40 Interesting Facts About Ireland

Here are 40 Interesting Ireland facts.

1-5 Ireland Facts

1. Over 40M people of Irish descent are in the United States, 8x more than the population of Ireland. – Source

2. If you have one Irish grandparent, you are eligible for Irish citizenship (w/ fee). You don’t need to have even been to Ireland or know the first thing about the country to apply. For non-Europeans, this means you get a passport that allows you to work and live anywhere in the EU. – Source

3. In a small town in County Cork, Ireland, a monument stands in appreciation to the American Choctaw Indian Tribe. Although impoverished, shortly after being forced to walk the Trail of Tears, the tribe somehow gathered $170 to send to Ireland for famine relief in 1847. – Source

4. In 2009, Irish police found they had more than 50 motoring offenses recorded for someone called “Prawo Jazdy”. It turned out that Prawo Jazdy means “driving license” in Polish. – Source

5. According to legend, in 1845, Ottoman Sultan declared his intention to send £10,000 to victims of the Irish potato famine but was instructed to send only £1,000, so as not to donate more than Queen Victoria, who had sent £2,000. He sent £1,000 along with three or five ships full of food. – Source

6-10 Ireland Facts

6. The Great Famine of Ireland caused so many deaths, that Ireland’s population still has not recovered (even after 150 years). – Source

7. There have never been snakes in Ireland because being cold-blooded, the snake couldn’t survive the frozen ground during the ice age in the past. – Source

8. During the Great Famine, Ireland continued to export enormous quantities of food to England. This kept food prices far too high for the average Irish peasant to afford and was a major contributing factor in the large death toll from the famine. – Source

9. Murderers in medieval Ireland were given to the deceased’s family as slaves if they failed to pay a hefty fine to buy their freedom. The family could then legally kill the murderer themselves. – Source

10. In 2014, Ireland was outraged after an Australian article suggested that the Irish used potatoes as a source of currency. – Source

11-15 Ireland Facts

11.  There’s a bar in Ireland that opened in the year 900 A.D. and is still operational. It’s named “Sean’s Bar”. – Source

12. You could not have been King of Ireland without nipples, as the kissing or sucking of King’s nipples was a form of submission. If one attempted to become the Irish Monarch and was not successful, your nipples were removed. They were also cut off if you were sacrificed. – Source

13. The ‘O’ in Irish surnames means ‘grandson of’. – Source

14. 75% of all alcohol consumed in Ireland in 2013 was done so as part of a binge drinking session. – Source

15. Police in Belfast, Northern Ireland used music from ice-cream van to calm angry teen rioters. – Source

16-20 Ireland Facts

16. Emmy was the ship’s cat on the RMS Empress of Ireland. She never missed a voyage. However, on 28 May 1914, Emmy tried to escape the ship. The crew could not coax her aboard and the Empress left without her, which was regarded as a terrible omen. Early the next morning the Empress sank. – Source

17. In 1998, a splinter group of the IRA called in a bomb threat for the courthouse hill in Omagh, Northern Ireland. The police evacuated people 400m to the bottom of the hill where it was thought to be safe, however, this spot was the real location of the bomb; 29 people died, 220 were injured. – Source

18. Before 1939 in Ireland, if a Guinness brewer wished to marry a Catholic, his resignation was requested. – Source

19. When asked if Ireland should be reunified, 67% percent of Irish people (rep.) indicated they would be in favor. When expanded to say that this would include a rise in taxes, the figure drops to 32%. – Source

20. When workers were renovating Ireland’s Leap Castle, they found so many humans remains impaled on wooden spikes within a wall, it took three cartloads to remove them. – Source