Seth went with a few guys from church/youth club to a trail in the Knockmealdown Mountains near here today. Spectacular stuff! It really is an amazingly beautiful country we live in. Check the gallery for a few more photos!

Abortion is illegal in Ireland. This is great news for countless babies and mums, but there are those who would really like to see things change. Ever since Ireland joined the EU, there has been outside pressure to conform to the way things are done in the rest of Europe, and there are some very wealthy Americans who have also poured money into trying to push Ireland towards killing the unborn. Recently the first bill that would have legalized abortion (in this case only in “life of the mother” cases) came before the Dail (i.e. parliament) – but it was defeated by 109 votes to 20! Thousands of protestors came out to oppose the bill, and about 50 came out in support of it. It certainly won’t be the last attempt to make killing babies legal, but every one that fails is a victory for life in Ireland!

The census data from 2011 is out, and the Irish Times recently reported on some of the findings. Here’s a few interesting bits:

“The population of the Irish State is now higher than at any time since the immediate aftermath of the Great Hunger in the 1850s” – we’ve just reached 4.6 million. If it hadn’t been for the famine, there could be 17 million living here.

The birth rate in Ireland is one of the highest in Europe at 2.1 (one factor is probably that abortion is not legal in Ireland, but is legal in the rest of Europe).

17% of residents in Ireland are foreign-born, mostly from Europe. The EU average is 6.5%.

1.77 million people said that they could speak Irish, an increase of 7.1%.

Half of family units are married couples with kids, 70% are married, and 10% cohabit (an 18% increase in 5 years). Same-sex couples increased by 100% to just over 4,000. Marital breakdown (separated and divorced) is just up to 10% of those ever married.

Since the last census in 2006, the Catholic Church increased in numbers, but as a percentage of the population dropped from 86.8% to 84% overall (3.86 million people). There was a 44.8% increase in the next largest religious group – those claiming no religion (269,811 people). On top of that, there was a 320.3% increase in those calling themselves Atheists (now 3,905 people). Orthodox Christians increased by 117.4% (to 45,223, reflecting immigration from eastern Europe), and a 51.2% increase in the Muslim population (to 49,204).

If a picture is worth a thousand words, you might be surprised which words this picture uses. It might look normal enough, but did you notice the power cord? That’s called a “lead” here, and yes, it’s because this is an electric mower. Our yard is not big, so it’s enough with an extension lead. Except, it’s not a yard – a “yard” is a paved area (Scotland Yard is not a grassy lawn!) – the grass around our house is our front and back “garden”. Except, it’s not grass. Sure, there’s some grass in there, but if you look at the picture closely you’ll see that an awful lot of what’s being cut is clover. I think cutting the clover with an electric mower feels like vacuuming. Except, it’s not vacuuming – people usually say “hoovering” here, after the brand.

So this picture makes me think of hoovering clover in the garden on a lead. Is that what you thought of?

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!
We’ve noticed since we came to Ireland that St. Patrick’s Day is slightly different here. For example, no one pinches you if you don’t wear green, and there’s no “Lucky Charms” cereal to have for breakfast. You do get the day off, though, and this year since it’s on a Saturday everyone will get Monday off. Another difference we just noticed this year is that when you shorten “St. Patrick’s” down, it’s always “St. Paddy’s” here, as opposed to the typical spelling in America: “St. Patty’s”. Last night we had youth club at our house and asked them about it and they were shocked that anyone would spell it with “t”‘s – they said Patty is a girls name, short for Patricia! If you want to shorten Patrick, it’s got to be Paddy. Now you know.