100 Interesting Facts About Ireland
Hello Guys:
Welcome to Countries Facts so today i'm here to talk to you all about the beautiful ireland land of guinness sick woody jumpers and in part me yes i am myself half irish and it's therefore my birth right to talk in a terrible irish accent as much as i please even if it's deeply offensive to do so and so would invoke the scornful wrath of my ancestors you deal with it guys but what percentage of irish people are gingernuts what obscene act did ancient irish people perform to pledge allegiance to their king why not try and guess in the polyp above and how many germs does the blarney stone have on it many many hundreds of thousands of people have kissed that thing it reminds me of me actually two out of three those questions are going to be answered so pour yourself out to cliched pint of beer stereotypically eat some potatoes and prepare yourself for 100 facts about ireland.
1 Ireland also known in the irish languages air is an island located in the north atlantic ocean it's separated from the larger island of great britain to the east by the north channel the irish sea and saint george's channel.
2 Ireland is the third largest island in all of europe behind iceland in second place and great britain.
3 Politically speaking the island of uh ireland is divided between ireland often referred to as the republic of ireland and northern ireland which itself is a part of the united kingdom are you confused yet americans the republic of ireland covers roughly five sixth of the island and is home to approximately 4.8 million people northern ireland though located in the northeast of the island in the remaining sixth has a population of over 1.8 million given the island of ireland a total population of around 6.6 million about as many times as i said ireland in that fact.
4 Evidence suggests that the earliest human presence in ireland dates back to around 12 500 bc which is later than other parts of europe owing to the fact that it's an island on the western edge of the continent and it takes time to get to places god stop being so impatient guys.
5 Gaelic island emerged by the first century as celtic cultures arrived in ireland and britain from central europe a few hundred years later in the fifth century the island was christianized by christians no less.
6 The british waltzed in and declared that all ireland's base are belong to us ireland was never unified under a single monarch there were instead hundreds of minor kings constantly waging war with each other on a nearly permanent basis.
7 Every time i do a one-on-one facts video there's usually one fact that it's so utterly ridiculous i initially refuse to believe it until further research forces me to accept it as genuine in this edition of 100 facts that fact is this according to some experts in ancient ireland people displayed submission to a king by sucking on his nipples well done if you got that right in the poll by the way so male nipples do have a purpose.
8 As a result of this custom one could hobble a potential royal rival by slicing their nipples off if the mans were chopped off then how could they possibly hope to exert dominance over their subjects without a nice duty set of nipples to suck.
9 Murderers in medieval island were often forced into the custody of the deceased's family where they were kept as slaves yep it's not as nice as you first thought alternatively if the family weren't in the mood to have their delicates ironed by the guy who murdered their loved one they were also perfectly within their legal rights to kill the murderer themselves fair's.
10 Following the norman invasion of ireland all the way back in the 12th century everyone's favorite colonizer england came and knocked in and claimed sovereignty over the island of ireland england slowly took control over more and more of ireland until the 16th and 17th centuries when it was entirely taken over during the tudor conquest.
11 The 1600s a system of anti-catholic regulations known as the penal laws were established a disadvantage to catholic majority and protestant dissenters in a variety of cruel and unjust ways at various points in time for various periods catholics were barred from voting holding public office serving in the irish army and from entering legal or teaching professions intermarriage with protestants was banned and any children of mixed marriage were always brought up in the protestant faith catholics weren't even allowed to own horses worth over five pounds.
12 One of the most tragic periods of irish history occurred in the 1840s and 50s in what is known as the irish potato famine or the great hunger almost all of ireland's potato supply was struck by a blight that left him inedible as a direct result of this ireland experienced the population declined for approximately 2 million as most people either starve to death or emigrated mostly to the us in hope of a better life.
13 The potato famine was so extreme that the population of ireland still hasn't recovered before the 1840s island had a population of around 8 million people which is well over a million more than today.
