Travels With Carole: Introduction to visiting Ireland

October 30, 2013

Introduction to visiting Ireland

The island of Ireland is comprised of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (which along with England, Scotland, and Wales forms the United Kingdom). An official border has separated them since 1922. The Atlantic Ocean is to the west and the Irish Sea to the east. Ireland is one of Europe's least densely populated countries. Like many islands that were once entirely forested—most famously Easter Island—the trees have been almost completely cleared, and for almost 200 years now Ireland has imported almost all its wood. Prehistoric bogs and limestone plains survive, and Ireland famously has no snakes but does have one lizard. And though Johnny Cash sang of Ireland as having “forty shades of green,” and before my visit I saw in my mind’s eye sunny skies, the reality in late September/early October was a graying mist. And that’s probably why the island is so brilliantly green when the sun does shine.