Ireland
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Ireland is a country in Europe.
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History of Ireland
Ireland has a rich and interesting history dating back thousands of years. This is evident in remnants left around the country such as the burial tomb in Newgrange, the castles in Cashel and Trim and the Georgian houses located all around inner city Dublin. More in depth information on the history of Ireland can be found on Wikipedia.
Culture and Society
At the moment Ireland is a rapidly changing society, which makes it an interesting place to live and to visit. From being one of Europe's poorest and least developed countries in the 1980's, to the era of the Celtic Tiger (1990s - now) the Republic of Ireland is now one of the world's richest countries. However, infrastructure and public services are still quite a bit behind other European countries. Some examples of Celtic Tiger Ireland: there are loads of SUVs, but there are no motorways connecting Ireland's major cities. Loads of plastic surgery in private clinics, also enormous waiting lists in normal hospitals.
On a cultural level, Ireland nearly lost its native language (called "Irish" by Irish people, as opposed to "Gaelic" - the Irish for Irish is "Gaeilge") as a result of 800 years of suppression by the British, followed by nearly a century of mismanagement by successive Irish governments. However, Irish is making a comeback, and the appearance on the scene of many immigrants in Ireland who speak different languages than English is not a small factor in this. In December 2006, the government announced ambitious plans to make Ireland completely bilingual (Irish and English) within the next 20 years. This should be interesting.
What Ireland has to offer
At the moment this page is under construction... Check www.ireland.ie or our Dublin, Cork and Galway pages for more information. Just staring the Kilkenny page.
Tourist Attractions
Cliffs of Moher
TOURING AROUND IRELAND
some useful tips and resources ....
To spend a few days or a few weeks is a lovely time to come to Ireland and see many wonderful places in Ireland.
The main Irish Tourst board (Failte Ireland) site is: www.ireland.ie
You can either use the extensive bus network, www.buseireann.ie which is reasonable or the train service(www.irishrail.ie) which is less extensive and much more expensive or you could hire a car. Apart from Bus Éireann, there are several private sector bus companies that provide transport between major cities and are worth looking into, as their prices can be lower than Bus Éireann's prices and their time-tables can be more extensive. Check out Bus Nestor www.nestorairlink.ie and Citylink www.citylink.ie for buses between Dublin and Galway. Both also run direct buses from Dublin Airport to Galway, and Citylink also runs a service from Shannon Airport to Galway. Bus Feda www.fedaodonnell.com runs services from Galway to County Donegal. McGeehans and McGinley's run services from Dubin to Donegal. Hitchhiking is difficult from major cities with the possible exception of Galway. However, in country areas, especially in the west of Ireland, hitchhiking is quite common, not just with visitors but with locals as well. Of course, the usual health warnings apply! Having a rental car will certinaly allow you the freedom to explore, but will also set you back a few euro.
Failte Ireland have a section on their site for hiring a car which actually gives the local contact infromation so you are dealing directly with the car hire company: ireland.ie car hire
