Another city, another free walking tour…

Ireland definitely has a rich history with invasions and civil wars up to as recently as 20 years ago.

Here’s some of the tales from the walking tour today…

St Patrick

A little Welsh boy named Patrick was kidnapped by Irish pirates and was a slave for years before finally escaping.

Later on in life he became a bishop and returned to Ireland to share his teachings.

He would use the four leaf clover as a way to explain the holy trinity and the legend of him leading the snakes out of Ireland was actually a metaphor of him leading the protestants out of the city.

Moneygall loves Obama

Back in 2011, President Barack Obama made a visit to Ireland and was brought to the tiny town of Moneygall where he had ancestral ties.

Naturally this was the biggest thing to ever hit this tiny town and today there is a Barack Obama plaza on the outskirts of town.

Too cold for us!

Ireland has been invaded by many factions over the years.

One of them were the Romans who came up here to conquer Ireland along while they were conquering the rest of Europe.

The invasion didn’t last long though as the Romans found it way too cold and figured nothing of value would ever grow here so the left and never returned.

3 percent

Irish is actually the official language of the country but only 3% of the population speak it as their primary language.

For the longest time under British rule the language was outlawed and if you spoke it you were severely punished.

In fact the only place you’ll see a hint of the Irish language is on any official government sign or public office.

Irish citizens actually have the constitutional right to be arrested in Irish and if the police officer can’t speak Irish they must technically be set free.

As for the last thing, I’m not sure if that’s a cutesy little story or if it’s actually true but if ever there is a time I’m in trouble with the law in Ireland I’m demanding to be arrested in Irish.

A viral sensation

A bored clerk from China named Yu Ming decided one day he wanted to travel somewhere in the world and spun a globe to see where he should visit.

His finger landed on Ireland and so after reading up on Ireland for awhile and finding their official language was Irish he spent the next six months studying the language.

You can imagine his surprise and confusion when he finally arrived in Ireland only to find no one could understand what he was saying as virtually no one here actually speaks Irish.

He soon became a viral sensation as the local and then international papers picked up this story.

Today he lives in Galway working in a pub speaking Irish with the locals.