United Kingdom
Ireland Travel and Destination Guide
BACKGROUND INFO
Full Name
Éire (Republic of Ireland)
Capital City
Dublin
Area
70,300 sq km
Population
3,969,000
Time Zone
GMT/UTC 0
Daylight Saving Start
last Sunday in March
Daylight Saving End
last Sunday in October
Weights Measures System
Metric
Geography
Small-beaked and wing-clipped, Ireland is an island in the Atlantic Ocean which appears about to alight on the coast of Britain 80km (50mi) to the west across the Irish Sea. Its cities are small, so it's never far to isolated sweeps of mountain or bogland. Much of Ireland's elevated ground is close to the coast, and almost the entire Atlantic seaboard is a bulwark of cliffs, hills and mountains, with few safe anchorages. Most of the centre of the island is composed of flat farmland or raised bogs. This area is drained by the 260km (161mi) long Shannon, which enters the sea west of Limerick.
Languages
• English (official)
Although English is the main language of Ireland, it's spoken with a mellifluous lilt and a peculiar way of structuring sentences, to be sure.
• Gaelic (official)
There remain areas of western and southern Ireland, known as the Gaeltacht, where Irish (Gaelic) is the native language - they include parts of Kerry, Galway, Mayo, Donegal and the Aran Islands. There are around 83,000 native speakers. Since Independence in 1921, the Republic of Ireland has declared itself to be bilingual, and many documents and road signs are printed in both Gaelic and English.
• ()
People
Irish; small immigrant populations
Religion
90% Roman Catholic, 3% Protestant
Government Type
Democracy
Government Leaders
Mary McAleese
President (Republic) (head of state)
Brian Cowen
Prime Minister (Republic) (head of government)
Country Dialing Code
353
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