What Makes Ireland Special: Ancient Heritage, Literature and Irish Pride

Ireland is a small island with a global reach: prehistoric monuments older than the pyramids of Giza, a monastery on a rock in the Atlantic, four Nobel Prize-winning writers, a living musical tradition and a diaspora that spans the world. Here is what makes it special.

Ancient World Heritage

UNESCO lists two World Heritage properties in Ireland, and both are extraordinary:

• Brú na Bóinne, the Bend of the Boyne, home to the great passage tomb of Newgrange, built around five thousand years ago, earlier than Stonehenge's great stones and the pyramids of Giza
• Sceilg Mhichíl (Skellig Michael), an early Christian monastery perched on a steep rocky island off the Atlantic coast

Two languages

Irish (Gaeilge) is the first official language of Ireland, with English the second. The Irish language survives in place names, music and the Gaeltacht regions where it is spoken every day.

A nation of writers

Few small countries have given the world so much literature. Yeats, Shaw, Beckett and Heaney all won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and James Joyce and Oscar Wilde are known everywhere.

Music and storytelling

Traditional Irish music, played in pubs and at sessions across the country, is a living tradition. Storytelling, humour and conversation are part of Irish life.

Wild Atlantic landscapes

Green fields, cliffs and a rugged western coastline give Ireland some of the most dramatic scenery in Europe.

A home for millions abroad

Generations of emigration mean that people all over the world feel a connection to Ireland, and St Patrick's Day is celebrated on every continent.

Carrying the pride with you

Ancient monuments, great writers, music and a worldwide family: Ireland gives its people a great deal to celebrate. That pride is what our Ireland designs are made for, and our guide to choosing a gift based on someone's home town shows how to make it personal.