14 The act of union in 1801 ireland officially became a part of the united kingdom but the majority of irish people were never really huge fans of being subjugated and systematically oppressed after several decades of being in the united kingdom the catholic irish rose up and fought a war of independence against the british between 1919 and 1921 leading to the eventual partition of the island which created the irish free state northern ireland however remained a part of the uk which everyone was happy with and caused no disagreements or anger whatsoever.
15 kidding between the 60s and the 90s anger at the political status of northern ireland erupted into violent civil unrest that teetered on outright war at times during this period which was rather underwhelmingly known as the troubles over 3 500 people were killed until the bloodshed was halted in 1998 with the enactment of the good friday agreement.
16 When asked if the republic of ireland and northern ireland should be reunified into one big super island 67 percent of irish people in the republic of ireland responded that they would be in favor however that figures dropped support from 32 percent when the proposition is expanded to include a rise in taxes.
17 The troubles even managed to spill over into the realm of science fiction one episode of star trek the next generation which aired in 1990 with the title the high ground i have the eye ground anakin was initially banned in ireland and the uk due to a line of dialogue which suggested that ireland was unified in 2024 after a successful terrorist campaign well i guess we'll see how that turns out.
18 The flag of the republic of ireland is around that attractive combo of green white and orange known as the irish tri-color the green represents the gaelic tradition of ireland and the country's catholic majority whereas the orange stripe represents the protestants who followed william of orange the white column in the center stands for peace between both catholic and protestants yeah nice try.
19 The color most often associated with ireland is obviously green but in actual fact the official national color of ireland is blue that's why the constitution of ireland is printed with a blue cover rather than a green one but you're always wondering why it's blue hey but now you know it's not to do with smurfs at all.
20 Similarly the national symbol of island is not the shamrock as many people believe but the celtic harp this makes ireland the only country that has a musical instrument for a national symbol.
21 Ireland's patron saint is saint patrick who many people assume was himself an irishman but the real mccoy was actually british he was born in roughly 390 a.d to an aristocratic christian family somewhere in roman britain most likely in wales of all places.
22 Got a new song about being delicate this is somewhat corroborated by the fact that most historians believe saint patrick's real name was mehwan sukkat which is about as well as it gets frankly and that's coming from someone with a welsh surname.
23 Ireland is also well known for its distinct lack of snakes even britain has a handful of serpent species like for example my ex-wife but there are zero in ireland it said that some patrick was responsible for driving all of the snakes out of ireland but in reality the last ice age made both island and britain inaspicable to the cold-blooded slitherers as the cold receded a few snakes were able to make it to britain before it was cut off from the rest of europe but sadly snakes never made it to ireland.
24 Ireland's lack of snakes is most well known ireland is also deficient in a number of other animal species that are common elsewhere in europe for instance ireland does not have molds weasels pole cats or roe deer.
25 Every single polar bear alive is a descendant of one female brown bear who lived approximately 50 000 years ago in you guessed it ireland.
26 Ireland is known as the emerald isle owing to its lush vegetation and rolling green hills however in 2013 only 11 of the island was actually covered in forest compared to the european average of 35 percent.
27 The ancestral language of the irish is called shockingly irish although it's known as irish gaelic stop giggling or sometimes simply as gaelic around 1.6 million people in ireland claim to have some competence in speaking irish but only 380 000 truly fluent speakers remain.
28 The irish have their own ancestral language they've also made interesting additions to the english language too the term boycotts for example is derived from charles boycott the land agent of an absentee landlord from ulster in 1880 boycott refused to produce rents for his employees tenants which prompted the entire community to collectively say what a dick then completely ostracize him the isolation was so extreme that shops even refused to serve him and eventually boycott's name took on its present definition.
29 If one of your four grandparents is or was irish you can claim irish citizenship no matter where you live or where you were born even if you know so little about ireland that this Article is the first time you've ever heard about it this also grants you access to the european union which gives you the right to live and work in any eu country with no restriction isn't that great what a great idea that's great what a great thing.
