Irish Facts: Believe it or not!

• Johnny Cash wrote the popular song ‘Forty Shades of Green’. The idea came to him as he looked down while flying over Ireland

• A ciatog (kit-ogue) is a left-handed person.

• A horse is featured on the Irish 20-pence coin.

• According to folklore, May Eve and May Day are considered the best days for gathering medicinal herbs.

• According to Irish custom, you sing a song at a wake and shed a tear at a birth.

• According to Irish folklore, if you take molasses melted in water, it will prevent varicose veins.

• According to old beliefs, the month of May was when people most feared abduction by the fairies? By the way, one should always use the term “the good people.” According to the old ways, the terms fairies and little people are best avoided.

• Blarney, as defined by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, is flattery so thin we like it, as opposed to baloney which is flattery so thick it can’t be true.

• Blue is Ireland’s official color.

• Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, was born in Dublin.

• Cowslip blossoms were used as a nerve tonic.

• Dividing the Meat, Selling the Pig and Catching the Herrings are all traditional games played at an Irish wake.

• Each year, it’s traditional for an Irish leader to visit the White House during March.

• Except for bogs and mountain areas, oak forests once covered all of Ireland.

• God Save Ireland was once the National Anthem.

• If Ireland’s dry stone walls were lined up, they would stretch for a quarter of a million miles.
•If you’re bashful or shy, Irish folklore says you should take a dip in the River Shannon.

• In ancient Ireland, acorns were the natural food of free-range pigs.

• Ireland’s Eye is a small island north of Howth in County Dublin.

• Irish pubs are closed on Christmas day.

• It’s considered very unlucky to get married on the feast of the Holy Innocents – December 28th.

• James Hoban, a native of Kilkenny, designed the White House.

• Jonathan Swift is buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.

• Many great American folk heroes were Irish? Among them are Sam Houston, whose family came from Co. Antrim and Davy Crockett, who was the son of an immigrant family from Derry.

• Melted mutton fat rubbed into chapped hands will cure them.

• More than 20 species of whales are said to visit Irish waters.

• Murphy & Kelly are the most common Irish surnames.

• Nine men of Irish ancestry signed the Declaration of Independence.

• On New Year’s Eve, it’s lucky to receive a lump of coal from a black-haired stranger.

• Only about 4% of Irish people have red hair.

• Queen Elizabeth I is credited with first using the word “blarney”?.

• Queen Victoria became known as the “Famine Queen” because she personally donated 2,000 pounds in aid of Irish relief during the 1840s (a fortune at the time).

• St. Lawrence O’Toole was Ireland’s first canonized saint.

• St. Patrick is the patron saint of fishermen.

• St. Patrick’s Day is a legal holiday in Briarwood Beech, Ohio, USA.

• The ancient Celts believed mistletoe possessed miraculous healing powers and held the soul of the host tree.

• The earliest settlers are reputed to have arrived in Ireland in 6000BC.

• The first Irish saint wasn’t Saint Patrick? It was Saint Abban, who preached in Southern England in the 2nd century.

• The first St. Patrick’s Day celebration in America was in 1737 and was hosted by the Charitable Irish Society of Boston.

• The longest place name in Ireland is Muckanaghederdauhaulia, Co. Galway.

• The lyrics to the Christmas Carol, “While shepherds watched their flocks by night” were written by Dublin-born poet and playwright, Nathum Tate.

• The movie Moby Dick was filmed in Ireland.

• The mute swan is Ireland’s largest breeding species.

• The origin of “the good people” is that they were the ancient Irish gods who were driven underground by Christianity.

• The púca (pooka) is a mischievous member of the spirit world who often takes the form of a horse.

• The Republic of Ireland has well over 10,000 pubs.

• The Spanish reputedly brought garlic and onions to Ireland.

• The Vikings founded Dublin in 988.

• The word “slogan” means war cry in Irish.

• There are no moles in Ireland.

• To ensure good health, you should drink three sips of salted water before Christmas dinner.

• To relieve a sore throat, you should chew a clove of garlic.

• Victor Herbert, who composed Babes in Toyland, was born in Dublin.

• Wearing new shoes on Christmas day will bring bad luck.
• Whipped egg whites with sugar added will cure an upset sto