50 Interesting Facts about Ireland

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26Newgrange

Newgrange

There is an ancient temple named Newgrange in Ireland that predates Giza and Stonehenge. During the winter solstice, light penetrates through to the burial tomb for about 19 minutes.


27. In 980, an Irish High King named Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill defeated the Vikings of Dublin after a three-day siege of Dublin city. The Vikings surrendered, and the King then freed all slaves in the city.


28. In 2016, an anonymous donor sent two Bronze Age axes and two pieces of rare Viking jewelry to the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. The museum believes the items were illegally excavated.


29. James Sligo Jameson, the heir to Irish whiskey manufacturer Jameson's, bought an 11-year-old girl and offered her to cannibals to document and sketch how she was cooked and eaten.


30. There is a youth subculture in Ireland called the Dublin Pony Kids. These boys and girls camp with their horses in front yards or on city wasteland.


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31Frank Buckley

Frank Buckley

An Irish man named Frank Buckley owns a house that is actually made from decommissioned Euro bills that previously amounted to €1.4 billion.


32. The most popular sport in Ireland (Gaelic football) is a completely amateur sport. The players play in front of 80,000 people and don't get paid.


33. An Irish Nationalist named Robert Erskine Childers smuggled guns into Ireland during their civil war. When he was sentenced to death, he shook hands with the firing squad members and told them when they were about to shoot “Take a step or two forward, lads. It will be easier that way.”


34. In 2011, a 14-year-old Irish boy named Jake hacked into Modern Warfare 2 servers. As a result, Microsoft offered to "develop his talent for legitimate purposes."


35. Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw is the only person to ever win both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar.


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36Downey's Pub

Downey's Pub

A pub named Downey's Pub in Dublin once had a strike that lasted 14 years.


37. A pub named Whiskey Joe's in Ireland gives out free drinks to customers that don't use their phones


38. A motorway in Ireland was delayed by 10 years and then rerouted to protect a tree that was thought to belong to fairies.


39. A bomb was set off in Ireland (Enniskillen's Remembrance Day) during a parade in 1987. 10 years later those responsible apologized because of the peace campaign by the father of one of the victims.


40. People in Ireland leave out Guinness for Santa on Christmas Eve.


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41Tea

Tea

Ireland is the only country to 'express disapproval' at ISO standard 3103 (how to make tea) which states that the milk should go in first


42. Jack Butler Yeats holds the distinction of being Ireland's first medalist at the Olympic Games in the wake of the creation of the Irish Free State. At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Yeats' painting The Liffey Swim won a silver medal in the arts and culture segment of the Games.


43. In pre-famine Ireland, the average farmer would eat between 10 and 14 pounds of potatoes a day, washed down with milk or buttermilk.


44. Four Irish women barricaded themselves in their home in 2000 and starved themselves for weeks until death. In a letter found at the scene: "Our stomachs are devouring themselves . . . Please, please listen, none of us foresaw it could be this cruel and slow."


45. Irish writer George Bernard Shaw had a rotating office that he could turn to face the sun in the winter and give himself more shade in the summer.


46Church attendance

Church attendance

Church attendance in Ireland dropped from 90% in the 80s to 18% by 2011. The change is attributed to the church's attitude towards the multiple sex scandals that surfaced from the 90s onwards.


47. About 20-40% of Ireland’s population was wiped out during the Cromwellian wars, which lasted for 4 years between 1649 and 1653.


48. In 2002, Irish police raided a judge's (Brian Curtin) home and found child pornography on his computer, but the judge was found 'Not Guilty' of possession as the warrant used was one day out of date.


49. Irish Sign Language is unique in that men and women use different signs due to being educated in separate schools historically.


50. A town in Ireland hosts Puck Fair in which a goat is crowned king for 3 days and hoisted on a 40-foot pedestal.

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