St. Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin 2007

Population

Ireland has a population of about 6.1 million people. The average population density of Ireland is about 60 people per square km. In the Republic there are 4.3 million people, and in Northern Ireland there is 1.8 million people. Dublin is the biggest city by far, with a population of 1.7 million in the Greater Dublin Area. Next comes Belfast with just above 0.5 million, then Cork, Limerick, Derry, Galway, Waterford and so on. Ireland's population is only half as much as it was in 1841, before the famine, but it is growing steadily and is predicted to reach that population by 2050.

Ireland is made up of mostly pure Irish. Although there are large numbers of groups coming from outside Ireland. The biggest minority is Britons. There around 400,000 Britons in Ireland up to around 5% of the population. Next there is Polish (200,000), then Lithuanians (115,000), Chinese (50,000),Nigerians (30,000) Germans (20,000), Latvians (15,000), Americans (10,000), and lots more. They now make up 10% of Ireland's population, twice as much as Portugal. Ireland is now considered a popular place to live. So good that Irish descendants are finally coming home.

Religion

Ever since the English settled in Ireland, there has been a war between the 2 main religions: Catholics and Protestants. This had a big effect on Ireland. In the late 1960s, the Catholics (also known as the Republicans) formed together then the, Irish Army, the IRA (Irish Republican Army) advanced to Northern Ireland, were most of the Protestants (a.k.a. Unionists) lived. There then rose a number of terrorist attacks throughout the 1970s, on of the worst the terrorist attack called "Bloody Sunday". These terrorist attacks contiued and reached its peak in the 1980s. It was so bad that Northern Ireland was recognized throughout the world as what would now be Iraq. So many terrorist attacks continued that people were not aloud into Northern Ireland. It continued throughout the 1990s and one major incident in Omagh when the bomb in 1998 killed over 30 people. Finally, in 1999, an agreement in Belfast was signed to ease the relations between the North and South. So basically, the terrorist attacks, known in Ireland and abroad as "The Troubles", came to an end. But the IRA refused to disarm. However, in 2005, the IRA disarmed.
In Ireland, there are mainly Roman Catholics, in the ROI about 88%. But there are Protestants, Church of Ireland, Angelican, and a small number of Jews and Islam.

Notable Sites (and people) for Visiting in Ireland

The Giant's Causeway, Co. Antrim: Wonderfully shaped stones
Hill of Tara, Co. Meath: Wonderful patterns and views
Newgrange, Co. Meath: Wonderful facts of prehistoric Ireland
Skellig, Co. Kerry: Wonderful rocks and views
Blarney Castle and Stone, Co. Cork: A special stone, and the beautiful town of Blarney, Co. Cork (my grandparents live there)
Aran Islands, Co. Galway: A rare place to see old Irish Culture (before the famine)
Kilkenny Castle, Co. Kilkenny: A wonderful site in the east
Dublin City: A wonderful city to see old Ireland (as well as modern Ireland)
Donegal Mountains: Wonderful landscape
Irish People: Happy and friendly, especially in the western and southern areas

President and Taoiseach (Prime Minister)

There has been 8 Presidents of Ireland since the early 20th Century. The first was Douglas Hyde. Today, the President of Ireland is called Mary McAleese. The President of Ireland lives in a large house called Aras an Uachtarain (pronounced "Air-is on Oocharon"). It is located in Phoenix Park, Dublin.

The Prime Minister of Ireland is called a Taoiseach (pronounced "Tea-shuc"). There has been ten Taoiseach's, the most recent being Bertie Ahern.

Historical Disasters in Ireland

Sadly, Ireland has suffered from some aviation, natural, and rail disasters.

One of Ireland's worst natural disasters was the Great Famine of the 1840s. At that time people mostly lived on a valuable food: the potato. In 1845 a fungus struck the potatoes and the had nothing to eat. 1 million people died and about a have a million emigrated to Britain, America, and Australia. It lasted until 1848.

The worst aviation disasters was the Tuskar Rock Air Disaster. On Sunday, March 24th, 1968, an Aer Lingus Vickers Viscount flying between Cork and London Heathrow carrying 61 people inexplicably crashed about two miles north-east of Tuskar Rock, on the South-East coast of Ireland. It was probably caused by structural failure in the port tailplane, but it was not determined how. It was also called Aer Lingus Flight 712. It remains Ireland's worst aviation disaster. It was the Vickers Viscount's 4th worst disaster.

A train traveling between Dublin and Cork crashed into another train killing 18 people and injuring more than 70.

In 1998, a IRA bomb exploded in the lovely town of Omagh in Northern Ireland killed 29 and injured many more. It was Ireland's worst Troubles attack ever. All the troubles stop completely in 1998.

Transportation

Road transport

Ireland, together with Britain, drives on the left hand side of the road. Because of this the string wheel is on the right. Also in Ireland, people use different signs of the road then the UK. Motorways in Ireland didn't appear till the 1980s. The Naas-Bypass, or M7 motorway (freeway) opened. Ireland today has a wider amount of motorways. These are the following motorways existing in Ireland (not including Northern Ireland):

M1: North Dublin to Newry (just north of border), A1 to Belfast, 97km long
M4: Lucan (West Dublin) until Kinnegad (central Ireland) N4 to Sligo, (northwest Ireland), 55km long
M6: Roots off M4, N6 to Galway (West Ireland), 2km long
M7: Naas (south-west of Dublin) to Mounrath (mid-way between to main N7 destinations),
N7 to Limerick (southwest Ireland), 63 km long
M9: Roots off M7, N9 to Waterford (south-east Ireland), 6km long
M11: Bray (south-east Dublin), N11 to Wexford, (southeast Ireland)
M50: Ring road (beltway) of Dublin. Almost all motorways root off this route. 45 km long. Upgrading to three or four lanes on each side.

Ireland has many more plans for motorway. Ireland's other routes without motorway yet are:
N2: Dublin to Derry ( Northern Ireland), A5 to Derry
N3: Constructing a motorway from Dublin to Kells, which is 40km long. N3 to Ballyshannon (northwest Ireland)
N5: Kinnegad to Westport.
N8: Constructing an M8 which is 120 km long, Dublin to Cork (southern Ireland). Has a small toll road 17.5km long and another which is not tolled and is 15km long.

Even with all these plans, some people say Ireland is one of the worst countries in the world for road construction, but they are improving.


Railways
Ireland has had a long age of railways, probably since the early 1800s. It has railways from Dublin to main cities and main cities to other main cities.

Air
Ireland has about 5 main big airports, and many smaller airports the main airports are Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Shannon, and Knock airports. Also, Ireland's main airlines from Britain, Europe, America, and even Dubai are Aer Lingus, Ryanair and Aer Arran.