What is Ireland like today?

fine really, northern ireland is still tough in some parts, im from belfast but my family moved to england to get away from it all, all i can say is if you go through a protestant area dont go waving an irish flag and if you go through a catholic area dont wave the british flag. youll get yourself in alot of trouble, trust me. oh and orange parade, stay away from that.

I like living in Ireland :) I'm a 14 year old teenager I'm more of a city girl. Dublin City you should definetly visit, but make sure you get a good look a the city cause there's so much to see! I was there 2 days ago and my dad drove me into part of the city that I've never seen in my life! I live in County Wicklow (named 'The Garden Of Ireland') and it's really beautiful.. It's the county south of Dublin (Glendalough, The Round Towers is a must) And Powerscourt house. ( Where the series 'The Tudors' was filmed for some episodes.. is that aired over in America? ) In Ireland, the main religion's is Catholicism and Protestantism (Presbyterian as well) though we also have a growing population of Muslims and Hindus. And there has been Jews here for the past 1000 years. I think you must mean about the 1798 rebellion and British rule over Ireland? Not really.. there is still some hatred (though very little, mainly by idiots, who are stupid), but we don't mind the british at all, British people have been moving over here to live (Many of my friends are are british, as well as other nationalities) and we have no negetive feelings towards them, As we don't really care. Ireland is more culturally diverse than ever, and that makes the country more open to people of all nationalities and races. Ireland is not rascist (just incase you were worried about that factor too) though, again, you will get the few idiots who are (just like any other country) People are friendly and generally don't care... your just another person! From a friendly 14 year old girl called Amy. :) :]

I've only been to bits of it yet (lived in Dublin, travelled to the South of Mayo/Galway) but frow what I've seen the most beautiful bits are the coastal regions in Mayo (and Keem bay on Achill Island if I ever have the courage to drive down that coastal road towards the bay again, and then I might climb up to visit that little house and finally see what is so important there that they had to build a house for it - that bay is very much worth seeing if you get over the road thing), Connemara and the town of Shannon. I have a thing for large rivers and bridges. I'd still love to visit Derry, Cork and the areas surrounding those places. Mostly Cork city because of how people compare it to my hometown. I just want to see if it's true. I'd call the landscape anything but simple, though. There's quite a lot going on geologically. All over that big island, from Dublin to Galway and from Cork to Derry. I find that Ireland is quite cheap compared to where I live, in Antwerp, Belgium. From what I've been told by my boyfriend's sister and her husband, who have lived for 14 years in Los Angeles and recently came back to Ireland, it is remarkably cheaper compared to the US as well. Apparently not so compared to the UK... As far as I know, the majority is still Catholic, but people are very open. In the ROI they certainly don't pound on you if you're a protestant, and of course they are very understanding if you have a completely different religion. I personally don't really like Dublin that much. The area where I lived, which was just on the border almost outside of the city, was okay but the inner city was just too busy for me. It felt as though everyone had to see this city at least once, as though Dublin was the pinnacle of Ireland. It's just the capital, not the pinnacle. In my opinion, apart from a few buildings, there is not much to see. There is Temple Bar, but for a good time out you are probably better off going there in the daytime during the week. At night and in the weekends you can consider yourself lucky if you can set foot in any of the places there. It is more frustrating than anything else. The roads in and around Dublin are quite good; well connected, like. Once you get outside of Dublin I have to say the connectivity via the roads diminishes greatly. Maps too are hardly updated and the designations of villages and areas can be so confusing to an outsider that GPS can become impossible to use. Yeah, I'm talking about the M6. What's up with that? It's been there for a few years - no matter what Wikipedia says; we were on that same road 3 years ago ffs! - and it doesn't even show up on my phone's GPS, which updates in real-time and is always recent! It is funny, though, to hear your GPS constantly saying "recalculating - after 100 metres turn right and join highway" when you're on a highway with no junctions in sight, and seeing that little dot floating next to the streets. Not so funny when you don't know the junctions yet and are trying to find your way in pitch dark and your GPS is useless. Also when you type in a town and you don't know the street, your GPS might send you halfway across the county before you realise you've passed the town centre. Another bad point, mainly about the streets, is that they aren't lit at night. Save for junctions and the reflection of cat's eyes on the streets, which are only usable when you have strong headlights. Which, in turn, often blind passing drivers. Maybe not so much the normal streets, but at least highways should be lit because driving 120 km/h in the dark could turn out to be very dangerous. Not every town and city are directly connected, some towns only via the nearest bigger town or city, which means you have to get around to get somewhere mainly. Again, because of the metropolis status of Dublin, you don't really get that there. It's once you're outside of the M50 that the trouble starts. Of course, driving on the left hand side might pose a problem for those who are used to driving on the right. Strangely enough I've noticed that left-handed people have less trouble adapting. To me and to my father, it feels like second nature. Ironic, because the driving on the left-hand side was introduced in olden days mainly because most people were right-handed and found it easier on their horse to draw their swords in their right hand to attack whomever was coming from the opposite direction. You'd get annoyed with all the roundabouts, but they're actually good. They keep traffic flowing. Another annoying thing, but you'd probably be used to it coming from the US, is that you need a car to go everywhere. Especially when you live in the country. I could walk through Belgium north to south and survive; I might not in Ireland. I'd probably die by bog. ;) Bogs are something to watch out for. Not always dangerous, but they are often concealed. I jumped in plenty of bogs without realising it. Messy things, those.

Expensive, unfriendly & cold.