Ireland is at the western-most edge of Europe, and a rather wonderful edge it is. Its people, along with the Americans and Asians have salvaged the English language as an artistic force. Unfortunately Ireland harbours a peculier condition whereby everything North American, regardless of its stupidity, is considered exceptionally '
grand'.
Coupled with this Ireland has a tendency for its less educated, yet more vocal 10% of the population to bleat nonsense about 'Black and Tans' and generally deride the English, this is regardless of the fact that during WW2, the joint would have become Hitler's private golfing resort without them.
It is a site of:
Unmatched art and culture
Willful ignorance, hypocricy and begrudgery
A technically perfect quasi-socialist Government
High rural suicide rates
Inflatable tri-colour hammers
Heaney
Yeats
Shaw
Friel
Bogs
Casual racism
Cultural openness
Challenging, maddening, gorgeous women
Rampant alcoholism
Men with square heads
Ginger children
People called Seamus
Passports with harps on them
Crap roads
Introspection
Bosco the puppet
Stereotypically superior potatos
Ireland generally is confused, self-contradictory, flawed and possibly the most honestly human place on Earth because of it. Thank fuck for that...