Ireland

Discover Ireland

A tomb called Newgrange sits in a green field north of Dublin, built around 3200 BC. That makes it 1,000 years older than Stonehenge and 500 years older than the Great Pyramids of Egypt. 

Every year on the winter solstice, sunlight passes through a narrow roof opening and floods the inner burial chamber with golden light for about 17 minutes before disappearing for another year.

Ireland is a small island on the western edge of Europe with a history much bigger than its size. Celtic peoples settled here over 2,000 years ago. Vikings arrived in the 800s and actually founded Dublin.

For hundreds of years, Britain controlled Ireland, and the relationship was often brutal. The worst chapter came during the Great Famine of 1845 to 1852, when a plant disease destroyed the potato crop that millions depended on to survive. About one million people died, and another million emigrated permanently.

In 1916, a group of rebels seized buildings in Dublin and declared independence in what became known as the Easter Rising. The British executed the leaders, which turned Irish public opinion sharply against British rule.

Ireland became the Irish Free State in 1922, though six counties in the north stayed part of the United Kingdom. That split led to decades of conflict called the Troubles, which killed over 3,500 people before a peace agreement in 1998.

In Dublin, visit Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, a gospel book hand-decorated by monks around 800 AD with some of the most detailed artwork you will ever see up close. Drive west to the Cliffs of Moher, where the rock face drops more than 700 feet straight into the Atlantic Ocean. 

Try a full Irish breakfast with eggs, sausages, back bacon, and soda bread. And for the parents, locals will tell you the Guinness genuinely tastes better here than anywhere else in the world.