Every culture in this global world is unique and gain its own specialty.The Irish Culture too comes into that category.Coming to the Ireland,it is situated in Western Europe,occupying five-sixth of the islands in the North Atlantic Ocean which is to the west of Great Britain.The capital of Ireland is Dublin with a population of about 4,487,000.Irish language known as Gaeilge is a Indo-European Language of the Celtic family.
The people of the Ireland are very culture oriented irrespective of their interests.Irish Culture has a nice variety of traditions,cultures and historic legends.There are some symbols which uniquely relate to the Irish culture.Ireland is often known as ‘Land of Saints and Scholars’ which refers the golden age of monastic learning.It is also referred as ”The Emerald Isle’ which means its green landscape.
This old country has many traditions of customs which are practiced from hundreds of years and some of them are found even now.The legends are passed on from generations to generations.The culture here is in a similar way to the Western Culture in TV,movies,music and literature.But the one aspects that makes unique is the pub culture.Pub refers the meaning of public house or bar.The pub culture here has more issues than over-consumption of drinking.Pubs are considered as meeting places where people can gather whether they are friends or neighbors in a peaceful atmosphere.The pubs differ largely with the area it is situated and the customers they serve.In earlier days,pubs were separated as the men would most likely in the main part of the pub while the lounge is filled with women.Due to modernization,it is diminishing and now it is a free space. Since 2004,the Government has made an act which declared that smoking in a place of work,even pubs are considered as illegal.
The Irish people are too concerned about their food.The home made meal are loved by them especially the Irish breakfast or a bowl of stew.They even gained the comfort of drinks to ease their homesickness while living in different countries.The Irish diet is similar to that of North European nations.They very much consume meat,cereal,bread,potatoes mostly at meals.The meals are most commonly accompanied with cabbage,turnips, carrots,broccoli.The eating habits of Irish consists four meals which are breakfast,dinner,tea and supper.Dinner is the midday main meal while tea is taken in early evening at about 4.00 p.m. and supper is a light meal before going to sleep.
The traditional meals mostly consists of roasts,stews, beef,ham,pork,beef and turkey.Even fish(mostly salmon) and sea food(preferably prawns) are popular here.Some foods like wheaten breads,sausages,bacon rashers and drinks like Irish whiskey,national beer have a specific symbolic role in Ireland.Many varieties of stews,potato casseroles and breads are considered as the regional foods.
Ireland has even many people who has great musical talent like U2,folk singer-Christy Moore and many more people.The Irish traditional dancing is even popular there where it is originated and now spread to the whole world and has taken many different forms.
The people in Ireland are mostly Roman Catholics.88% of the population there are mostly identified as Roman Catholics according to the records. The church used to have a dominating power in society and politics in early days.Later on ,a generational divide with people over 50 who have observant and conservative views came up.The religion has many sayings of the view of family ,marriage and abortion in the society.They prefer the dominating social structures in their extended family.Even though they move to various cities,they stick to their home bonds.
The Irish people have a great reputation for their wit and humor.Due to this popularity,they are called as ‘craic’.The people are very fast in jokes which brings out humor.They even bring out the humor on themselves even if it is self deprecating.The practice of trading insults and teasing one another among a group of close people are known as slagging.The people there are mostly witty people and won’t take anything too personal.
Coming to the 20th century the people of Ireland have adopted their new western food habits.During the modern age both of the US fast foods and continental European dishes have influenced on the people of Ireland.Here most of the common meals include pizzas, curry, Chinese food.As there are adverse effects of these fast foods and deep fried items the government has broadcast television advertisements to discourage meat consumption.
Sports are popular in Ireland and are widely encouraged.Varieties of sports are played in Ireland and the most played are Football, hockey, hurling, Gaelic, rugby.Along with these sports many of the other sport are practiced like Swimming, golf, aerobics, soccer, cycling, Gaelic football and billiards are the sporting activities with the highest levels of playing participation.At the Olympics, a person from Northern Ireland can choose to represent either the Great Britain team or the Ireland team. Also as Northern Ireland is a home nation of the United Kingdom.They also send their team to Common wealth games every four years.
