SEE PHOTOS- 10 surprising Irish facts
1. Technically, it is an offense to be drunk in public in Ireland.
Technically, it is an offense to be drunk in public in Ireland. Regulations introduced last year allow the police to issue on-the-spot fines for anyone caught being drunk in a public place in Ireland.
2. An Irishman founded the Argentinean Navy
Irishman William Brown (known in Spanish as “Guillermo Brown”) is one of Argentina’s national heroes. He is commonly known as the “father of the Argentine navy” and was an important leader in the Argentinean struggle for independence from Spain.
Brown’s family left Foxford in Co. Mayo for Philadelphia in 1786 when he was aged 9 and his father died of yellow fever soon after they arrived in the U.S.
He led an adventurous early life: he fought in the Napoleonic wars, was taken prisoner-of-war, escaped to Germany, before somehow ending up in Uruguay, where he became a sea trader. He then founded the Argentinean navy, when it was at war with Spain.
Today there is a statute of Brown in his hometown of Foxford, Co. Mayo, which was unveiled in 2007, the 150th anniversary of his death. in Argentina, there are 1,200 streets, 500 statues, two towns, one city and a few football clubs named after him.
3. Only two members of U2 were born in Ireland
David Howell Evans, more commonly known as The Edge, was born in London, to Welsh parents. Garvin and Gwenda Evans moved to Malahide in Dublin when The Edge was aged 1. Adam Clayton, U2's bassist, was born in Oxfordshire, England. His family moved to Malahide in Dublin when he was 5, and he soon became friends with The Edge. Only Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. were actually born in Ireland.
4. The British Embassy in Tehran is on a street named after an Irishman.
In 1981, shortly after the death of IRA hunger-striker Bobby Sands, the Iranian government changed the name of the street where the British Embassy is located from "Churchill Boulevard" (after the British Prime Minister) to "Bobby Sands Street."
British Embassy Staff were then forced to route everything through a side door in the building to avoid showing their address as The British Embassy, Bobby Sands Street, Tehran.
5. Up until around the early 1990s, Ireland had a low per capita consumption of alcohol
When the word "Irish" comes up, "drinking" is never far behind. And today, Ireland alcohol's consumption is very high by international standards. A 2006 survey found that the Irish spend a higher proportion of their income on alcohol than anyone else in Europe. It also found that the Irish were the worst binge drinkers in Europe. So the recent evidence supports the old Irish drunkard stereotype.
But Ireland's alcohol consumption per population was moderate for much of the 20th century. There was a high level of alcohol abstinence in the country – something usually more associated with Protestantism – which was promoted by the Catholic Church.
As the Church's moral authority declined, however, and as the country became wealthier, the Irish started to drink a lot more - finally earning themselves that old heavy-drinking stereotype.
6. A Belfast hospital is a world leader in kneecap reconstruction
During the Troubles, the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast had one of the top trauma units in Europe. At one point as many as 100 victims of "limb executions" were being treated by the hospital every year, whose advances included external “limb scaffolding" that enables partial healing for bone damage too severe for reconstruction.
7. Ireland has the fourth largest stadium in Europe
Dublin's Croke Park, the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association, is the fourth largest stadium in Europe. The 82,300-capacity stadium was redeveloped in 2005 and is now the fourth largest: only Camp Nou in Barcelona, Wembley in England, and Olimpiysky in the Ukraine, are bigger.
Rugby and soccer were banned from the stadium up until 2007 because of a long-standing rule banning “foreign” games. The rule was relaxed when the country’s main soccer and rugby stadium, Lansdowne Road, was closed for redevelopment.
8. In the summer of 2007, it rained in Ireland for 40 days straight
Even by Irish standards, 2007 was a wet summer. By August 24, it had rained in Ireland for 40 days - fulfilling an old Irish proverb that says it will rain for 40 days if it rains on St. Swithin's day (July 15). The rain usually takes a break in the summer for a couple of weeks and the rare sunshine sends the country pure mad!
9. Playboy was banned in Ireland until 1995
In 1995 you could get Playboy TV but you couldn't get the magazine, which was banned under the censorship laws.
10. More Guinness is sold in Nigeria than in Ireland
That's right: Ireland is the third largest market for Guinness. Nigeria is at second, and Britain is first.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.oldboreen | Apr 23, 2011, 04:10 PM EDT
Gives me no pleasure GeorgeDillon,to have to agree with your views 22 April,but sadly you are absolutely correct.I have long suspected that very many modern Irish, particularly the younger generation, are a great deal more 'British'in tastes, attitude and culture, than they would care to admit.
