Interesting facts about Ireland

This page is crammed with interesting facts about Ireland's history, society, and environment – both built and natural – and place in the world today.

Cliffs of Moher: the highest cliffs in Europe.

• Ireland was the last country in Europe to permit divorce. It was narrowly approved by a 1995 referendum when only 50.28% voted in favour. (This was three percentage points more than at the previous referendum in 1986.)

  The first-ever divorce granted in Ireland was in 1997. In 2009, 3,716 divorces were granted. Irish law allows couples to divorce only if they have been living apart for four years.

• The Dublin Spire on O'Connell Street (which some say is the tallest sculpture in the world, but I can't confirm the claim) was built to withstand inner-city atmospheric conditions, pollution and lighting, and to survive for at least 120 years. It cost 4 million euros, so you'd expect it to last!

  It's official name is the Monument of Light, but everyone calls it the Spire or the Spike (or one of the somewhat ruder nicknames that I won't include here!).

  The Spire is 3m in diameter at its base and tapers to 150mm in diameter at the tip, exactly 121m (396 feet) above, where the sway is 1.5m in any direction. Its weight of 130 tonnes is held down by 48 bolts. Having taken five months to manufacture, the Spire has graced the capital's most well-known street since January 2003.

• Ireland is a member of the United Nations but not a member of NATO.
• Although the shamrock is probably the best known, internationally, of all Irish symbols, the official symbol of Ireland is the Celtic Harp.
• The man who wrote the Red Flag, the anthem of the International Labour Movement, was Meath man Jim Connell. Born in the village of Kilskyre, not far from Kells, in 1852, he went on to become a socialist agitator and journalist, and penned the famous lyrics in 1889. He died in 1929.
• The Cliffs of Moher in co Clare overlook the Atlantic Ocean and are Europe's highest cliffs. The nearby Visitor Centre, which welcomed 763,974 visitors in 2009, is Ireland's top visitor attraction outside Dublin.
• Ireland was one of the earliest countries to establish a system of hereditary surnames. Originally, the forms were limited to prefixes ie Mac (meaning 'son of') and 'O' (meaning descendant of).

  It's a myth that Mac prefix suggests Scotish descent. It's as Irish as 'O'.

  During the 18th and 19th centuries, many families dropped the prefixes, but they started to re-emerge in the late 19th century and throughout the 20th. Some names, however, never did 're-attach' the prefix. Murphy is one of these. In the 1911 census, it was the most numerous surname, with 55,535 Murphys recorded. Only three families (12 people in total) called themselves O'Murphy.

• The first steamship to cross the Atlantic was the Sirius. It left Cobh (then called Queenstown) in 1838 and took 18 days to cross the Ocean.
• There's no point denying it. It rains a lot in Ireland. But possibly not as much as you think. According to Met Eireann, Ireland's meteorological service, the average number of wet days (days with more than 1mm of rain) ranges from about 150 days a year along the east and south-east coasts, to about 225 days a year in parts of the west.
  Like much of the country, Cahir Castle Gardens in
  co Tipperary were flooded in November 2009.
  However, there was considerably more than that falling from the sky in November 2009, resulting in the worst floods in living memory. After 30 days of steady rainfall (more than twice the average monthly amounts were measured, and more than three times the normal amount fell in some places), the Lakes of Killarney overflowed, the River Shannon had become a lake, the city of Galway was practically cut off, and the city of Cork was under 1m of water after the River Lee burst its banks.

  This was the third year in succession that the Atlantic coast counties had experienced record rains and flooding, but the flooding wasn't confined to these parts. Parts of Carlow, Tyrone and Fermanagh were also under water.

• The Celt's love of the horse has passed down the generations to produce a society that is nuts about horseracing. There are 26 racecourses across the island (more per head of population than any other country in the world, according to Horse Racing Ireland, the organisation responsible for the sport), but it is the Curragh, in co Kildare, which is the most famous and which hosts the largest and most valuable meetings. The Derby was established there in 1866, the Oaks in 1895 and the St Leger in 1915.

  Despite the Curragh's long connection with racing, it was co Cork that witnessed the first steeplechase. It took place in 1752 when Edmund Blake and Cornelius O'Callaghan challenged one another to a race to establish which had the better horse. The rivals started out from the steeple of St John's Church in Buttevant and had to clear allobstacles – streams, walls, fences, gates – before reaching the steeple of St Mary's in Doneraile, 4.5miles away. Blake won.

  There's a large bronze plaque memorial to the event in Buttevant.

More interesting facts about Ireland

• Curious and fun facts about Ireland.
• Facts, quirky and otherwise, about the island.
• A full menu of pages containing information about Ireland.