Cool irish facts

Ineedaname · 31-10-2016 10:32AM

Dr Crayfish wrote: »

I know, it's sad, only 1% of Ireland is covered by natural woodland now ffs

It's 11% actually and there are plans to bring it higher.

Still not great mind you but it is improving.

clairewithani · 31-10-2016 10:33AM

Collie D wrote: »

Got locked out of his b&b after leaving his key in the pub. Was there twenty whole minutes before being rescued by a German backpacker

B&B and pub. Wow! Cutting edge survivalist!!

HensVassal · 31-10-2016 10:36AM

md23040 wrote: »

Thank god that we are one of the most least densely populated countries in Europe and hopefully always remain that way. By comparison based on the UK's density the Republic would have 19.3 million population and based on France have 8.5 million.

Albeit Dublin has infrastructural problems it is has low density compared to other European capital cities - Paris (3 times less) and London (2 times less).

Huh?

xabi · 31-10-2016 10:41AM

When in lough Foyle, the north is to your south and the south is to your north.

FTA69 · 31-10-2016 10:42AM

Ineedaname wrote: »

It's 11% actually and there are plans to bring it higher.

Still not great mind you but it is improving.

I think by natural he meant indigenous deciduous woodland? The vast majority of Irish forest nowadays is coniferous pine which looks crap.

osarusan · 31-10-2016 10:44AM

We had so many Irish in Montserrat in previous centuries and they had a (failed) slave rebellion there, which started on March 17th 1768.

It's the only other place in the world where Saint Patrick's Day is a national holiday.

Sir Osis of Liver. · 31-10-2016 10:53AM

We invented Halloween.

Balmed Out · 31-10-2016 10:53AM

Irish monks "invented" the space between words. Beforethatsentenceshadnosapacesbutwerelongseriesofletters.

Chuchote · 31-10-2016 11:01AM

Irish monks also invented upper and lower case letters, aka minuscule script.

BEFORE THAT EVERYONE WROTE ALL IN CAPITALS LIKE INTERNET TROLLS.

cdeb · 31-10-2016 11:02AM

The world's first road fatality and aviation fatality were both in Offaly.

Balmed Out · 31-10-2016 11:02AM

THANKYOUIRISHMONKS.

31-10-2016 11:07AM

tomwaterford wrote: »

Dunno was this just in my school or a national programme....was during the boom

You would have all aced it then as we were all geniuses during the boom (especially Brendan O'Connor).

pickarooney · 31-10-2016 11:07AM

tomwaterford wrote: »

Had mine and everyone else else in my year was tested in transition year

Isn't transition year only used in schools where the kids are not able to go straight from the junior to the leaning cert cycle?

Sam Kade · 31-10-2016 11:07AM

Balmed Out wrote: »

Irish monks "invented" the space between words. Beforethatsentenceshadnosapacesbutwerelongseriesofletters.

Thatstlyeofwritingmakesitveryslowtoread.

maudgonner · 31-10-2016 11:07AM

The Irish also invented copyright law, when St Columba secretly made a copy of a a manuscript and tried to keep it for himself.

A judgement from the High King ruled that he was not entitled to do so - 'to each cow its calf, to each book its copy'.

Sam Kade · 31-10-2016 11:10AM

clairewithani wrote: »

B&B and pub. Wow! Cutting edge survivalist!!

The dangers that man puts himself through

razorblunt · 31-10-2016 11:20AM

The Irish are great fashionistas, they were first to realise that Black and Tans should never go together and told the Brits so.

Chuchote · 31-10-2016 11:24AM

The Irish charitably allowed the English to test out the genocidal ethnic cleansing methods they would use in America on them first.

Red Kev · 31-10-2016 11:30AM

There are no traffic lights in County Roscommon or Country Leitrim.

There are pedestrian lights, lights at level crossings and lights at the raised bridge in Tarmonbarry, but none at road junctions.

Chuchote · 31-10-2016 11:33AM

Black cats are lucky in Ireland but unlucky in America. Magpies first appeared in Ireland in Forth and Bargy in the 17th century, brought by the English for their own mysterious reasons. The cheeky snagaire breac has spread throughout Ireland since then, scaring people when seen singly, entrancing people when seen in couples. Cromwell's colonel Solomon Roberts wrote: “My own garden, though in the Towne of Wexford, is continually frequented by them, and they are spread more thinly into other Counties and parts of the Kingdom. The natural Irish much detest them, saying, 'they shall never be rid of the English, while these Magpies remain’. The observation is, that the English Magpies entered Ireland in the same County where the Englishmen first entered it, and in the English Barony alsoe.”

