Key facts, figures and information about Ireland.

FACTS
Full name: Ireland, Éire
Capital: Dublin
Area: 70,723 sq km, including 68,883 sq km of land and 1,390 sq km of water
Population: 4,203,000 (July 2009 estimate)
Population growth rate: 1.12% (2009 estimate)
Major languages: English; Gaelige (Irish Gaelic)
Major religion: Roman Catholicism
Life expectancy: 75.6 years (men); 81.06 years (women) (2009 estimate)
Currency: euro
GDP (official exchange rate): $229.4 billion (2009 estimate)
GDP (adjusted for purchasing power parity): $176.9 billion (2009 estimate)
GDP (real growth rate): -7.5% (2009 estimate); -3% (2008); 6% (2007)
Debt as % of GDP: 63.7% (2009 estimate)
Unemployment rate: 12% (2009 estimate)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): -1.7% (2009 estimate)
Exports: $107.3 billion (2009 estimate)
Imports: $64.9 billion (2009 estimate)
Internet domain: .ie
International dialling code: +353
Terrain: level plain with some hills and low mountains and sea cliffs on the western coast

Source: CIA World Factbook.

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS 2011
New Year’s Day: January 1
St Patrick’s Day: March 17
Easter Monday: moveable
First Monday in May, June and August
Last Monday in October
Christmas Day: December 25
St Stephen’s Day: December 26

HISTORY AND POLITICS
Ireland was for centuries fought over by the tribes battling for control of its larger neighbour Britain. In 1921 the majority of the island finally achieved independence from Great Britain and established itself as a republic.
The country joined the European Community in 1973 and adopted the euro in 1997.
Ireland’s constitution was enacted in 1937 after a plebiscite. The country’s parliament, known as the Oireachtas, is headed by the president supported by the Dáil Éireann (House of Representatives) and Seanad Éireann (the Senate). The government is formed from the Dáil Éireann, which consists of 166 members elected every five years through proportional representation.
The current Irish president is Mary McAleese, who was appointed to a second seven-year term of office in 2004. The current Taoiseach is Brian Cowen of the Republican Fianna Fáil party.

Source: CIA World Factbook; www.oireachtas.ie.

MUSIC
One of the most easily recognised symbols of Ireland is the Irish harp. The instrument appears on the president’s standard and the Irish one-euro coin. It formed the basis of Ireland’s bardic tradition and still survives today.
In the 18th century Dublin became a major cultural centre and it was the venue for the premiere of Handel’s Messiah in 1742. A century or so later Irish folk music inspired classical composers Charles Villiers Stanford and Hamilton Harty.
Traditional music continues to feature in modern works, both classical and popular.\

Source: Department of Foreign Affairs.

FAMOUS FIGURE
Ireland’s patron saint is St Patrick, who famously is reputed to have driven snakes out of Ireland and is celebrated worldwide on March 17 each year. As Ireland is unlikely to have ever had a resident serpentine population, his deed is doubtful, although a real Patrick did exist.
Sources vary. It seems a certain Patrick was born to a Roman family in Britain in 387 AD. Some claim he was born in Scotland while others say he came from Wales. At the age of 16 Patrick was kidnapped and taken to Ireland.
He spent six years as a slave tending sheep before escaping and returning to Britain. However, he later wrote he had a vision commanding him to return to Ireland as a missionary. He studied religion and was ordained before landing in Ireland again in 432 or 433.
Patrick was instrumental in converting the Irish to Christianity. He died on the island. His saint’s day, March 17, is believed to be the date of his death.
St Patrick was never formally canonised but is celebrated as a saint worldwide.
St Patrick’s Day has developed into a global festival celebrating Ireland itself. As well as parades in Ireland, notable celebrations take place in Chicago, New York and Boston in the US, where large numbers of Irish immigrants settled.
At any St Patrick’s Day celebration, large quantities of Irish stout are consumed, Irish music is played and most revellers turn up in the national colour of green.

IRISH LANGUAGE
Although business in Ireland is carried out in English, 1.66 million people in the 2006 census said they could speak Gaeilge, or Irish, the official first language of the republic.
Many of that number were school-aged. Almost half a million people said they spoke Irish daily within the education system, while 53,500 said they spoke the language daily outside education.
Small areas of the country are recognised as Gaeltacht, or regions where Irish is the first language spoken at home. In those areas 57% of the population spoke Irish on a daily basis and a further 10.2% on a weekly basis in 2006.
In 2003 Ireland passed the Official Languages Act, ensuring that government publications are released in Gaeilge. The language is also compulsory in all state schools.
Gaeilge is related to Scottish Gaelic and Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man), as well as more distantly to other Celtic languages including Welsh, Cornish and Breton.

LITERATURE
Ireland has a long and rich literary tradition and works dating back to the sixth century in Old Irish still survive. From about the 13th century onwards secular poetry took off, centring on stories about the hero Fionn MacCumhaill – sometimes known as Finn MacCool. These poems are known as the Fenian or Ossianic cycle, after Fionn and his son Oisín.
In the 17th and 18th century a new generation of writers in Irish began to publish prose and poetry, spinning a new take on Irish history and culture. At about the same time the first major Anglophone Irish writers began to emerge, led by satirist Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels. Swift was followed by writers including playwrights Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. Shaw picked up the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925, a prize also won by poet WB Yeats in 1923.
Modernist themes were taken up by Ulysses author James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, who like Joyce settled in Paris. Beckett won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1969.
Current Irish literary glitterati include poet Seamus Heaney who won a Nobel Prize in 1995.
A number of Irish writers, including Iris Murdoch, Anne Enright, John Banville and Roddy Doyle, have received Man Booker prizes in recent years.

Source: Department of Foreign Affairs.