Ireland - Island of 7 million & 50 million descendants

The island of Ireland comprises of 32 counties and 4 provinces. Ulster to the North, Leinster to the East, Munster to the South & Connacht to the West. The wild Atlantic Ocean borders 3 of those provinces while the Irish sea separates the island from the British mainland of Scotland , England & Wales.

Population Size: 7 million - Republic 5.1 mio & North ( aka 6 Counties) 1.9 mio.

Languages: Predominantly English. Irish Gaelic (Polish also spoken by immigrants from Poland who comprise over 5% of the island's population).

Uachtarán na hÉireann/President: Michael D. Higgins.

Taoiseach/Prime Minister: Michael Martin , Fianna Fail.

Religion: Christian , predominantly Catholic with significantly declining numbers.

Main Sports: Traditional - Gaelic & Hurling Football. 2 soccer sides represent the island - Irish Republic & Northern Ireland respectively. Players are drawn from the entire island of Ireland in Rugby Union, Hockey & Cricket.

Famous Irish: James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, William Butler Yeats, Charles Stuart Parnell, Daniel O’Connel , Countess Markiewicz, Pierce Brosnan, Sinead O’Connor, Liam Neeson , Colin Farrell, U2.

Famous Irish Diaspora: Henry Ford, John F Kennedy, Billy Connolly,Sean Connery, Judy Dench, John Mc Enroe, Maureen O' Hara, (Princess) Grace Kelly.

Fun Fact: While the Romans visited Ireland, as evidenced by artifacts discovered over many years, they never colonised the island as they had done with the rest of Europe. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining why the Irish are different!

Famous Myth: The potato did NOT originate in Ireland. It was brought from America by the British colonialist and explorer Walter Raleigh. As a means of survival, it became a staple diet for the Irish tenant farmers paying rent to mostly absentee landlords in England. Food was exported to England during the Famine years and today it is now accepted a Genocide was committed on the Irish population.