About Ireland

Explore this Ireland map to learn everything you want to know about this country. Learn about Ireland location on the world map, official symbol, flag, geography, climate, postal/area/zip codes, time zones, etc. Check out Ireland history, significant states, provinces/districts, & cities, most popular travel destinations and attractions, the capital city’s location, facts and trivia, and many more.

Ireland is recognized as the third largest island within the European continent. The word ‘Ireland’ originates from the term Ériu, which is Éire in the modern Irish language that conveys the meaning of ‘land’, which is associated with it. With innumerable choices to make, one may plan their itinerary well in advance while touring to this magnificent destination. Grab the opportunity and sway your eyes over the majestic castles, convoluted caves, wonderful shipping canals, awe-inspiring landscapes and find nothing more exciting and adventurous than this.

Physical Map Of Ireland

Ireland is seperated into two respective sovereign state, which includes:
•  The Republic of Ireland, mainly covering about five-sixth portion of the island from the south, west, east, and north-west ends.
•  The Northern Ireland, belonging to the United Kingdom, is engulfed from the northeastern sector.

The Republic of Ireland, popularly known as Éire is refered to as the “the South” or “the Republic” by the Northern Ireland native residents.

The Northern Ireland, is even called as “The North” by the local residents, the nationalist addresses it as “the Six Counties,” and the unionists call it as the “Ulster”.

The highest peak of Ireland is Carrauntuohill, which is even called as the Carrán Tuathail by the natives, is elevated to a height of about 3,414 feet.

The region is intersected by one of the longest river in town known as the River Shannon, that stretches to about 386 km along the land area. The island is nicknamed with the term “Emerald Isle” due to its lush vegetation, mild climate that covers an area of 32,591 square miles.

The county of Ireland is divided into four major provinces, which were collectively named as cúigí. These provinces were named as :

• Connacht,
• Leinster,
• Munster, and
• Ulster

These provinces were further intersected into 32 counties by the British government for the administrative reason during the 19th century.

The southwestern and western part of the Ireland is rarely cultivated because of its mountainous and rugged terrains, surrounded with flooded valleys. The eastern part is regular in nature with quite a few deep indentations.

The far west region adjacent to the Galway and Donegal is dominant with high-grade metamorphic and igneous rocks while the southeastern region of Ulster extending to the Longford and Navan areas belong to the Ordovician and Silurian era combined with Welsh similarity. The southwest region near to Bantry Bay along with the Macgillicuddy’s reeks of mountainous area is influenced with Cornish likeness, which is covered with light metamorphosed Devonian-aged rocks. Carboniferous limestone’s seems to enclose the country, thereby making the landscape rich and fertile. Ireland is even considered as a branch of the British Isles.

Location Of Ireland

Ireland is well placed in the region of Far Western Europe, lying in the midst of North Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea towards the eastern front.

The region is alienated from the Great Britain through the Saint George’s Channel that passes from the southeastern region, along with the North Channel towards the northeastern front.

Flag Of Ireland

The flag of Ireland was officially accepted in the month of January 21, 1919. The flag is designed with Tricolor mainly with green, orange, and white. The flag is based on the French Tri color where each color represents the religious faith prevalent within the region. The color Green denotes the Catholic community; the Orange color stands for Protestants, while the color white shows the unity that binds the two religions.

The flag came into existence as it was been selected as the national flag of the Irish Free State in 1922. The tri color gained its constitutional rights within the 1937 Constitution of Ireland during the time when the Republic of Ireland succeeded the Free State.

Climate Of Ireland

Experience a maritime kind of climate, which is temperate in nature while traveling to Ireland. Being close to the Atlantic Ocean and near to the Gulf Stream, the area receives good amount of precipitation through out the year. This mild climatic condition is frequently subjected to climatic change with rarely noted extreme conditions.

The winter is relatively cloudy with occasional sun and rain spillovers. The temperature reaches to about 5ºC during the month of January whereas the overnight descends comparatively below the freezing point with frosts prevalent all around.

Summers in Ireland are sunny while speckled with fluffy looking clouds spilt with occasional precipitation and thunderstorm. The air is humid during the month of July and August, where the average temperature in July is about 15ºC, while exceeding to 30ºC.

The coastal regions are rarely affected with summer and winter conditions, as January and July experiences consistent weather that range to 10ºC due to effect created by the Atlantic Ocean, that takes up heat during summer releases it during the wintertime.

The weather differs from location to location, as seen in the mountainous region, which is subjected, to wet conditions, from where the winds prevails. The eastern region witnesses dry weather especially towards the eastern coast where few mountains are set in. The areas of Dublin and Kildare are dry in nature. The southern area is even warmer while the northern is subjected to chilly conditions.

It is this current wind emerging from the southwestern region that brings along moderate setting with low-pressure depression within the area. A “blast from the north” is even seen where the chilly weather of Artic, makes the place prone to snow and frost. The east wind that originates from the central Russia brings along moisture with it thereby making the climate hot and dry particularly in summer and cold and dry during the winter. The Atlantic storms make the western front completely wet accompanied with hail winds during the autumn and wintertime.

The northern half of the island is subjected to snowfall with a change in temperature between the coastal regions and the inland areas.

Flora And Fauna Of Ireland

Ireland is subjected to fewer species of animal and plant kingdom than seen in Britain or mainland Europe. Comprising of specific habitat particular to the region, the place is filled with with open timberland, moderate forestland, coniferous trees, peat bogs, and other coastal areas.

There are selectively 31 mamals within the region that came to this place when the sea level rose soon after the Ice Age thereby the region got completely secluded from Europe. The place is a home to animals like the red fox, hedgehog, stoat, badger, Irish hare, red deer and pine marten along with rabbits and the brown rats.

