With its astonishingly rich culture, Ireland is particularly famous for its literature, its music, its songs and its traditional dances, as well as its theatres, museums and galleries.

The country's two official languages, Irish or Gaelic (spoken by 31% of adults) and English, illustrate this cultural diversity and are the foundation of a varied literature. The oldest illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells, was produced by 9^th Century monks. The prose and verse narratives of the bards were followed by a "modern" poetic literature. O'Conaire and O'Cadhain wrote in Gaelic and contributed to the propagation of the language. Nuala Ni Dhomhaill, a woman poet, is one of today's best known Gaelic writers. The first writers in the English language include Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels - and Edmund Burke - Reflections on the Revolution in France. Bernard Shaw, 1925 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, was the author of Pygmalion, on which the film My Fair Lady was based. Some of the plays of Oscar Wilde, such as Lady Windermere's Fan, are regularly performed in several countries. James Joyce revolutionised literature by restoring the priority of language in Ulysses. Samuel Beckett, Hugh Leonard and John Keane were the great dramatists of the 20^th Century. The poets of the 20^th Century include Nobel Prize winners William Butler Yeats (1923) and Seamus Heaney (1995).

In Irish Art, John Butler Yeats is known for his portraits and his son, Jack Butler Yeats for his water colours of the music-hall and the circus. Landscape and portrait painters include John Lavery, William Leech, Louis Le Brocquy, and Walter Osborne. The abstract paintings of Patrick Scott were used as sketches for Aubusson tapestries. Mainie Jellet illustrates the cubist trend. James Coleman and Sean Scully are two of the most famous contemporary Irish artists.

In the field of architecture, Ireland has relics of every era - from dolmens and funeral chambers 3000 years old to the great Celtic crosses raised from the 7^th to 12^th Centuries; from the round towers of the 10^th and 11^th
Centuries to the Chapel of Cormac at Cashel; from the Gothic and Neo-Gothic Cathedrals of Christchurch and St. Patrick (Dublin) to the Norman castles like Cahir, a real 15^th Century stronghold. The classical style is represented by the Royal Hospital in Dublin and the Palladian Style by Castletown Manor. Georgian houses from the 18^th and 19^th Centuries contribute to the charms of Dublin.

Irish music has always been the background to the life of the Irish. The words of its songs, passed down from generation to generation, are known to every Irishman and woman. Its instruments include the fiddle (a small violin), the tin whistle (a metal flute with mouthpiece), the bodhran (a type of tambourine) and the uileann pipes (a kind of bagpipe). And of course, the harp, one of Ireland's two emblems, alongside the shamrock. The famous bard Turlough O'Carolan was accompanied by the harp. John Field has written nocturnes. The conductor, H.H.Hamilton, composed the Irish Symphony. Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher and Chris de Burgh, U2, The Cranberries, Enya are just a few famous names in modern popular music.

Anywhere in the island, almost every evening, you can find music and a friendly atmosphere in at least one pub in every village. The Irish people are happy to celebrate all the festivals-christmas, New Year, Halloween on 31^st October and, especially, the national holiday, St. Patrick's Day on 17^th March, when there are many festivals.

For additional information:

• The Irish tourist board (in English)
• The National Irish Tourism Office in France (in French)