Ireland: Language

Most parts of Ireland speak English. Every one we met certainly did. Our chauffeur, David, told us that there was a whole portion of the country in which the traditional Irish language, Gaelic, was spoken. The Irish government is extremely protective of Irish culture ever since they "separated" from Great Britain. They even go so far as to require students to spend a few weeks in this Gaelic-only region in order to make sure the language is preserved throughout generations.

Indeed, every road sign we saw while traveling, from the inner parts of Dublin to the fringes of the Dingle Peninsula, there were Gaelic words underneath the English. Go Mall. Became a common phrase: slow down. The roads in Ireland are so small and so close to falling off of the average cliff that it was possibly the single most repeated phrase we heard or saw on the trip. The Irish accent (in English) is also very interesting. In addition to more normal pronunciation differences, the Irish always pronounce "th" like "t", so you would often hear phrases like "It's tree tirty four." After a while I became so used to this specific pronunciation that I was confused when a grocery clerk was saying "turkey", and I wondered to myself what a "thurkey" was.

Ireland: Economy

Ireland uses the Euro like most other European Union members, and my mother, aunt, and brother and I converted our money in D.C., before we arrived in Ireland. I had some leftover Euros from my exchange trip to Germany, and thankfully, Ireland is much more credit-card-friendly than Germany, saving us having to go to the ATM more than once.

One thing I distinctly remember from Germany was how expensive drinks were.  A .2L glass might cost you 2-3 Euros! Thankfully, this wasn't the case when we arrived in Dublin. Having spent four hours in Houston waiting for our delayed flight to D.C., and another thirty minutes for our yet-still delayed flight into Dublin, we were all exceptionally hungry, despite having eaten on the flight over. As such, we asked our chauffeur where we could grab a quick bite to eat. Quite surprisingly, when he brought us to a gas station, we found that there was a rather broad selection of meals we could buy and bring with us, unlike the snacks we might find in gas stations in America. I bought a coffee and breakfast burrito for only 4 Euros. Not bad.

Being on the Euro was a very good thing for Ireland, as it meant its products (assuming they are of equal quality) would carry the same weight as other products in the European Union, and much more weight in countries beyond. Ireland, however, likes to make its own products. Everywhere we went, next to more common European brands were products made and manufactured in Ireland. Kerry Gold butter is a prime example. There was even an entire store near Blarney Castle dedicated to Irish-made goods like shirts and sweaters. And of course, in good Irish humor, there were plenty of gag-gifts to bring home for our own delayed Christmas celebration.

Ireland: Religion

Almost everyone in Ireland is Christian, with the vast majority of those being Catholic. The second largest population is Protestant, although nearly 99% of protestants live in Northern Ireland, which belongs to the UK. When the UK was occupying Ireland, the northern states chose to give in to the cultural pressure, and convert, while the rest of the island  chose to resist, as if in spite. Today, things are much less tense between the two Irelands, and the demographics are starting to change. For the most part, the Republic of Ireland is still dominantly Catholic, but it now contains much more Protestants, and members of other religions such as Judaism, Islam, and even some Buddhists. 

We had the extreme pleasure of visiting Ireland during Christmastime, and I have never seen so many Christmas decorations! Every single shop, every single restaurant, every single department store, every single pub had decorations up. Yes, I mean it. Every single one. The Christmas cheer was also quite evident in the people there. In general, the Irish people seemed extremely nice to us all the time, and they seem to enjoy tourists visiting their country. One museum was even letting people in for free just because it was the day before Christmas. 

It was almost sad to come back to America after being surrounded by people expressing the utmost politeness. When talking more with David, our chauffeur, he said that nobody really minded the religious connection, even those that weren't Christian. There were even Christmas decorations in a Chinese restaurant! The Chinese owners offered us free beverages, as it was Christmas day, and they were one of the only places open. We had walked a long ways from out hotel, and it was greatly appreciated. It is extremely unfortunate that Americans cannot fill themselves with the same kindness. One doesn't have to practice a religion in order to enjoy the spirit that comes with it. And yet there are those that claim red and green on their coffee cups is taking it too far.

Ireland: Values/Norms

I'm not entirely sure if it was purely because all of Ireland was in Christmas cheer, but the Irish have to have been the nicest group of people  I have ever met while traveling Europe. Germans are... well... Germans, and Finns and Norwegians tend to keep to themselves, but the Irish always seemed happy to make your acquaintance, whether you were attending their pub, grabbing some ice cream, or if you looked any bit lost while wandering the streets. Yes, when my family and I were looking for a place to eat and stopped for just a second, a person came up to us and asked if we were lost nearly immediately. Once we told him we were just looking for a place to eat, he spent the next five minutes telling us the best places to get various meals. Upon bidding him farewell, he said "Not a problem," and carried on as though he went through the act of assisting tourists daily.

