Ireland

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Country Name

Ireland.

Location

Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic, located in Western Europe.

It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel.

Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest in the world.

Ireland shares land borders with only one country, the United Kingdom.

Capital

Dublin.

Reason for Naming the country

The name evolved over many centuries from the old Irish word for a Goddess; Ériu, as she was called, has been described as the matron Goddess of ancient Irish mythology, a goddess of sovereignty, or simply a goddess of the land.

Flag

The first use of the Irish flag was on March 7, 1848, during the Young Irelander Rebellion which strived to oppose British rule.

It had become more popular after 1916 when Irish republicans declared independence and it was accepted as the national flag in 1920.

The national flag of Ireland is composed of three vertical stripes of Green, White, and orange.

​The Green color represents Irish nationalism, the Orange color represents Ireland’s Protestant minority, white color represents lasting peace between the two cultures on the island of Ireland, Catholic and Protestant.

*Flag Facts:

- The Ivory Coast flag is extremely similar to the Irish tricolor, but the difference is in the order of the colors.

-Throughout Northern Ireland, there are different flags and symbols flown throughout communities to mark territories.

- The tricolor flag of today was banned in Northern Ireland under the Flags and Emblems Display Act of 1954.

Language

Irish Gaelic is the Republic of Ireland's first official language, as defined by the constitution. Aside from Irish, English is another official language of the nation that is spoken by the majority of the population. Irish is one of the oldest written languages in the world.

There are three main Irish dialects: Munster (spoken south of Ireland, such as counties Kerry, Cork, and Waterford), Connacht (spoken in Connemara and Aran Islands in the west of Ireland - both in County Galway, and County Mayo), and Ulster (spoken in the north of Ireland, such as Donegal and Belfast).

Throughout the whole of Ireland, Polish is the most widely used foreign language, followed by French, Romanian, Lithuanian, Spanish, and German. Also among those in the top are Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, and Arabic among others.

Religion

The religion in Ireland is Christianity, with the largest church being the Catholic Church. The Constitution of Ireland says that the state may not support any particular religion and guarantees freedom of all religions.

The next largest group after Catholics was "no religion".

The second-largest Christian denomination is the Church of Ireland Anglican, After that, there are a minority of Orthodox Christians, Hindus, and Muslims.