For starters , Ireland is not one country , but two , situated on an island just east of England , and rough the size of South Carolina . formally institute in 1949 , the independent Republic of Ireland ( Das Kapital : Dublin ) accept up most of that soil plenty . Northern Ireland ( Das Kapital : Belfast ) is situated on the northeast side of the island and belongs to the United Kingdom , and thus , falls under English rule .
Yet this currently stable political environment is a recent development . For 100 of years , Ireland has seen occupiers come and go , violence and peace treaty wax and wane , as the people across the so - called Emerald Isle searched for a defining and unifying sentience of self and culture .
Out of all the topsy-turvyness and strife , many rock - solid custom arose , all the while adding to Irish culture and giving this people an identity that ’s recognizable the mankind over . And part of that individuality is awash in green .
Green has become the most Irish chromaticity . This is in part because this temperate island is literally very unripe with foliation . The greenish shamrock , with its three leaves , is what St. Patrick purportedly used to instruct the Christian Trinity to potential converts .
And although blue was the color originally associated withSt . Patrick ’s Day , green eventually became the symbolic color of choice . This is because natives who supported Irish - Catholic patriotism often trap Trifolium dubium to their clothing . During one uprising , a group of soldier even expire so far as to dress in green uniforms to draw attention to their desire for an self-governing Ireland .
In the mid-1800 ’s , shortage strike Ireland . Many Irish leave behind their mother country and dispersed throughout the world , shoot their tradition and customs with them . Much of the Irish culture is tinged with the struggles of their longsighted oppressiveness and suffering , yet in each song , saltation , and delicious family formula is steely resolve and Bob Hope .
And there ’s one slice of their culture in especial that speaks to the root of what it mean to be Irish – the food . On the next page you ’ll read more about how Irish culinary selection are intertwined with the culture as a whole .