Boozwatch | Apr 22, 2011, 03:52 PM EDT
Interesting facts, three out of ten booze related unfortunately, though not surprisingly. A further fact about the rise in boozing since 1990 - the Irish government did the same for alcohol as they did for banking and property - reckless de-regulation to please the industry. There followed a 150% increase in sales outlets including supermarkets and garages, and fewer restrictions on advertising. Results are highest consumption in Europe, as you say. A national disaster just as the banking/property deregulation was a disaster. More on Gargle Nation http://www.garglenation.com/2011/03/teenage-deaths-rise-is-alcohol.html
GeorgeDillon | Apr 22, 2011, 03:51 PM EDT
Ciaran: Are you an American who has never been to Ireland? In that case, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and just tell you you're talking garbage and recommend you take a trip to Ireland to find out the facts. On the other hand, you may be an Irish person who is lying, confident that your American readers will believe the dishonest nonsense you are peddling here. Does that describe you? If so, give it a break, buddy. You're dealing here with an American who knows both Ireland and Irish. You're right that "No-one speaks "Gaelic" there". But your claim that "approximately 40% speak Irish in the south" shows you to be either a shameless liar or a foolish fanstasist. The fact is that you could wander up & down Dublin's O'Connell street for a month, or Cork's Patrick Street, or even Galway's Main Square, and you'd hear Chinese, Polish, Urdu, Lingala, Russian, Tagalog, Hindhi etc. etc. But you wouldn't hear a word of Irish. Sad but true. The Irish abandoned their own language. Many of them hate the Irish language. They're spineless dopes. They deserve every calamity that is being visited on them, because they have betrayed themselves. A good metaphor for Judas, on this Good Friday.
GeorgeDillon | Apr 22, 2011, 03:39 PM EDT
Mrs Ginnt; I'm amazed you don't know where downtown Dublin is. You might say it's the area from St Stephens Green north to Parnell Square. O'Connell Street would be dead center. You mean you've never been to Dublin? Then maybe you should shut up the nonsense you spew about Ireland on this site. Ignorance in your case is most definitely not bliss, it's ignorance.
GeorgeDillon | Apr 22, 2011, 03:36 PM EDT
gwen1980: You use the word "old" as if it were an insult. That's really weird of you. Only a fool would do that. But how do you figure I'm old? What is "old" to you anyway? 30? You sound like you're maybe 12. Am I in the ballpark?
mamaginnty | Apr 22, 2011, 02:13 PM EDT
GoergieD, I just can't understand why you even bother to come to Ireland, you are always running it down, but seems you must come a lot to know so much about us, " non irish at least four to one", crap, and where is Downtown Dublin ?
IAPRINCESS | Apr 22, 2011, 01:34 PM EDT
I am so glad you kept Hugh Hefner's garbage off the magazine racks!!
SeamusMor | Apr 22, 2011, 11:28 AM EDT
All new facts for me! Over time, as a tourist, I have seen the face of Ireland change from fair,freckled, and blue eyed to everything under the Sun. On a later visit, I was staying in the Temple Bar at the Paramount Hotel, whose guests have breakfast in the first floor Turk's Head Chop House. Each moring I was warmly greeted by Chineese waitresses to whom I gave identical orders. Apparently, the kitchen is in the celler, so the lady who took the order walked to a nearby phone to call down stairs and tell the Croatian cook what I wanted for breakfast. Each day something different came out, and never what I ordered. The food was delicious and the people were lovely!
clevelander | Apr 22, 2011, 10:54 AM EDT
@gwen1980. Well said.
ciaran1433 | Apr 22, 2011, 10:42 AM EDT
Here is another surprising fact about Ireland... No-one speaks "Gaelic" there but they do speak Irish. Close to 15% speak the Irish language in the north and approximately 40% speak Irish in the south. The Irish language is currently undergoing a huge renaissance. Today there is at least one Irish language school (where pupils acquire the Irish language through language immersion, and study the standard curriculum through the medium of the Irish language) in each of the 32 counties of Ireland and this number is sure to expand in the near future.
carrickcourt | Apr 22, 2011, 10:17 AM EDT
Yes! I knew all those facts!
gwen1980 | Apr 22, 2011, 09:49 AM EDT
Fact 12: George Dillon is an ignorant old man
GeorgeDillon | Apr 22, 2011, 09:33 AM EDT
Many Americans might not know Surprising Fact 11: A million foreigners immigrated to Ireland in the past decade, giving Ireland the highest rate of Immigration in the world. You will see far more non-Irish than Irish (a ratio of at least four to one) in downtown Dublin if you go there on vacation this summer.