Waiters and waitresses too, often spent the time to make a bit of conversation. Like I mentioned briefly in my Religion section of this blog, the Irish seemed to enjoy having tourists visiting their country. And going during Christmas, when almost all tourists were spending their time in the warmth of their home gave us plenty of opportunity to really talk with all of our tour guides, sales clerks, or what have you. In fact, we spent almost an hour on a tour that was supposed to last 30 minutes merely talking with the tour guide about the Dunbrody, a famous example of the ships used by the Irish's mass exodus during the potato famine. Us four were his only visitors all day, and he spent some extra time telling us anecdotes about the ship and her famous Captain John Baldwin. Overall, the pleasure of saying merely a few sentences to a complete stranger was something I  never passed up during our visit there.

Ireland: Historical Contributions

Ireland had a huge role in allowing the UK to rise to its global naval power. Ireland had large amounts of old-growth forests, the trees of which were necessary for ship masts. In the end, the entire island was deforested. Today, the Irish government has reforested much of the previously barren landscapes, but it will take a long time for the forests to reach their former glory. Additionally, during the Irish potato famine, the eastern half of Ireland was actually pretty well-off, as they were able to use the more fertile soil to farm different crops, and capitalize on animal husbandry. The western side, however was tied to the potato, as the soil in the western side was of far lesser quality than the eastern side. Instead of the eastern side selling their much-needed food to the western side of Ireland, they instead kept selling their goods to Britain. While this initially seems extremely counter-intuitive, the western Irish were ultimately subsistence farmers, and didn't have much money to buy any goods in the first place. So the eastern Irish were forced to sell their goods at decent prices to the British or risk falling into debt by selling to the poor west Irish.

Ireland was a huge strategic point for both Britain and France, as the two constantly wanted to use Ireland as a point to invade the other. Even Norway wanted a piece of the Island, and indeed there are many distinct Viking influences in the island and its people, and Gaelic is related to the Nordic languages. In fact, because my family has primarily Scandinavian roots, we chose to go to the places most related to Vikings and Viking influence in Irish heritage.

 

Ireland: Government

The Irish government is extremely interested in keeping Ireland Irish. They require all students in primary schooling to learn Gaelic, the traditional Irish language, although both Gaelic and English are official languages of the country. They have spent millions of Euros restoring forests, grasslands, and also keeping Irish culture alive and well. There is, in fact, an entire region of the island set apart specifically for people who live a more traditional and rural life. They only speak Gaelic, they don't have access to much technology, and they treat students to live with them every summer. 

One thing I realized when reading about the restoration of Irish forests was that there was hardly any wildlife at all. There were a few species of bird here and there, not counting, of course, seagulls. But other than fenced off sheep, cows, and horses, there were no untamed animals to be found. Before the potato famine, Ireland's population was around 8.2 million people. As such, most non-domesticated animals were hunted to extinction. Today, Ireland's population is around 4.7 million, and its growth has begun to slow down over the last four years.

Ireland: Cuisine


Overall, the food in Ireland is not very foreign compared to here in the states. At least, the ingredients aren't, but far more common are dishes like chowder, lamb soup, and of course, the ever-present club sandwich. Most places we ate at listed multiple items as having ingredients that were Irish-grown, and far more were listed as organic. In fact, we even ate at a restaurant in which all its vegetables and fruits were grown out back in a garden. The owner of this restaurant/store combo really kicked off the organic movement in Ireland, and is the reason why so much of Ireland's produce is organic today. She even has her own cooking tutorials, known internationally.

I myself had the pleasure of eating four club sandwiches in four days, a choice which I do not regret to this day. At each location, however, the sandwich was served slightly different to the one before. A pub in Waterford, for example, toasted and buttered their bread, while a restaurant in Killarney served their sandwich without a third piece of bread in the middle. It was refreshing to get a slightly different serving of the same tastes. 

There are, however, foreign-themed and foreign restaurants in Ireland. On Christmas day, there were only six places open in Dublin, of which all six were Chinese restaurants. We chose to walk to the nearest one, which fortunately was not Chinese-themed, but was, in fact, a true Chinese restaurant. I never understood how Chinese imitations could never have dumplings as soft as actual dumplings. 

 

Ireland: Social Organization

For the most part, Ireland is Irish. That goes for more than just demographics: the people, plants, animals, foods, language - it is all distinctly Irish. The Irish government is extremely intent on keeping Ireland this way, as I have written about in the Government section. For the people, however, Ireland has lately been shifting more and more into a multicultural society. With a current population of less than Houston's it's not hard to see how a relatively small influx of people from other regions could cause a noticeable shift in proportions. Luckily, after its separation from the UK, the division between English Protestants and Irish Catholics became much less heated, and as a result, eighty years later, religions other than Christianity are also widely accepted. 

One thing I did not see, however, were certain sections of cities that represented a specific culture. For instance, there were no China Towns, or Little Vietnam's, or even "Little Turkey's" as I saw in Germany. I suppose, with the fact that many of the China Towns in the US are larger than many towns in Ireland, there perhaps is not a number large enough to create such sections of the cities.