Did you know...

  1. Ten Irish people have won Nobel prizes:
    William Butler Yeats (Literature)
    George Bernard Shaw (Literature)
    Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (joint) (Physics)
    Samuel Beckett (Literature)
    Sean MacBride (Peace)
    Mairead Corrigan & Betty Williams (Peace)
    Seamus Heaney (Literature)
    John Hume & David Trimble (Peace)
  2. Samuel Beckett wrote the world's shortest play - Breath is 30 seconds long
  3. Ireland's highest mountain is Carrantuohill in County Kerry
  4. Ireland's longest river is the Shannon
  5. Ireland's largest lake is Lough Neagh
  6. Powerscourt waterfall is the highest in Ireland
  7. The Céide Fields in North Mayo is the most extensive Stone Age monument in the world
  8. The coldest months in Ireland are January and February, July and August are the warmest, May and June are the sunniest
  9. Ireland is the westernmost island in Europe
  10. Ireland's greatest length (NS) is 302 miles (486 km) and greatest width (EW) 171 miles (275km)
  11. The total coastline of Ireland is 1,970 miles (3,169 km)
  12. The Constitution of Ireland was enacted by the People on 1st July 1937
  13. Ireland joined the EEC on January 1st 1973
  14. Traditionally, there are eighteen letters in the Irish alphabet (abcdefghilmnoprstu)
  15. 70 million people worldwide claim Irish ancestry
  16. Julius Caesar gave Ireland the Latin name Hibernia in the first Century BC
  17. It is alleged that St.Brendan, an Irish monk, discovered America before Christopher Columbus
  18. It is said that lynch-law owes its name to James Fitzstephen Lynch, mayor and warden of Galway who tried and executed his own son in 1493
  19. Mike Quill from County Kerry was the founder and first international president of the Transport Workers Union of America (1934)
  20. Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington whose military career culminated in winning the Battle of Waterloo, was born in Dublin in 1769
  21. James Hoban from County Kilkenny was the architect who designed the White House in 1792
  22. Commodore John Barry from Wexford is referred to as the father of the US Navy
  23. John Philip Holland from County Clare designed the submarine, which was later used by the US Government
  24. John Tyndall from County Carlow (scientist) is best remembered for explaining why the sky is blue
  25. The first Dáil sat on 21st January 1919; the first Seanad sat on 11th December 1922
  26. Mary Robinson was Ireland's first female President (3/12/1990 -12/10/1997)
  27. Mary McAleese is the first President of Ireland from north of the border (elected 11/11/1997)
  28. The Book of Armagh is the earliest existing specimen of a continuous narrative in Irish prose. It represents Irish of the end of the seventh, or of the beginning of the eighth century
  29. Of the four Botanic Gardens established in Ireland between 1795 - 1827, only the Dublin gardens remain, (the Belfast Garden is now a Public Park, the Ballsbridge Garden closed, as did the one in Cork)
  30. The first public screening of a film was made in Ireland at the Star of Erin Theatre of Varieties on April 17th 1896
  31. South Boston born James Brendan Connolly, whose parents were from Inis Mór, Aran Islands, was the first ever modern Olympic Champion, he won Gold in the Hop, Step and Jump (Triple Jump) in 1896
  32. James Joyce opened Ireland's first Cinema, The Volta, Mary Street, Dublin, on 20th December 1909
  33. Trinity College Dublin was established in 1592
  34. Temple Bar in Dublin housed the first Jewish temple built in Ireland
  35. Radio Teilifís Éireann made its first public transmission on 31st December 1961
  36. Radio 1 first broadcast in January 1926
  37. Teampall Bheanain on Inis Mór, Aran Islands, County Galway is one of the smallest churches in the world measuring 10 feet x 7 feet
  38. Ireland's first railway from Dublin to Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) was built in 1834 and was the worlds first commuter line
  39. Liam Cosgrave led the first Irish delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1956
  40. Chaim Herzog, sixth President of the State of Israel, was born in Belfast in 1918
  41. The paintings that attract most attention at the National Gallery, Dublin are The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio (1571-1610) and Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid by Vermeer (1632-1675)
  42. Stephen Roche became the first Irishman to win the Tour de France and the World Professional Road Championship. He is the second rider in history to win the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and the World Professional Championship in the same year
  43. Bill King was the first Irishman to sail alone around the world (1970/1973)
  44. Pat Falvey from Cork was the first Irishman to climb all the great mountains of the world, including Everest, Kilimanjaro, Mount Vinson and Mount Aconcagua
  45. Alan Humphries was the first Irishman to reach the North Pole (April 26th 1999 in the Aspirations 99 Dog sled and Ski Expedition)
  46. Michael Collins was the first Irishman in space. He remained in lunar orbit while his Apollo 11 colleagues, Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon( 21st July 1969)
  47. John Robert Gregg from County Monaghan invented the internationally used Gregg Shorthand System
  48. Catherine Elizabeth McAuley from Dublin established the congregation of the Sisters of Mercy in 1831