The King of Moo · 31-10-2016 11:38AM

It's be a lovely little country if only you could put a roof on it.

Ireland is the only country in Europe where the evenings start drawing in in August.

The immersion was invented by Irish Fenian John MacIntyre to generate material for Joe.ie clickbait articles.

Saying Down with this sort of thing and dressing up as Father Ted characters is 17% funnier than the actual programme.

The Irish language has provided the basis for many English-language words including kibosh, smithereens, clock, and notion, which comes from Cork native Darlene Oceans, who in 1814 was the first Irish person to go on a skiing holiday.

Ireland is the only country in the world where snow is expected every winter.

Chuchote · 31-10-2016 11:39AM

It rains more in Amsterdam than in Dublin, but the Irish talk about the weather 80% more than any other nationality, God bless the mark.

clairewithani · 31-10-2016 11:41AM

The King of Moo wrote: »

It's be a lovely little country if only you could put a roof on it.

Ireland is the only country in Europe where the evenings start drawing in in August.

The immersion was invented by Irish Fenian John MacIntyre to generate material for Joe.ie clickbait articles.

Saying Down with this sort of thing and dressing up as Father Ted characters is 17% funnier than the actual programme.

The Irish language has provided the basis for many English-language words including kibosh, smithereens, clock, and notion, which comes from Cork native Darlene Oceans, who in 1814 was the first Irish person to go on a skiing holiday.

Ireland is the only country in the world where snow is expected every winter.

Made my day..

Collie D · 31-10-2016 11:43AM

I was going to throw out Ireland being the world's biggest exporter of bananas but sadly can find no evidence. Somebody lied to me

cdeb · 31-10-2016 11:44AM

Red Kev wrote: »

There are no traffic lights in County Roscommon or Country Leitrim.

I think there's a set of lights in Leitrim now - thought I saw it on the main evening news a few years back?

Which adds two more things - the main evening news is at a minute past six to allow you watch the headlines on BBC before switching over to RTÉ, where you can actually hear stories about traffic lights going in.

Also, we're the only country in the world where today is the last day of autumn.

Edit - lights in Leitrim since 2003, begob.

Chuchote · 31-10-2016 11:45AM

Collie D wrote: »

I was going to throw out Ireland being the world's biggest exporter of bananas but sadly can find no evidence. Somebody lied to me

We're nowhere. The banana republic of Belgium exports way more. Disgusted.

http://www.worldstopexports.com/bananas-exports-country/

razorblunt · 31-10-2016 11:48AM

The King of Moo wrote: »

The Irish language has provided the basis for many English-language words including kibosh, smithereens, clock, and notion, which comes from Cork native Darlene Oceans, who in 1814 was the first Irish person to go on a skiing holiday.

Upon return, Miss Oceans (42 from Sunday's Well), when asked what she thought of the trip, was quoted as saying

"it was grand like, but it's no Cork".

clairewithani · 31-10-2016 11:50AM

cdeb wrote: »

I think there's a set of lights in Leitrim now - thought I saw it on the main evening news a few years back?

Which adds two more things - the main evening news is at a minute past six to allow you watch the headlines on BBC before switching over to RTÉ, where you can actually hear stories about traffic lights going in.

Also, we're the only country in the world where today is the last day of autumn.

Edit - lights in Leitrim since 2003, begob.

When is last day of Autumn everywhere else? Very important question for me. Need to know when to take out the long Johns.

cdeb · 31-10-2016 11:51AM

clairewithani wrote: »

When is last day of Autumn everywhere else? Very important question for me. Need to know when to take out the long Johns.

Depends where you are. Obviously in the southern hemisphere, they're really weird, but in England, it's 30 November, and in the US and Canada it's 22 December, which is simply daft. Sure by that stage, you're not far off getting a bit of a stretch in the evenings.

The King of Moo · 31-10-2016 11:54AM

Some interesting facts about our low population density

Average distance a typical Irish person was reared from:

lattés: 6km

Christmas getaways: 12 km

ciabatta: 14km

pilates: 21km

quinoa: 43km

Cool irish facts

Comments