Destination Guides & Maps - Ireland

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Capital City: Dublin. (Population 1.5 million).

Currency: The Euro. Major credit cards are accepted throughout the country, but personal cheques from British banks are not accepted.

Language: English, though Irish Gaelic, known as Irish, is the first official language.

Area: 70,280 sq km, with a coastline of 1,448 sq km.

Population: 3.5 million.

Only about 35% of the population have a knowledge of Irish and it is mainly spoken in the west (Galway, Mayo, Donegal) and south of the country (Kerry). These areas are often referred to as the Gaeltacht.

Visa: British citizens do not need a passport or visa to travel to Ireland, but you should take some form of identification with you to prove you're a UK national (i.e. a full driving licence).

Your passport will be useful if you want to hire a car or change travellers' cheques. EU nationals can enter Ireland with a passport (no visa required) or a national ID card.

Travellers from outside the EU will need a full passport, which should have six months validity after the intended stay.

Geography: The most north-westerly country in Europe, Ireland is 300 miles long and 190 miles wide.

It consists of four provinces which are broken down into 32 counties as follows: Ulster - Cavan, Donegal, Monaghan (all in the Republic), Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone (all in Northern Ireland); Leinster - Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow; Munster - Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford; and Connaught - Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Roscommon and Leitrim.

The waves of the Atlantic Ocean crash onto its west side, those of the Irish Sea batter the east side.

The River Shannon flows from north to south and is the longest river in Ireland.

Coastal areas tend to be mountainous, with the centre of the country consisting mainly of limestone lowland.

The highest mountain in Ireland, Carrantuohill in the MacGillicuddy's Reek range in Co Kerry, stands at 1,041 metres (3,419 feet).

The Wicklow Mountains in the east reach a height of more than 915 metres (3,000 feet).

One of the most unusual features of the landscape is the area known as The Burren, in Co Clare.

Burren means 'Great Rock' and this is a region of bare carboniferous limestone that is often described as resembling the surface of the moon.

It takes up around 100 square miles to the north of Lisdoonvarna and is known for its rare alpine flowers and fantastic caves, as well as streams, potholes and 'turloughs' (seasonal lakes).

Religion: 95% Roman Catholic; 3% Protestant, 1% Jewish.

Time: The Republic of Ireland is on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Just like Britain, clocks go forward by one hour in March and back one hour in September/October.

Electricity: Electricity is 230 volts AC, (50 cycles). Plugs are flat, three-pin type, so most of your appliances should work. Bathrooms normally have a two-pin 110 to 120V AC source for shavers.

Emergencies: Ring 999 or 112 for any of the four emergency services - police (commonly called the garda), fire brigade, ambulance and coastal rescue.

Telephone: The international dialling code for the Republic of Ireland is 00 353 (then omit the 0 of the area code).

The main telecommunications company is Éircom. To ring the UK (excluding Northern Ireland) from Ireland, dial 00 44 plus the area code (dropping the 0), plus the number.

So to ring Glasgow (0141), for example, the code is 00 44 + 141 + the private number.

To ring a Northern Ireland number, dial 048 and then the number.

For directory assistance for numbers in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, call 11811.

For directory assistance for the UK, call 11818. Card phones are cheaper than pay phones and you can buy cards in ¿4, ¿7 and ¿15 denominations from newsagents and other outlets across the country.

Post: Post Offices can be recognised by the sign "An Post" and are open from 9am-5.30pm weekdays, 9am-midday Saturdays. Closed Sundays.

All mail to the UK goes by air, so you don't need to mark letters Airmail or use airmail envelopes or stickers.

Post to Britain normally arrives in three to five days. You can buy and sell foreign currency at any Post Office with a Bureau de Change service.

Business hours:

Most stores open Monday-Saturday 9am-5.30pm. Some smaller towns will have an early closing day; larger towns will have late-night shopping, remaining open until 8pm or 9pm, usually on Thursday.

Museums are generally open Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-5.30pm. Most, but not all, are closed on Mondays.

Some are also closed on Sundays, or only open between 2pm-5pm. Check before you visit.

Banks are open Monday-Friday 10am-4pm (until 5pm in Dublin). In many small towns, banks close for lunch from 12.30pm-1.30pm.

Pubs open weekdays from 10.30am-11.30pm (plus 30 minutes drinking-up time). Most are open one hour later on Saturdays. On Sundays, drinking time is shorter - from 12.30pm-11pm. Pubs with music often have a licence until 2am.

Internet and e-mail: There are cybercafés and, because this is Ireland after all, cyberpubs in most cities and towns. Costs start from around ¿6 per hour.

Tipping: Upmarket restaurants and hotels will automatically add a service charge. Otherwise 10% to 15% is the norm.

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