Northern Europe
15,000 Irish live in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania - North Europe . More than 1/2 Million enjoy Northern Europe's Irish Music, Irish Cultural and Irish Sport scene. These countries host the Nordic Feis Annually with Irish Dancing Schools from across the region and some of the world’s biggest Irish Festivals. Irish Societies and Associations in Northern Europe are actively arranging Irish Literature, Theatre, Sport, Music and dancing events across Scandinavia. The region hosts Irish & Celtic Studies Centres in Sweden and Denmark. Many of the 230+ Irish Pubs have regular live Irish Music, as well as live Irish Sports coverage - GAA, Soccer and Rugby. Norway has a Celtic Irish Soccer Club, Finland has a hurling club, Sweden and Denmark played each other in Gaelic football and in Hurling this past summer. Latvia hosts one of Europe’s hotspots to watch live GAA coverage, Lithuania’s Airija are a young hugely popular Folk-Rock band with strong with Irish Art & Culture influence.
Legend has it that many Irish women captured and ended up in Iceland, which is one explanation given why the country’s population has closer blood type to the Irish than to populations in Denmark, Norway, Finland or Sweden. Because it was Irish women, the Irish surnames did not pass on to their descendents.
Read more about this topic: Irish People In Mainland Europe
Famous quotes containing the words northern and/or europe:
“There exists in a great part of the Northern people a gloomy diffidence in the moral character of the government. On the broaching of this question, as general expression of despondency, of disbelief that any good will accrue from a remonstrance on an act of fraud and robbery, appeared in those men to whom we naturally turn for aid and counsel. Will the American government steal? Will it lie? Will it kill?—We ask triumphantly.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I believe that the fundamental proposition is that we must recognize that the hostilities in Europe, in Africa, and in Asia are all parts of a single world conflict. We must, consequently, recognize that our interests are menaced both in Europe and in the Far East.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)