30 Approximately half the entire population of australia came to her irish ancestry which works out at approximately over 12 million people in case you hadn't realized that's a good few million more than the population of ireland itself.
31 Similarly over 40 million people in the united states claim to have some form of irish descent that's over six times the population of the island of ireland famous americans of irish descent include neil armstrong conan o'brien and jennifer lawrence yes ha-ha i knew it we're meant to be together we have so much in common ah i'm thinking your summer wedding in dublin.
32 Despite the massive amount of yankee doodles who claim to proudly have ancestral roots of the emerald isle only 27 of americans are actually able to locate ireland on an unlabeled map.
33 The entrenched catholicism in ireland was such a powerful force that until 1985 irish people needed a prescription to buy condoms some people with certain medical conditions still do but i wouldn't know anything.
34 In fact the profound religiosity of many irish people has left ireland as the only country in the eu where abortion is still illegal however that being said abortion is allowed in order to protect the life of the mother.
35 Not only that even blasphemy remains a crime in the republic of ireland and can cost offenders up to 25 000 euro however the last blasphemy prosecution occurred all the way back in 1855. although in 2015 someone reported english humorist and actor and british national treasure stephen fry to the authorities after he called god evil totally selfish and an utter maniac no charges were brought against fries the police were unable to find anyone who was sufficiently outraged by the remarks.
36 As you may or may not know ireland was officially neutral during the second world war leaving us in the uk to fight off the nazis all on our own i'd say that's if i was there i wasn't i was busy not being born this is only partially true ireland disregarded their own declaration of neutrality in a number of ways such as providing intelligence to the british and allowing them to use irish airspace.
37 Despite the fact that the irish have a reputation for ginger hair only nine percent of the irish population are actually natural redheads the nearby nation of scotland actually has the highest proportion of gingers with a whopping 13 percent of the population.
38 The people of ireland also have a reputation for being big drinkers to the point that they are often negatively stereotyped as drunks and alcoholics funnily enough partisan island are legally prevented from having happy hours in which alcoholic drinks are significantly reduced in price that being said these rules are occasionally flouted by irish people who won't let the man keep them down.
39 Ireland is well known for the black staff no not mildew although the climate of island there's probably a lot of that there we are of course talking about the famous irish dry style beer known as guinness perhaps one of ireland's greatest exports except perhaps yours truly around 10 million pints of guinness are produced in dublin every single day hey do you love or loathe guinness let us know in the poll up above but only if you're old enough because if not i'll be sued in youtube court.
40 Guinness is often seen as a quintessentially irish brand the company was for many years quite hostile towards ireland's catholic majority before 1939 if a guinness brewer wanted to marry a catholic he was requested to resign and the bias against hiring catholics existed well into the 1960s.
41 This could have something to do with the fact that the founder of guinness a man by the name of arthur guinness was himself a protestant and a committed unionist so much so he was even accused of spying for the british oh and also he had 21 children no biggie the meaning of life funnily enough more guinness beerus drank.
42 The african nation of nigeria than in ireland this might have something to do with the fact that nigeria has a population around 28 times bigger than ireland but hey i'm just some guy who runs a fact-based youtube channel.
43 According to ireland's health research board a staggering 75 of all alcohol consumed in ireland in the year 2013 was done so during a binge drinking session.
44 piggy of drinking there is a bar in ireland called shawn's bar it's said to have opened all the way back in the year 900 a.d making it well over 1100 years old and that bar is still operational.
45 Speaking of old irish things the oldest hotel in ireland is the wooden bridge hotel located in the vale of avoca county whitlow it was opened in 1608 and continues to operate today that's over 400 years of dealing with people stealing the damn towels.
46 Speaking of really old irish things hook lighthouse at the top of the hook peninsula in county wexford is one of the oldest working lighthouses in the world the current structure has stood for 800 years and counting.
47 Speaking of really really old irish things there's an ancient irish temple located in county meath called newgrange it dates back to around 3500 bc predating both stonehenge and the pyramids of giza though it's slightly less impressively a simple circular mound however the construction of new grange was clearly very sophisticated as it allows light to penetrate through the burial tomb for around 19 minutes during the winter solstice.
