Ireland is an interesting place and has even more interesting facts that most people would have never known. These are just some unusual and quirky facts about Ireland and how some great traditions have been passed down through the centuries. Let us know about anymore you might know of.
We have our own language
The Irish language known as Gaeilge (pronounced Gu-way-gla, not gealic) has been a great Irish gift passed down from generation to generation and is a compulsory subject in Irish schools. A lot of Irish people particularly like this fact about Ireland and makes them proud to be Irish
70 million Irish people
There might be just over 4 million people on the Island of Ireland but when it comes to counting the amount of people with Irish blood in their bodies that figure shoots through the roof to 70 million.
We invented the . . .
The Irish are great day dreamers and you might not have realised it but Ireland has contributed some great inventions to the world. The submarine, chocolate milk, Radio therapy and even the brothers who founded Mac Donald’s had Irish blood in their veins and that’s an Irish fact.
The Burren contains
The Burren, a beautiful cast lands scape in the west of Ireland features flowers unique to Europe. Even though it looks like a Barron landscape it is a botanists dream as Alpine-Arctic plants flourish alongside Mediterranean plants.
We started Halloween
Long ago during pagan times Halloween was actually New Year’s Eve in Ireland and Scotland. This tradition continued through the centuries until it eventually became part of Christian Ireland and we now celebrate all Saints Day and Halloween the night before
Postal night mare
Ireland is a postal night mare as there are no postal codes outside of the capital, in fact some houses don’t even have names or numbers are you can sometimes find letters addressed with references such as “the red door” or “3 doors down from the shop”
First Duty free airport
Shannon Airport in County Clare had the first duty free shop in the world which opened in 1947 and has been selling alcohol and cigarettes tax free for 66 years now.
Newgrange
Newgrange is an old megalithic tomb that is 600 years older than the pyramids. It is also older than Stonehenge in England. It is of an enormous size considering the tools used to build it and still stands tall today
The potato is not a native food
Even though the Irish do stereotypically love potatoes and eat them all the time the potato is not native to Ireland and was introduced to Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh in the 1500’s.
The bogs in Ireland
A known interesting fact about Ireland is that the bogs have kept remains of ancient burials almost completely intact. They have also found butter, combs and other everyday items in bogs from the stone age era perfectly preserved. This has given scientists a great glimpse into what life was once like
