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Ireland Culture The romanticized image of Ireland’s emerald pastures and fragrant waterfalls, leprechauns and buxom lasses and all the rest have done this country a disservice. While there are delicious elements of all such beauty in Ireland, this country is so much more than that – but oddly enough, what is truly remarkable about Ireland is hard to describe on a tourist brochure, and probably won’t be discovered by someone who travels with a tourist brochure as his or her map of Ireland. Indeed, as cliché as it sounds, one of the best ways to discover Ireland is to sit down with the locals at a pub, drink with them, play cards with them, sing with them and really know them.
As the old saying goes, there are probably more Irish pubs exported around the world than barrels of Guinness, and while such a calculation might leave one scratching his head, it certainly does seem to be true as every city, in what seems like every country on Earth, has a Molly Malone’s, Mucky Mulligans, Shannon and Sons or Fibber McGees. The perception created by this is yet another half-truth. Yes, pubs are big in Ireland, but none of these can replicate the experience of visiting one of these fine establishments while inside Ireland. Travelers round the world who come to the Emerald Isle seem to report the same thing – the Irish are exceptionally nice, and uproariously hilarious people, if you can understand them.
Hitchhikers discovering the pristine Irish countryside will report this as well – the friendliness is like that of India or Egypt or a third world nation, yet Ireland has recently escaped the trappings of poverty and become one of the more wealthy, employed, educated and technological countries in Europe today. Quality of life indicators have been rising steadily in Ireland as a booming high tech industry has pulled the country out of its 1980s mire. Despite having a strong, resilient strain of folkloric culture and goodness that culminates, often, in the local pubs, much of Ireland’s cities and suburban communities display both cosmopolitan culture and leading edge modernity.
Though the Irish are sardonic to the core, their appreciation for the arts is completely genuine. Even relatively small Irish cities offer a wide array of choices for those seeking a sophisticated diversion between bouts of bacchant revelry. In addition to some of Europe’s best libraries of rare texts, Ireland welcomes the innovative and avant-garde from every medium—offering special visas to artists and writers.
In some cases, as little time as a decade has transformed perceptions about some regions in Ireland. On the other side are tourists and citizens who argue that something must be done to ease Ireland’s intercity traffic.
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