Some Interesting Facts About Ireland

Ireland’s population is overwhelmingly Catholic, and most of the national holidays in the country are festivals from the Christian calendar. They include March 17 (St Patrick’s Day), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, Christmas, and Boxing Day. In addition, New Year’s Day and August Monday (August 2) are also national holidays.

Remember, if you’re visiting the country during Easter time, that cinemas and theatres remain closed all through the three days preceding Easter.

Date 2005
 Occasion
 
January 1 New Year's Day
January 6 Epiphany**
March 17 St Patrick's Day*
March 25 Good Friday1
March 28 Easter Monday
May 2 Bank Holiday
May 5  Ascension**
June 6 Bank Holiday
August 7 Summer Bank Holiday
August 15 Assumption of the Virgin Mary**
October 31 Halloween 
November 1 All Saints Day**
December 25 Christmas Day
December 26 St. Stephen's Day

Weekend: Saturday, Sunday

Electricity

220-240 volts, 50 Hertz is available.

If your electronic gizmos are used with other specifications, carry an adaptor.

Post & Communications

The main post office in Ireland is the General Post Office at O’Connell Street in Dublin. All through the country there are smaller post offices, from where you can send mail, including parcels. For receiving international mail, there’s a general delivery service at the General Post Office, which is operated free of charge.

Public phones are aplenty, and can be found in shops, pubs, and post offices; besides these, you can make calls from hotel rooms (although making an international call from a hotel room can work out extremely expensive). For other communication services, including fax, telex and Internet, you could go to a hotel business centre.

Tipping

Tipping is not usually necessary in larger and more fancy restaurants in Ireland, as most will anyway levy a 10% (in some cases 12%) service charge. If this has been added to your bill, you need not leave a tip; if it hasn’t, you can round off the bill or leave a tip of about 10% of the bill. Similarly, taxi drivers will usually not expect a tip, but if your cabby’s been particularly helpful and you want to leave a monetary `thank you’, about 10% of the fare is all right.

Tips are not the norm in pubs and bars.