48 Ireland is also known for the blarney stone a block of limestone built into blarney castle in county cork the popular legend says that those who kiss the blinny stone are endowed with the gift of the gab an outstanding verbal eloquent or skill for flattery celebrity blarney smooches include michael madsen mick jagger and winston churchill.
49 The popular western holiday of halloween traces back its origins to the gaelic harvest festival of summon which was held on the 31st of october to mark the end of the summer the pagan festival morphed and developed over the centuries creating the modern day holiday of halloween.
50 The boyne of coracle known as the kurak is one of the oldest surviving form of boat in europe and is still being built in the same way that it was the neolithic age it's essentially a big waterproof bowl with a seat in it.
51 The guillotine is commonly associated with france after everyone there went a bit chop happy in the late 18th century the first recorded use of the uber efficient beheading contraption occurred in ireland all the way back in 1307.
52 The world famous story of was created by irish author bram stoker who released the gothic novel dracula in 1897 the docular is supposedly inspired by the early irish legend of habertak an evil chieftain who was portrayed by a subject and slaughtered by the hero catherine not one to take that level of disrespect lying down abbatak rose from his grave each night to terrorize the subject and drink their blood.
53 The royal society for the prevention of cruelty to animals known as the rspca was founded in 1824 by an irish politician called richard martin martin was one of the first animal rights activists whose efforts were so well known that king george iv named him humanity dick.
54 In 1859 irish scientist john tyndall was the first person to correctly describe why the sky is blue which if you didn't know is because more of the sun's blue light is scattered by the earth's atmosphere than light of any other color i mean duh i actually explained that too in another video but you can see in the card up above it was ages ago though you can see me so yeah just be warned.
55 Recipes for various beverages involving chocolates have existed long before the substance was well known to europeans modern forms of chocolate milk were first popularized by the irish botanist named han sloan in the 1700s chocolate milk was sold as a medical elixir presumably to cure the terrible condition known as not currently drinking chocolate milk.
56 In fact ireland has influenced the world in a variety of unusual ways that you may not have even considered you self-absorbed [ __ ] for instance the snazzy golden statuettes given to people who've done acting good at the oscars was first designed by a dublin-born irish american named cedric gibbons.
57 Not only that an irishman by the name of james hoban designed the us white house where the president currently lives even though he clearly doesn't.
58 The tune of the star-spangled banner was composed by the great irish harper and national composer of ireland turlo caroline who died around 35 years before the american revolution a caravan was blinded by smallpox at the age of 18 but that didn't stop him from becoming the katy perry of his day.
59 The african-american civil rights activist martin luther king jr is known to have had irish ancestry through his paternal great grandfather.
60 The sadly former president barack obama also has irish roots his maternal great-great-great grandfather a fellow the name of falmouth kearney came from money goal and county of flay and moved to the u.s in 1850.
61 Ireland's first ever olympic medal was won in 1924 by jack butler yeats hilariously the event in which he competed was not even slightly athletic as each won the silver medal for painting with his 1923 piece entitled the liffey swim.
62 Island's successful olympics isn't solely confined to arts and crafts boxing is by far ireland's most successful sport with over half their medals coming from good old-fashioned pugilism.
63 Ireland doesn't even need the olympics it has its own olympics with blackjack and hookers well not quite but in the bronze age ireland was home to the taltian games or the ayonak ltn which were athletic contests held in honor of deceased goddess to little you the games were revived for a few years from 1924 but as europe moved closer towards the second world war the games were discontinued in 1932.
64 The nation of ireland is also considerably successful musically having won the eurovision song contest a total of seven times more than any other country in the history of the competition and yet their entry in 2008 was a turkey called dustin drop the ball there island.
65 In 2002 ireland was the first country in the world with the stones to put an environmental tax on plastic shopping bags since then dozens of other countries have followed suit paving the way for the eco-friendly utopia that is absolutely never going to happen.
