For most of my life, I was blissfully unaware of the fact that I have Irish roots. My mom’s father was from Belgium and her mother was from Holland, and both of my dad’s parents are from Hungary.
A couple of years ago, my mom, sister and I got my dad a DNA ancestry kit just for kicks to see what sort of results he would get back. Figuring the results would show he is Hungarian through and through, we were delightfully surprised to learn my Dad has quite a bit of Irish ancestry, and he is just as much Irish as he is Hungarian.
Following this discovery, the interest in Ireland became a bit more pronounced to my family and me, and I wanted to educate myself a little bit about Ireland and its history. I was thinking about this today and decided I would dedicate a post to some interesting information pertaining to Ireland, and this knowledge comes from theirishroadtrip.com.
“1. The oldest pub in Ireland is one of the oldest on earth
“2. Dublin’s Rotunda is the oldest continuously operating maternity hospital in the world
“3. St. Valentine’s remains are in a church in Dublin
“4. St. Patrick wasn’t actually Irish
“5. One of the oldest lighthouses in the world is located in Wexford
“6. The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland
“7. Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way is the longest coastal driving route in the world
“8. There were never any snakes in Ireland
“9. Halloween originated in Ireland
“10. County Cork was once the largest exporter of butter in the world
“11. The Brazen Head is the oldest pub in Dublin
“12. The smallest county in Ireland is Louth
“13. The highest mountain in Ireland is Carrauntoohil
“14. The place with the longest name in Ireland is Muckanaghederdauhaulia in Galway,” the web page explains.
Check back tomorrow for more interesting facts about this magical place known as Ireland.
Photo by Henrique Craveiro on Unsplash
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