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Welcome to Ireland!

Most people in Ireland speak English, but many also speak Irish, or Gaelic. In some remote parts of the west of Ireland, people usually speak Irish all day!

The Irish language is especially present in Irish music, and Dublin is one of the best places to listen to Irish music.

You can go to the Temple Bar area any day of the week, almost any time of the day, and you are sure to find a pub where they are playing traditional live music. If you're lucky, you can even see some traditional Irish dancing! If you have Internet access, you can have a look at all the things you can find in the Temple Bar, where all the young people go to have fun, or have a look at a famous pub there through a webcam.

This is a Celtic cross. The main symbol of Celtic decoration is the circle, and the main symbol of Christianity is the cross. When Saint Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland, the two symbols combined to form a Celtic cross.

These crosses are usually engraved with beautiful reliefs. 		You can find Celtic crosses all over Ireland, especially in church yards (in Ireland, as in England, cemeteries are usually behind the churches, and they are usually called graveyards).
The Irish usually prefer living in houses to living in flats. In a house you usually have a front garden, and if you are lucky or have a lot of money, a back garden as well.

These are terraced houses. They are called that because they are in rows, one next to another, and they all look the same. 		Typical Irish houses have two floors: upstairs are the bathroom and the bedrooms; downstairs are the living room and the kitchen.

In Ireland, as in England, cars drive on the left, so you have to be very careful when you cross a street.

In Dublin you have to be extra careful, because pedestrians do not always cross when the lights are green, and if you don't pay attention a bus can run you over!

Every foreigner thinks that bus drivers in Dublin drive too fast, but Dubliners think they are too slow!

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