66 Not only that in 2004 ireland became the first country to introduce a public smoking ban which again several other nations have since copied.
67 Ireland was the very first country to legalize same-sex marriage via a popular vote not only that the vote wasn't even slightly close with a whopping 62 percent of irish voters saying yes or oh in fact of all 26 counties in the republic of ireland only roscommon didn't vote in favor shame.
68 Across the entirety of europe the irish report the lowest annual number of ufo sightings either the people of ireland have got better things to do than to claim every sufficiently large birder's ufo or no no that's probably it.
69 The irish the capital of the republic of ireland is a cheery little town called dublin the city's original name was dublin meaning blackpool which funnily enough is actually the name of a famous seaside town in england the modern irish name for dublin is blaclia which means the town of the hurdle ford.
70 Country dublin which as you may have figured out is the county that includes the capital is the island's third smallest county however roughly a third of island's population lives there hmm that's some good population density right there.
71 The garden outside leinster house in dublin was once home to a large statue of queen victoria but it was removed for obvious reasons when the republic of ireland became independent not wanting to weigh such a lovely bust ireland gifted the statue to the australian city of sydney in 1988 a present for its 200th anniversary.
72 Dublin's white friar street church is home to the earthly remains of saint valentine the saint of love well maybe as it happens there are several saints named valentine or valentinus and lots of people claim to have the remains belonging to one of them still that doesn't seem to bother the many people who visit the church to pay the respect to the great man or great men.
73 Dublin is home to ireland's national leprechaun museum of course that's a thing that exists the museum educates and informs visitors about the magical race of irish fairies known to cause mischief and hide pots of gold and rainbows as you do but though you may assume that the museum is fairly child-oriented it offers adult-only guided tours that explore the darker scarier side of irish folklore.
74 Between 1860 and 1920 dublin was home to the largest red light district in europe in an area surrounding montgomery street which has since been renamed foley street at its beak it's estimated that approximately 1 600 prostitutes worked out at any one time the area was so popular it was even immortalized in an old irish song called take me up to the monto.
75 Connell bridge stretches 45 meters across dublin's river liffey and interestingly it's 50 meters wide o'connell bridge is thought to be the only traffic bridge in europe that is wider than it is long.
76 In 2004 pranksters installed a memorial plaque on the bridge dedicated to father pat noyes which amazingly remained unnoticed until may of 2006. eventually the hoaxes admitted their work was a tribute to their father with the name father pat noyes being a play on paternoster the latin for our father dublin city council originally planned to remove the plaque but eventually decided to leave it in place as it's actually kind of cool gives tall guys something to mention after all.
77 Troublemakers the denizens of dublin have also lovingly bestowed various statues and sculptures around the city with adorable nicknames a large bronze statue of a naked woman located in a water fountain was dubbed the floozy in the jacuzzi and another statue at the bottom of grafton street of a busty fishmonger was named the tart with the cart four in an apparent appeal to gender equality the spire of dublin a 119 metre steel spire has been named the stiffy at the liffey and the erection of the intersection.
78 One of the oldest place names in ireland is that of talaq the name talent is thought to derive from tam leaked which simply means plague pits how lovely.
79 The tiny island of lambay off the coast of dumplin is home to a rather surprising population of animals wallabies the roughly 100 wallabies of lambay are descended from a surplus at dublin zoo which was forced to relocate the animals to lamprey in the 1980s.
80 As recently as the 1920s couples in ireland could legally marry each other on saint bridges day in telltown county meath by simply walking towards each other likewise if things didn't work out they could divorce by heading to the same spot and walking away from each other on a subsequence and bridget's day which is celebrated on the first of february.
81 In 1922 workers renovating ireland's leap cast and encounterophili found so many human skeletons that it took three cutloads to remove them all the remains were found impaled on wooden spikes and appeared to have fallen through a trap door to their deaths.
82 Almost all the botox in the world is made in a single factory in westport island meaning all the frozen-faced fashionistas are badly held are carrying a little bit of island with them at all times.
