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Ireland is an island divided politically into two parts: the independent Republic of Ireland, which is consistently ranked as having one of the world’s highest gross national incomes per capita, and British-ruled Northern Island, which is best known by many as home to the television comedy Derry Girls.
If you are going to Ireland for the first time and have decided to read James Joyce’s Ulysses as part of your trip planning, first make sure that you can cancel your airfare without penalty.
Blarney Castle, near Cork, in the south of Ireland, is not only the site of the blarney stone, which, by kissing it bestows upon you, according to legend, the gift of gab, but also has a castle garden populated by deadly poisonous plants. When visiting, it is highly recommended not to confuse the two.
Housed in the library of Dublin’s Trinity College, the Book of Kells is a 9th-century illuminated manuscript whose stature as a sacred volume is surpassed in Ireland only by that of the Guinness Book of Records.
For reasons that remain a mystery, the citizens of Belfast, in Northern Ireland, continue to take great pride in the fact that a shipyard once standing at its harborside was responsible for building the Titanic.
If someone in Ireland invites you to a party at their home, and you get the date wrong and arrive a day late, and no other guests are there, you can assume it wasn’t much of a party to begin with.
When traveling in Ireland, it is not uncommon to come across little old men who are dressed in green and clinging to a pot of gold. These are usually investment bankers working for a foreign firm that has established an Irish branch for tax purposes.
Travel humor writer Bob Payne is known throughout Ireland for his number of failed attempts at trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records. He is the author of the 142-country memoir, Escape Clauses – Getting Away With a Travel Writing life, which is available at Amazon.com.
