Ireland
The Emerald Isle, green, Atlantic, and famously diasporic
Ireland occupies most of a windswept Atlantic island west of Britain, a land so rain-fed and verdant it earned the name the Emerald Isle. A nation of roughly 5.4 million, it carries an outsized presence in the world through a global diaspora of tens of millions and a cultural footprint, in literature, music, and pubs, that far exceeds its size. Once one of Europe's poorest countries, the Republic of Ireland reinvented itself as a high-tech, English-speaking gateway to the EU, hosting the European headquarters of much of Silicon Valley and posting some of the continent's fastest growth.
The island is shaped like a shallow bowl: a central limestone lowland of bog, pasture, and the River Shannon, ringed by coastal mountains. The highest, Carrauntoohil in the Macgillycuddy's Reeks of County Kerry, reaches 1,038 meters. The Cliffs of Moher, the Burren's karst plateau, and the basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway in the north draw visitors to a dramatic, weather-beaten coast. A mild, wet maritime climate keeps the grass green year-round, feeding a famous dairy and beef sector alongside pharmaceuticals, software, and finance.
The Irish, or Gaelic, language and a rich Celtic heritage survive a long history of English conquest, plantation, and the catastrophic Great Famine of the 1840s, which halved the population through death and emigration. The Republic won independence from the United Kingdom in 1922, while six northern counties remained part of the UK as Northern Ireland, a division that fueled decades of conflict eased by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. A member of the EU and the eurozone, neutral in military alliances, Ireland today is prosperous, cosmopolitan, and proud of writers from Joyce to Heaney.