83 The small town of middleton and county cork there is a distinctive monument constituted by nine 20-foot stainless steel eagle feathers arranged in a circle called kindred spirits the sculpture stands in appreciation to the american chocolate indian tribe who although impoverished and oppressed themselves somehow managed to send 170 to ireland for famine relief in 1847.
84 The construction of a motorway in county clare was delayed by an entire decade it was also ultimately rerouted why while it was to protect a sacred tree that was thought to belong to fairies yep that's right fairies.
85 The longest place name in ireland is for a small village and county galway called oh god okay let's give this a go mcconaughey or whatever the heck that says which literally means pig-shaped hill between two seas.
86 Ireland isn't just known for its sort of long place names like all countries it also has a few place names that are just flat out weird examples of bizarre irish place names include but are not limited to ovens muff and knobber there's also a place in county court called kill britain which may sound like a violent troubles-related threat but actually just means britain's church.
87 There's a village in county limerick simply called hospital sadly though it does not have a hospital which is almost criminal it would have been called hospital hospital what a missed opportunity.
88 Similarly the irish have a litany of often very insulting nicknames for each other those from limerick known as buttermilks temporary people are called stone throwers and people from ross common are known as sheep stealers those from wexford are known as yellow bellies kill kenny folk are wet the guns and perhaps most bizarrely an old nickname for wicklow people is goat suckers.
89 Northern ireland is famous for the giants causeway an area of around 40 000 mostly hexagonal basalt columns located on the northern coast of county antrim legend has said that feature was created by giants hence the name but legends are often wrong the real cause of the causeway was an ancient volcanic eruption that occurred over 50 million years ago.
90 According to the sunday observation act it's technically illegal to go to the cinema on a sunday in northern ireland apparently the punishment for this egregious crime is a fine of up to 50 pounds.
91 The production of the smash hit tv fantasy drama dragon and boobathon game of thrones employs more locals in northern ireland than the civil service probably the most famous northern irish got star is none other than hodor played by christian nan nan hails from the city of lisbon not lisbon lisbon which sits on the boundary between county and trim and county down.
92 In northern ireland ring donuts are often known rather unappetizingly as gravy rings this is due to the fact that the word gravy is an old-fashioned term the cooking oil still doesn't really explain it.
93 Northern ireland's tato crisps are manufactured on the premises of a genuine 500 year old castle named tandraki castle the building is referred to as tatum castle in commercials wow a castle of crisps a hangover's dream.
94 Northern ireland is also home to the annual bog snorkeling competition which aims to find out who's the best at snorkeling in are no winners in bog snorkeling.
95 The capital of northern ireland is belfast a city which oscar wilde once famously o pined as only having one beautiful building a former warehouse at one donegal square called the water office this building is now are marks and spencers.
96 In the past the belfast was almost apparently a centre of gender equality women could hold any office at queen's university in belfast 12 years before women were even allowed to study in oxford.
97 In 1829 milk of magnesia was invented in belfast by irish physician james murray thanks for curing heartburn island.
98 The rms titanic arguably the most well-known ship in history following its infamous shanking at the hands of a particularly sharp lumber vice was built in belfast northern ireland the site of the titanic's construction is now home to a museum dedicated to the doomed vessel where you can debate endlessly as to whether or not there was really enough space on that door for jack spoiler alert their tote was kate.
99 Belfast is home to samson and goliath two of the largest freestanding cranes in the world which have since become symbols for the city each crane lifts loads of up to 840 tons to a height of 70 meters i wouldn't walk underneath them if are you that sounds like tempting fake to me it's.
100 Belfast has its own version of the leaning tower of pisa in the form of the albert clock the large clock tower leans by about four feet and is also sinking that was 100 facts about the emerald isle the beautiful island did you learn anything new or did i miss anything let me know in the comments below and you're gonna love look at them there they are cook one of them right now.
I dare you it's good luck anyway i'll see you next time God bless you.
