Here are 9 interesting facts about Ireland:
1. More Irish people are living abroad than there are in Ireland. There are 80 million Irish people outside of Ireland and only around 6 million in Ireland.
2. Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle because of how green it is. The country’s beautiful, lush countryside is what earned the country this nickname.
3. Ireland ranks sixth worldwide in the average consumption of beer per person. Infact, Ireland is home to one of the oldest pubs in the world, it opened in 900AD.
4. Did you know this strange fact about the naming culture in Ireland that Irish surnames that start with “Mac” means ‘son of’ while those that start with “O” means ‘grandson of’.
5. The famous American festival Halloween has been inspired by an Irish festival called Samhain that marks the end of the harvest season and the start of the darker half of the year, that is winter.
6. People say “it’s always raining in Ireland”, and they are actually correct. Ireland has one of the wettest climates in Europe while Greece has the driest. In the summer of 2007, for example, it rained in Ireland for 40 days straight!
7. Ireland has had its own Olympics since the Bronze Age. The Tailteann Games, as they were known, were athletic contests held in honor of the deceased goddess Tailtiu, Lugh’s wife. Although historically attested games were held from the 6th to the 12th century CE, it is claimed that the origins of the Tailteann Games go back to 632 BCE, or even as far as 1600 BCE.
8. The term ‘boycott’ comes from Captain Charles Boycott, the land agent of an absentee landlord from Ulster. In 1880, after refusing to reduce the rents of his employer’s tenants, the Irish Land League decided to stop dealing with him. The whole community began to ostracise him to the point where even shops refused to serve him. The Times of London quickly came to use his name as a term for organized isolation, and the word entered the English language.
9. It is a strange Irish birthday tradition to lift the birthday child upside down, and gently tap his head on the floor the number of times as is his age plus one. This tradition is called “Bumping”.
This was all for Ireland. Do let us know in the comments section if you found these facts interesting!
