Started reading some Wikipedia entries on Ireland, which thus far is more history than culture, but it’s a start. As history tends to influence culture i’ll count it.

I also opened in new tabs pretty much every interesting link i saw and saved them all for… well, in theory, for ‘next time i start reading about Ireland.’ In practice i’ve now got 92 articles to read, on everything from Ladies’ Gaelic Football (apparently there’s no less than four different types of football played in Ireland) to the Irish Declaration of Independence.

I’m going to be at this for much longer than a week.

Some of the good stuff:

The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 provided a description of the state as “the Republic of Ireland” (Irish: Poblacht na hÉireann). The Act was to change Ireland to a republic rather than a form of constitutional monarchy and transferred authority from the king to the elected president. No change of name took place due to that act and in 1989 the Irish Supreme Court rejected an extradition warrant that used the name “Republic of Ireland”. Justice Walsh ruled: “if the courts of other countries seeking the assistance of this country are unwilling to give this State its constitutionally correct and internationally recognised name, then in my view, the warrants should be returned to such countries until they have been rectified.”

Never let it be said the Irish are not stubborn.

…This Dáil in January 1919 issued a Declaration of Independence and proclaimed an Irish Republic. The Declaration was mainly a restatement of the 1916 Proclamation with the additional provision that Ireland was no longer a part of the United Kingdom. The new Irish Republic was recognised internationally only by the Russian Republic.

Soviet Russia: Supporting Celtic badassery since 1919. Я вас люблю!

And here i was thinking i wouldn’t be learning about Russia. Looks like i got a bit of borsch in with my haggis after all.