Get to see about 400 species of different variety of birds within the province of Ireland. Most of the birds are migratory in nature, along with the arctic birds, that flee to the region during the winter season and birds like swallow, that breed in Ireland as they fly a long distance from the African region.

The place boasts of rich marine avifauna, as several seabird gather along in the coastal shores especially on the Saltee Islands and Skellig Michael. The golden eagles can also be sighted in this region.

The amphibians common to this place are the common frog, the smooth newt and the natterjack toad. Catch up with marine turtles along the south west coast region.

Economy of Ireland is chiefly dependent on trade and agriculture. Get brief idea about the people, culture, cities of the country from the map of Ireland.

People Of Ireland

Occupied for the last 9,000 years, the area of Ireland does not leave behind any inscription about the Paleolithic or Neolithic residents residing here in ancient times. Several group of people existed here like Erainn, Cruithne, Eoganachta, Attacotti, Conmaicne, Soghain and many others. Belonging to the Celtic origin, the region seems to have been persuaded by the Vikings that expanded in huge numbers.

About 70 % of the island is constituted with Roman Catholic Church and the rest with the Protestants. There are other groups existing here like the Anglican Church of Ireland, the Irish Muslim population, the Jewish group of people, along with others belonging to Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Latvia.

The Irish belong to the European ethnic group of the northwest region share common similarities with the western countries, especially with those of the Anglosphere region.

Personal names came into existence from the conventional Irish names, British names, anglicised Irish names, and American names.

The present population is comprised of Catholic Church, Anglican, and Presbyterian. The minority religions that survive here are Methodists, along with Baptists, Brethren, Quakers and much more.

Arts, Culture And Music Of Ireland

Art: Watch out for primitive visual art through early spiritual carvings, Bronze Age artifacts, attractive gold substance, and enlightened manuscripts that can be seen in the Newgrange area. Some of the important painters of this region include John Butler Yeats, William Orpen, Jack Yeats and Louis le Brocquy.

Culture: The local natives of Ireland resort to festivals and fairs that are celebrated in full frenzy. Enchant yourself in the gastronomic pleasures, that one can take part in the Kinsale Gourmet Festival held within the region along with participating in the Dublin Theatre Festival. And if you are a bachelor then don’t miss out going to the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival, which is supposedly the prime event in the region. Visit fairs like the Puck Fair held in the region of Kerry, wherein a local goat is considered as a king and is crowned majestically. Last but not the least travel to the Ould Lammas Fair celebrated in the North Antrim that attracts thousands of visitors.

Music: Then native music of the Irish seems to have retained their traditional characteristic and showed its inclination towards the root music of USA, thereby influencing it further. The music owes its fusion with different class of harmony like the rock and roll, punk rock and other varieties.

Apart from folk music, the contemporary classical music made its origin within the region though it had limited impact and less exposure within the region. The native music of the region followed certain traditional ethics, which was accompanied with dance and musical instruments. Guitars and bouzoukis are a part of the conventional rhythm while bodhran named as tambourine, emerged in the region during the 19th century. New approaches were made within the traditional music, which had an impact on its style and performances that was carried through the bands that originated within the area. But the melody and harmony still maintained its simplicity and elegance.

The native music was usually performed during a particular celebration like the wedding and festivals. Some of the original dance and compositions includes names like reels, hornpipes, jigs, mazurkas, polkas and many others.

Set dancing was popular in the region, which was performed by “sets” of four couples making merry while dancing hand in hand. Stepdancing, a fashionable dance of the region related to the Munster or southern location seems to have gained wide acceptance after the boom in Broadway-style musical rhythm. Sean-nos dancing is yet another conventional dance where props were applied for dancing though resorted to in a limited way.

The musical instruments comprises of Fiddle, Flute and whistle, Uilleann pipes, Harp, Accordion and concertina, Banjo, Guitar, Bouzouki, Mandolin, Bodhran, Harmonica and many others.

Economy Of Ireland

The economic growth of Ireland is dependent mainly on the trade industry next to agriculture. It is this industry that adds value to about 46% of the GDP growth while 80% pertaining to the export, and 29% relates to engaging the labor force.

The growth of the country is based on its export that relates to the consumer expenditure, construction, and business ventures.

The Irish Government has made constant efforts in adding value to the national economy through policies like limiting the wage inflation, decreasing the government expenditure, enhancing the labor force skills, and endorsing overseas investment within the country.

It was during the year 1920s and early 1930s; the Republic of Ireland issued a policy based on low-tax that was issued by the government thinking mainly about the agriculture and livestock farming industry.

Construction plays a significant role within the country that adds value to the economic development of the province. Just during the World War II, the Northern Ireland faced considerable amount of support from the British while the Republic faced considerable set back during this period. It was just after that the country joined hands with the join the European Economic Community, with Britain during the year 1973.

But it was during the year 1990 when the country gained its stable condition, and was known as the period of “The Celtic Tiger”. Quite recently the Republic of Ireland stood in the second position as far as the wealthiest nation is concerned after UK, while the first position is taken by Japan.

• The goods that are exported from this region are machinery and equipment, computers, chemicals, pharmaceuticals; live animals, animal products.
• The goods that are imported are data processing equipment, other machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum and petroleum products, textiles, clothing and many others.
• The prevalent industries within the area are steel, aluminum, lead, zinc, silver, barite, and gypsum mining processing; food products, textiles, brewing, clothing; pharmaceuticals, chemicals; machinery, rail transportation equipment, passenger and commercial vehicles, ship construction and refurbishment; glass and crystal; software, tourism.