Stuff Irish People Like

5. Irish Gaelic: Despite the fact that everyone in Ireland speaks English all of the signs are in two languages. Irish is apparently an official language of the country right along with English, meaning all official signs need to be posted in both languages. You may wonder why I call it ‘Irish’ instead Gaelic. Apparently there is Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic. The only difference (according to the fisherman I met on the Aran Island) is that Irish Gaelic has more religious references.
4. Hurling: I had never heard of this game before I came to Ireland. The first night I was here one of the girls in my room was missing a tooth. She explained to me she’d lost it while she was learning how to play a game called hurling. My next encounter was in the Guinness store house where they have a monument of a man with a hurling stick on top of a mountain of what appears to be the dead bodies of fallen opponents. I started to notice references to hurling everywhere. They love it here.
3. Pubs: There is no wrong time of the day to go to a pub in the mind of the Irish. Guinness for breakfast is perfectly acceptable.
2. Stone Walls: The Irish affinity for stone walls only becomes apparent the further east you go. It gets to the point where there are more stone walls then there is grass to separate the stone walls. When we were on the Aran Island and we went on the ‘backroads’ the only thing distinguishing them was the distance between the stone walls. Not only are these stone walls everywhere but I can’t imagine the amount of effort and time put into the building of the walls. It’s really overwhelming.
1. Drinking: I feel like this goes without saying. I think they do it to decrease the depression of the rain and clouds.