Small group tours of Ireland Facts

During our small group tours of Ireland many guests have brought many fascinating facts about Ireland to our attention. Our guides keep expanding their wisdom about Ireland and in this blog, we thought it would be nice to share some of these little facts. Don’t worry though, during your small group tour of Ireland you will gain much more knowledge about our beautiful country.

Halloween

Halloween traces it`s origins back to the Gaelic festival of Samhain. This harvest festival was held at the end of October to mark the end of summer. It became associated with All Saints from the early Middle ages and the two festivals merged overtime, creating Halloween. Some of the members of the Overland Ireland crew have a real sweet tooth and Halloween one of their favourite days of the year.

Dracula

The world famous story about Count Dracula was written by Bram Stoker, who was born in Dublin. The real-life inspiration for the character was of his friend, Sir Henry Irving.

Snakes

During our small group tours of Ireland you won’t encounter any snakes. Legend has it that Saint Patrick banned all the snakes from Ireland. A more logical and likely explanation is that because of Irelands remote location the snakes, and many other animals never got here.

Lynching

The Lynch family was one of the most important families in the city of Galway in the 15th century. Mayor James Lunch found out that his son killed a Spanish merchant. Mayor Lynch was very strict and ordered his son to be hung in public. The person in charge of hanging people had so much respect for the Lynch family and refused to hang the son. So the father took it upon himself to complete the hanging and through his son on a rope out of the window.

The Irish Abroad

People of Irish descent live all over the world and many join our small group tours of Ireland to find some of their heritage. Its estimated that over 80 million people of Irish descent live abroad. Many live in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada and many more counties all across our globe. Its strange to think that that is 14 times more than the current population of Ireland.

Oldest Mountain in Europe

The Slieve Bloom mountains in central Ireland are the oldest mountains in Europe. Once they were high as well with about 3700 meters. Weathering reduced them to 527 meters which makes it more a hill now then a mountain.

If you want to share more cool facts or if you want to join us on one of our tours please contact [email protected] or check out our website on: https://overlandirelandtours.com/

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