History
The Boyne coracle, or Curragh, is the oldest surviving kind of boat in Europe. It is still built in the same way as it was in the Neolithic, or possibly even Mesolithic.Ireland has had its own Olympics since the Bronze Age. The Tailteann Games (Aonach Tailteann), 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 (against 776 BCE for the ancient Greek Olympic Games). Modern revival of the games have been held since 1924.
Prior to the annexation to England, then the United Kingdom, Ireland was never unified under a single monarchy like other European countries. Instead there were hundreds of minor kings waging war with one another on a nearly permanent basis. In this regard and many others, Irish society remained very much like ancient Britain, Gaul or Iberia before the Roman conquest.
Ireland was one of the last countries in Europe to adopt the feudal system (it was introduced by the English). Throughout the Middle Ages, Irish society preserved the traditional Celtic organization of society based on tribes/clans. The absence of feudalism means that there were no serfs, but slaves. Ireland was one of the last European nation to abolish slavery of its own people (as opposed to slaves imported from abroad).
The land in Ireland was not suitable for grain agriculture (except a small part of the South-East) until the introduction of modern machinery and fertilizers in the 20th century. This is the main reason why the potato became the staple food from the early 17th century onwards. Before that, the Irish relied mostly on stockbreeding, probably since the Proto-Celts (descending from the Indo-Europeans from the Pontic steppes) settled on the island around 2000 BCE. The black Kerry cattle, thought to be descended from the Celtic Shorthorn, was brought by the continental Celts to Ireland around 2000 BCE.
The Irish are now some of the most fervently Catholic Europeans (along with the Poles). Yet, Ireland was the last Western European country to adopt Catholicism. Until the 15th century the Irish belonged to the Celtic Church, and mass was universally given in Gaelic, not Latin (as was the norm then). Ironically the Irish joined the Roman Catholic Church at the time when Henry VIII founded the Anglican Church, independent from Rome.
Erected from 1729, the Irish Houses of Parliament was the world's first purpose-built two-chamber parliament house. It now houses the headquarters of the Bank of Ireland.
Founded in 1745, the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin is the world's oldest continuously operating maternity hospital.
In the late 18th century, Cork was the largest exporter of butter in the world, mostly to Britain and the British Empire.
The Union Jack was flown for the very first time in Dublin on 1st January 1801 to herald the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
The term 'boycott' comes from Captain Charles Boycott (1832-1897), 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 ostracize 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.
The world's first suburban commuter railway opened between Dublin and Dun Laoghaire in 1834 (two years before the London and Greenwich Railway).
On 9th July 1939, the Pan Am Clipper III left Botwood, Newfoundland, and landed the next day at Foynes, County Limerick. It was the first direct commercial passenger flight from America to Europe. For the next three years, the village of Foynes became the busiest civilian airport in the world, serving most flights from North America to Europe. Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, John F. Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt all passed through Foynes Airport during WWII. Irish coffee is said to have been invented at Foynes in 1942 to cheer up passengers after a Pan Am flying boat was forced to turn back due to bad weather conditions. This golden age is commemorated in the Foynes Flying Boat Museum, on the site of the old airport. In 1942, Shannon Airport replaced Foynes as the gateway to America. It is also in Shannon that the world's first duty free opened on 21th April 1947. It served as a model for other duty free facilities worldwide.
Oldest places
Ireland's oldest pub is Sean's Bar in Athlone. It was founded some 900 years ago. The country's oldest licensed pub, though, is Grace Neill's Bar in Donaghadee, established in 1611. (Brazen Head in Dublin is believed to have been there since 1178. T&G Doolens in Waterford was established in 1400. However when we were there in October it closed. We loved Doolens place so it was very sad for us. Our favorite Pub in Skerries (Man-O-War) has been there since 1595.)The Woodenbridge Hotel, which opened in 1608, is the oldest hotel in Ireland. It is located in the Vale of Avoca, County Wicklow.
Trim Castle was the first Anglo-Norman castle built (from 1169) in Ireland, as well as the largest ever built, originally covering an area of 30,000 m².
Kilbrittain Castle, County Cork, is the oldest inhabited castle in Ireland. It is thought to have been built by the O'Mahony Clan circa 1035.
Kilkea Castle, in County Kildare, is the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Ireland. It was the seat of the Fitzgerald's from the early 13th century until the early 1960's. The Fitzgerald's were made Barons of Offaly in the 12th century, then became Earls of Kildare (from 1316), and eventually Duke of Leinster (from 1766), the highest title in the Irish peerage. The castle was subsequently converted into a hotel, which closed during the 2008–2010 Irish financial crisis.
Irish people around the world
It is estimated that over 80 million people of Irish descent live outside Ireland, in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa and states of the Caribbean and continental Europe. This is 14 times more than the population of Ireland (including Northern Ireland) itself ! 3 million of these emigrants still hold Irish nationality. Roughly 34 million Americans reported Irish ancestry in the 2000 US Census, which makes it the second largest ethnic group after the German Americans. The highest concentration of Irish Americans is in the North-East (New York and New England).About half of the population of Australia can claim Irish ancestry.
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