Culture of Ireland

Ireland has an incredibly rich culture, drawn from their extraordinary heritage. This stretches back more than 10000 years stemming from their Celtic roots. Add hundreds of years of strife between the Irish and the English and a rich grounding in the Christian faith, mostly Catholicism, and you have the basis of modern Irish culture.


Most people in Ireland speak English as a first language but there are still many parts, especially the rural parts of Ireland where the first language of the people is Irish. It is, however, the national language of the country, but I’ll talk more about this in another entry.

There are three main ethnic groups in Ireland, giving it a much more homogenous culture when compared to most other countries. The three groups are the Irish, the Ulster Scots and the Irish Travellers, the nomadic people of Irish descent. The Irish Travellers are an incredibly interesting group of people whose historic origins are still being questioned. They are one of the most discriminated groups in Ireland due to their gypsy-like lifestyle.

Due to the fact that the majority of the people in Ireland are Irish Catholic, people there are quite conservative. Homosexuality is generally frowned upon in Ireland and xenophobia is not uncommon all over Ireland, especially in the more rural parts.

In general, though, the people in Ireland are usually very welcoming, laid-back and cheerful. It is truly a fascinating culture and we will explore it a little more in the following posts. Coming up next... Irish traditions. 

In this post, I have got my information from a combination of "The Rough Guide to Ireland" by Rough Guides, "Ireland" by Lonely Planet and "Traveler Ireland" by National Geographic. I also used the following websites:

• http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Ireland.html
• http://www.discoverireland.com/us/about-ireland/history/