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Ireland in a nutshell: eight easy-going questions about the things it is best known for. Everyone can play along, whatever their age.
Green-field rambler 0–3 · Friend of the storytellers 4–6 · Irish at heart 7–8
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Dublin's name comes from old Irish words meaning 'black pool', and Vikings built a settlement here in about the year 841. In modern Irish the city also has a completely different everyday name: Baile Átha Cliath, 'town of the hurdled ford'.
Photo: 瑞丽江的河水, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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The Irish flag, often simply called 'the tricolour', has upright stripes with the green next to the flagpole. The flag of Ivory Coast looks almost the same but the other way round, and in 2018 an Ivorian sprinter celebrated a world indoor title by borrowing an Irish flag from a fan and holding it back to front.
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The word shamrock comes from the Irish 'seamróg', which means 'young clover'. Botanists still do not agree on exactly which kind of clover is the true shamrock, and the Irish government has even registered it as a trademark.
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The harp on Ireland's coins and coat of arms is modelled on a real medieval harp, more than 500 years old, which is kept at Trinity College Dublin. Visitors are often surprised at how much wider the real harp is than the slim one on the coins.
Photo: JackGavin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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Traditional stepdance keeps the upper body stiff and still, so all the attention goes to the quick, precise footwork. The style became world-famous through Riverdance, which began in 1994 as a seven-minute interval act at the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin.
Photo: John Benson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
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The island played the planet Ahch-To, where Luke Skywalker hides away, in 'The Force Awakens' (2015) and 'The Last Jedi' (2017). Puffins nest on its cliffs, and monks built a stone monastery near its top well over 1,000 years ago.
Photo: Jerzy Strzelecki, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Many Halloween customs are linked to Samhain, an old Gaelic festival at the start of winter that began in Ireland. People carved spooky faces into turnips, and immigrants took the custom to the United States, where carving pumpkins became the tradition.
Photo: Man vyi, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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Leprechauns are little bearded fairies from Irish folklore, usually shown wearing a coat and a hat. In the old stories they live alone, spend their time making and mending shoes, and love playing tricks on people.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, FAL.
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