Brendan Gleeson
\n<\/a><\/strong>Pierce Brosnan
\n<\/a><\/strong>Colin Farrell<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

MUSIC \u2013 Here\u2019s five<\/p>\n

The Dubliners
\n<\/strong>Van Morrison
\n<\/strong>U2
\n<\/strong>Altan
\n<\/strong>Frank Patterson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Erin go Bragh!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s Day when there simply aren\u2019t enough police officers to monitor the one million plus tourists on the streets of Dublin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":22588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[208,390,386,385,317,138,388,233,387,389],"class_list":["post-2413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3-things","tag-activities","tag-actors","tag-famine-walk","tag-golf","tag-hurling","tag-ireland","tag-irish","tag-musicians","tag-shamrock","tag-writers"],"yoast_head":"\n3 Things We Didn\u2019t Know About The Island of Ireland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here are several things you probably did not know about the island of Ireland.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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