The Fields of Athenry is a folk song about the Great Irish Famine, of the 1840s and tells a story through first-person narrative. The song, which was first recorded by Irish ballad singer Danny Doyle, recounts the tale of a prisoner who has been sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay, Australia, for stealing food to feed his starving family.
The modern governing body of Gaelic sports in Ireland is the Gaelic Athletic Association or GAA which organises the sports of hurling and [gaelic] football throughout Ireland (and many parts of the world).
Stout, or The Black Stuff, has been closely associated with Ireland for decades with its most popular variety, Guinness, ranking high as Ireland’s most famous export.
An Irish Stew Recipe from a supporter of the CICS.
There are a number of flags that represent Ireland, from the Red Saltire that represents the Cross of Saint Patrick to the shamrock-crested green banner that represents the Ireland rugby team. The national flag of Ireland, or ‘An Bhratach Náisiúnta’, is the official flag of the Irish Republic.
Old Irish was the language of Ireland’s “Golden Age”, and its classical phase is generally assigned to the period AD 700-850. Old Irish evolved into Middle Irish, the language of the late Viking and post-Viking period. In comparison with Old Irish, Middle Irish is characterized by a simplification of the inflections of noun and verb and of the system of pronouns.
Posted in Art and Culture, Literature 
Tags: Culture, Irish Gaelic, Language 
Last Updated: 5 Oct 2010
While the English language reached Ireland during the Middle Ages, the first major flowering of English literature in Ireland came during the eighteenth century.
Posted in Literature Tags: Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, Jonathan Swift, Literature, Oscar Wilde, Seamus Heaney, Ulysses Last Updated: 2 Nov 2010
Irish is a Celtic language and, as such, is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. Within the Celtic group, it belongs to the Goidelic branch of insular Celtic. Irish has evolved from a form of Celtic introduced into Ireland during the great Celtic migrations between the end of the second millennium and the fourth century BC.
Irish dancing has seen a major boost in recent years with the global success of Riverdance and, Michael Flatley’s, Lord of the Dance. There are three dance schools that operate in Crawley who wish to extend their welcome for more participants.
