Ireland - Eriu, Eire, Airlann, Irlanda, Irland, Ierland - St Patrick's Day Today!

This is an actual Photograph of Ireland

We have Irish blood in the family but we do not celebrate St Patrick's day. To make up for this Here is my dedicated Irish Blog.
The Shamrock Symbol
The three-leafed shamrock is the Irish christian symbol of the Holy Trinity
The Anglicized word for Irish word for "clover" ("seamair") is "seamaróg". So the word Shamrock indicates how close Ireland and England were in our long history.


Ireland is the 3rd largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world.
It lies surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets and is a part of Europe.
Politically, the state Ireland (described as the Republic of Ireland in cases of ambiguity) covers five-sixths of the island, with Northern Ireland, part of the UK, covering the remainder in the north-east.
The population of the island is slightly over six million (2007), with 4.34 million in the Republic and an estimated 1.75 million in Northern Ireland .
This is a significant increase from a modern historical low in the 1960s, but still much lower than the peak population of over 8 million in the early 19Th century, prior to the Irish potato famine.
The name Ireland derives from the name Eriu (in modern Irish, Éire) with the addition of the Germanic word land. Most other western European names for Ireland derive from the same source, such as French Irlande, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese Irlanda, German Irland and the Dutch Ierland.
A common misunderstanding is thinking St. Patrick was Irish - but a simple explanation show them the error of their ways!