Fun Facts About The Irish

Irish scarecrow.

I have no Irish heritage. However, I've long admired the pluck and outsized accomplishments of that island race. In celebration of this St. Patrick's Day, I present a list of interesting facts and anecdotes concerning the Irish:

• In Lebor Gabala Erenn (the Book of the Takings of Ireland), the account of Irish history that the medieval Irish told themselves, the first settlers in Ireland were Noah's disreputable niece, Cessair, and forty companions; all were promptly drowned in the Flood. The Irish or Gaels arrived much later and are descended from one Nel through his son Gaedel. Nel learned all the languages that came into being at Babel, borrowing the best features from each to invent Irish. Settling beside the Red Sea, he entertained Moses and his people the night before they crossed. Moses invited Nel and his family to come with them to the Promised Land. When Nel declined, Moses assured him that his descendants would one day reach their own promised land in the western ocean.
• One legend states that the Irish were descended from Míl Espáine (coined Milesius, from Latin "Miles Hispaniae", meaning "Soldier of Hispania"). The character is almost certainly a personification of a migration by a groups from Hispania to Ireland. There is a genetic similarity between the Irish and North Iberians, including Basques.
• The Vikings founded many of the most important towns in Ireland, including Dublin and Cork.
• There is a long if slight history of a Jewish presence in Ireland. The earliest reference to Jews in Ireland came in the year 1079, with the Annals of Inisfallen recording: "Five Jews came from over sea with gifts to Tairdelbach [king of Munster], and they were sent back again over sea". The modern Irish Jewish community essentially came into existence between 1880 and 1901 with the arrival of Ashkenazim from a single Lithuanian village, Akmene, fleeing Tsarist pogroms. Dublin legend asserts that many of them had booked passage to America, and were landed in Dublin by unscrupulous ship captains who assured them they had reached New York. In the 19th century, Irish political leader Daniel O'Connell noted: "Ireland has claims on your ancient race, it is the only country that I know of unsullied by any one act of persecution of the Jews". The sixth President of Israel, Chaim Herzog, was born in North Ireland and was the son of Ireland's Chief Rabbi, a friend of independence leader Eamon de Valera who on occasion hid him when on the run from British police.
• In 1828 German and Irish soldiers recruited fight in the Argentina-Brazil War of 1825-1828 revolted due to poor barracks conditions, non-payment of wages, accusations that they had been recruited under false premises, and the taunts of black slaves, who called the Irish "white slaves." The mercenaries took control of large parts of Rio de Janeiro before being quelled. This is known in Brazilian history as the Great Mercenary Revolt.
• The Fenian Brotherhood, an organization of Irish nationalists in the United States, made several attempts in the 1860s to invade Canada in order to force Britain to give Ireland independence. A suspected Fenian, Patrick Whelan, was hanged in Ottawa for the assassination of Irish-Canadian politician, Thomas D'Arcy McGeein 1868. This was the only political assassination in Canadian history.
• In the mid-19th century large numbers of Irish immigrants to the U.S. were conscripted into the army at the time of the Mexican-American War. Many defected to the Mexican army and eventually settled in Mexico in order to escape anti-Catholic discrimination in the U.S. The "Patricios", or Saint Patrick's Battalion, are commemorated in Mexico on Saint Patrick's Day and on September 12, the anniversary of the first executions of the defectors by the Americans. Vicente Fox, former president of the Republic of Mexico, is of Irish descent.
• Large numbers of Irish people emigrated to Argentina in the 18th and 19th centuries. Irish-Argentines number over 500,000. Famous Argentines of Irish descendent include Che Guevara. Guevara's father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, said of him: "The first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels".
• A small fascist organization known as the Blueshirts formed in Ireland during the 1930s, led by General Eoin O'Duffy. They advocated corporatism, used the Roman straight-arm salute (shouting "Hail O'Duffy") and attended the International Fascist Conference in Switzerland in 1934. An attempted "March on Dublin" in 1933 ended in failure. O'Duffy and 700 volunteers went on to fight for Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
  
• In 1937, French playwright Antonin Artaud obtained a walking stick of knotted wood that he believed belonged to St. Patrick, but also Lucifer and Jesus Christ. Artaud traveled to Ireland in an effort to return the staff, though he spoke very little English and was unable to make himself understood.
  
• Seán Russell, leader of the Irish Republican Army travelled to Berlin upon the outbreak of the Second World War in order to press for troops and arms to be sent to Ireland. In response, several German agents were parachuted in the Republic of Ireland. Russell died in a U-boat off the Irish coast. Nevertheless, the rural population in the West were eager to find German spies, and several who were landed from submarines were collared within a few days, one after ordering "a glass of stout and a pint of whiskey" in a Dingle pub.
• The Republic of Ireland remained neutral throughout the Second World War, being the only country to extend official condolences to Germany on the death of Hitler.
• There is an apocryphal story of a German bomber pilot who was flying between Ireland and Great Britain and saw on the Irish side an arrow made of burning barrels, pointing precisely in the direction of nearby English cities.
• From 1987 and for many years after, U2 as a corporation were the 2nd biggest industry in Ireland in terms of revenue.
• "Irish Confetti" is the street name for mid-flight bricks used as weapons.
• Newfoundland is one of the few places outside Ireland where the Irish language was spoken by a majority of the population as their primary language. Newfoundland Irish is even its own distinct dialect. Newfoundland is also the only place outside Europe with its own distinctive name in the Irish language, Talamh an Éisc, "the land of fish". Irish author Tim Pat Coogan has described Newfoundland as "the most Irish place in the world outside of Ireland"
• The St. Patrick's Day Parade in Montreal is the oldest in North America, dating back to 1824. The Irish constitute the second largest ethnic group in the province after the French, and it is estimated that 30 percent of the French-speaking Quebeckers have some Irish ancestry.
• 12.9% of the Canadian population and 12% of the American population claim some Irish descent. The largest number of people of Irish descent live in the United States -- about ten times more than in Ireland itself. Irish in the Americas number around 60 million. They are the second largest self-reported ethnic group in the United States, after German Americans. In Canada, Irish Canadians number around 4 million.
  
• The tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat is the only country or territory in the world, apart from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Newfoundland to observe a public holiday on St. Patrick's Day. The population is predominantly of mixed Irish and African descent.
• The Irish diaspora, maximally interpreted, contains over 80 million people, which is over fourteen times the population of the island of Ireland itself (5.9 million in 2006).