Fodor's Exploring Ireland, 4th Edition (Exploring Guides)

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Fodor's Exploring Guides are the most up-to-date, full-color guidebooks available. Covering destinations around the world, these guides are loaded with photos, essays on culture and history, descriptions of sights, and practical information. Full-color photos make these great guides to buy if you're still planning your itinerary (let the photos help you choose!) and they are perfect companions to general guidebooks, like Fodor's Gold Guides.
What to See
? Extraordinary coverage of history and culture
? Itineraries, walks and excursions, on and off the beaten path
? Architecture and art

Where to Stay
? Quick tips in every price range

Where to Eat
? Savvy picks for all budgets

The Basics
? Getting there and getting around
? When to go & what to pack

Ireland Is? An Island

Many of Ireland's charms are straightforward. Visitors head there for the spectacular scenery and the warmth of the people. Ireland's real fascination, though, is its ability to confound people's preconceptions. The Irish can be as unpredictable as their country's fickle weather, changing in a moment from gregarious to taciturn, or from solemn to profane.

Ireland Is? Music and Dance

Ireland's musical traditions date back over many centuries, but the current scene is exceptionally lively, with interest in popular folk music encouraged by tourism. Irish musicians are prominent in rock and country-and-western groups, and some virtuoso performers, such as James Galway, have become world famous.

Irish Instruments

Most distinctive of the instruments used in Irish music, besides the harp, are the uilleann (elbow) pipes, a relative of the Scottish bagpipes but with a more elegiac tone particularly suited to reflective Irish tunes. The violin (simply called the fiddle in Ireland) is held casually on the shoulder and played with only a small section of the bow. The bodhr?n is one of the most ancient Irish instruments, a goatskin drum played with a small stick.

The Modern Scene

In the 20th century Irish music played an important role in the revival of nationalist sentiment and has subsequently achieved enormous popularity. The most usual venues to hear it are ceilis, where whole communities gather to dance and make music, or pubs, where seisuns (sessions) are held all over Ireland.

Ireland Is? The Love of Words

The Irish are famously articulate. From the loquacious Celts, alleged by the Greek traveler Strabo (writing around the time of the birth of Christ) to be fond of "wordy disputes" and "bombastic self-dramatization," through the Earl of Blarney, to today's stage Irishman, words have been a constant source of delight -- sometimes at the expense of action. Oscar Wilde said "We are the greatest talkers since the Greeks -- but we have done nothing."

A Prolific Streak

The Irish have written much; Ireland's contribution to English literature in all its forms -- poetry, drama, novels, essays -- is colossal, considering the size of its population. It seems as strong today as ever, with new talents bursting onto the stage and filling bookshops with new novels and poems.

Ireland Is? Food and Drink

Irish Cuisine

Home-grown produce includes rich dairy foods, beef, lamb and pork, a fascinating range of new Irish cheeses, and a great variety of seafood, shelled or finned. One of its great specialties is bread. Traditional Irish soda bread made with buttermilk, eaten fresh and warm, is a banquet in itself and is automatically proffered at every meal. At midday, a basket of Irish bread, a bowl of seafood chowder, and a glass of Guinness makes a cheap and completely satisfying lunch.

There has been a welcome return to simple, hearty Irish food and Irish stew and potato dishes. Try colcannon (potatoes with onions and white cabbage), champ (potatoes mashed with butter and chopped chives), or coddle (potatoes with boiled bacon and onions). Black puddings use up those bits of pig not usually found on the dinner table, including it's blood. At tea-time, try barm brack, a delicious sweet tea bread with dried fruit and spices.

Whiskey and Stout

Pubs are more than mere boozing sheds; they are the social heart of many communities and often full of life and atmosphere, especially if there is some music. At some stage every visitor should try Ireland's "nectar," Guinness. Some consider it tactless to request Scotch in an Irish pub -- try the local Bushmills, Powers, or other Irish brands, straight or with a splash of plain Irish water.

Ireland Is? Sports

The passion for competitive sports and athletics of many kinds reaches unprecedented heights all over the Republic. Its specialist games such as hurling and Gaelic football draw capacity crowds and cause vast excitement. Soccer is also popular, though Irish hopes were dashed with the failure of the national team to qualify for the 1998 World Cup in France.

Ireland Is? Myths and Legends

Irish mythology is incredibly complex; different accounts of similar stories are often interwoven with other traditions, and echoes of other Indo-European legends can often be found -- epic tales of Greeks and Romans, for instance, or biblical stories. At first the stories were not written down, but related orally as evening entertainment, which meant embroiderings in every telling. A trained file (bard) was expected to be able to relate about 350 full-length tales in poetry by heart, and would spend years learning his art. The early Christian fathers were the first to record these legends, sometimes interspersing it with their own material and turning Celtic gods into Christian saints (Saint Brigid is an example).