You say "Ireland" in Irish as Éire (pronounced "AIR-uh"), which is the official Irish name for the country, while other forms like Éirinn ("AIR-in") and Éireann ("AIR-en") are used in different grammatical cases, such as "in Ireland" or "of the Irish".
Éire (English: /ˈɛərə/ AIR-ə, Irish: [ˈeːɾʲə]) is the Irish language name for "Ireland". Like its English counterpart, the term Éire is used for both the island of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the sovereign state that governs 85% of the island's landmass.
"Éirinn" is the dative case of the Irish word for Ireland, "Éire", genitive "Éireann", the dative being used in prepositional phrases such as "go hÉirinn" "to Ireland", "in Éirinn" "in Ireland", "ó Éirinn" "from Ireland".
It comes from the Irish word aoibh, meaning beauty, radiance, or joy. In Irish mythology, Aoife was known as a fierce warrior woman, associated with strength, independence, and confidence. Today, Aoife remains hugely popular in Ireland and is loved for its simplicity, history, and strong feminine energy.
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🍀 "Erin go bragh" means “Ireland forever.” The original Irish phrase was "Éire go brách" (or go bráth), which translates literally as “Ireland till doomsday.” It's an expression of loyalty and devotion that first appeared in English during the late 18th-century Irish rebellion against the British.
The main Provisional IRA (PIRA) formally ended its armed campaign in 2005, but splinter groups, notably the New IRA, remain active, carrying on dissident republican violence against British security forces in Northern Ireland, though they are much smaller and opposed to the Good Friday Agreement. So, while the historic PIRA is largely inactive, factions using variations of the IRA name are still present and engage in attacks, with the New IRA being the largest and most prominent.
The phrase "Sinn Féin" is Irish for "Ourselves" or "We Ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone" (from "Sinn Féin Amháin", an early-20th-century slogan).
Did you know? English and Irish (Gaeilge) are the official languages in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is where you'll hear the soft strains of Ullans (Ulster-Scots). You'll find Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) areas predominantly along the west coast, where Irish is widely spoken.
Common greetings include “Howaya?”, "What's the craic?" and "How's she cuttin'?" “Grand” is a word you will hear a lot in Ireland and means fine or okay. Irish people love slagging.
If either of your parents was an Irish or UK citizen at the time of your birth, you are automatically an Irish citizen if you were born in Ireland. If you were born in Northern Ireland to an Irish or British parent, you can choose to be an Irish citizen.
The term “Gaelic”, as a language, applies only to the language of Scotland. If you're not in Ireland, it is permissible to refer to the language as Irish Gaelic to differentiate it from Scottish Gaelic, but when you're in the Emerald Isle, simply refer to the language as either Irish or its native name, Gaeilge.
In 1919 an Irish republic was proclaimed by Sinn Féin, an Irish nationalist party. Facing civil war in Ireland, Britain partitioned the island in 1920, with separate parliaments in the predominantly Protestant northeast and predominantly Catholic south and northwest.