Random Odd Facts

Odd Irish Facts

• Achill Island is the largest island off Ireland’s coast. It’s 56 miles square, with dramatic landscape featuring wild cliffs and moors.
• The northern Spanish town of Santiago de Compostela is known as"el Dingle de Santiago" in memory of a journey that Irish religious pilgrims made there in medieval times.
• Killary Bay, on the Mayo-Galway border, is the only true fjord in Ireland. A fjord is a long, narrow inlet from the sea between high slopes.
• Ireland’s 15 principal railway stations are named after the leaders of the 1916 uprising.
• An “An Fáinne” is a lapel pin, worn by some fluent Irish speakersto invite others to speak to them in the traditional language.
• Director John Huston filmed the New Bedford, Massachusetts scenes in his 1956 movie "Moby Dick" in Youghal, County Cork.
• Famed Hollywood movie director John Ford was born Sean O’Feeney in 1894, in Spiddal, County Galway.
• The scenic “Wicklow Way” is the oldest and most popular hiking route in Ireland. Stretching from the Dublin suburb of Rathfarnham in a south-westerly direction toward the village of Clonegal, in County Carlow, the 25 year old public walking route is traversed by over 20,000 people each year.
• James Joyce once called Guinness stout "the wine of Ireland."
• Ireland has virtually no coal deposits, even though it’s just 60 miles from Wales, one of the world’s richest coal fields.
• Muhammad Ali has some Irish heritage. His great grandfather was born in Ennis, County Clare, and emigrated to Kentucky in the 1860s. There, he married an African-American woman. A son born to this couple also married and African-American woman, who gave birth to Ali's mother, Odessa Grady. She married a man named Cassius Clay, and the two moved to Louisville, where the future champ was born.
• Baileys Irish Cream which was launched in Ireland in the early seventies, is now the most popular liqueur in the world.
• Louth is the smallest county in Ireland; Cork is the largest.
• About 30% of the people in Australia are of Irish descent.
• Ireland is the world’s only country with a musical instrument for a national symbol: the harp.
• It’s not the custom in Ireland to wear green ties, hats or other green clothes on St. Patrick's Day. A sprig of shamrock in the coat lapel is the preferred display.
• One old Irish superstition holds that May is an unlucky month to get married in, because of its association with the Virgin Mary. This superstition seems to have lost its power, however, since May is now one of the most popular wedding months for Irish people.
• The Irish tricolor flag, created in 1848, was designed to reflect the country's political realities. Orange stands for Irish Protestants, green for Irish Catholics and the white stripe for the hope that peace might eventually be reached between them.
• The tallest identical twins ever born were the Knipe Brothers from Magherafelt in County Derry who were 7ft 2in. They were born in 1761.
• Actor Kenneth Branagh hails from Belfast.
• The red kite, an almost extinct species, will be reintroduced in County Wicklow Ireland in the fall of 2007. The red kite is a raptor that has been supported by special breeding and release programs in England. It has not been seen in Ireland since the 19th century.
• Ireland’s highest mountain is Carrantouhill, in County Kerry (3,445 feet).
• Trinity College in Dublin, which happens to be Ireland's oldest university, has famous alumni including Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker.
• Pop singer Christina Aguilera’s mother is Irish-American.
• Belleek Pottery will celebrate it’s 150th anniversary by reissuing 15 items from deep within it’s archives, including a 19th century Round Tower centerpiece.