Culture
The area is famed for Irish traditional music. Gaelic games, especially hurling are popular and the Gaelic Athletic Association was founded in the province. The rugby union team - Munster Rugby - is a prominent identity symbol and is amongst the elite of European rugby clubs. There are many ancient castles and monasteries in the province; this coupled with the vast green countryside and three cities makes it a feature of the tourism industry. A 5th century bishop named Ailbe is the patron saint of Munster.
In Irish mythology, a number of pagan goddesses are associated with the province including Anann, Áine, Grian, Clíodhna, Aimend, Mór Muman, Bébinn, Aibell and Queen Mongfind. Each is historically associated with certain septs of the nobility. The druid-god of Munster is Mug Ruith. A more shadowy figure is Donn, associated with Tech Duinn, beyond the mortal realm.
The province has long had trading and cultural links with continental Europe. The tribe of Corcu Loígde is known to have had a trading fleet active along the French Atlantic coast, as far south as Gascony, importing wine to Munster. The Eóganachta had ecclesiastical ties with distant Germany, which show in the architecture of their ceremonial capital, the famous acropolis on the Rock of Cashel.
The majority of Irish ogham inscriptions are found in Munster, principally in areas occupied by the Iverni, especially the Corcu Duibne. Later, Europe's first linguistic dictionary in any non-Classical language, the Sanas Cormaic, was compiled by Munster scholars, traditionally thought to have been directed by the king-bishop Cormac mac Cuilennáin (d. 908).
The School of Ross in Munster was one of Europe's leading centers of learning in the Early Middle Ages.
Read more about this topic: Munster
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Our culture is ill-equipped to assert the bourgeois values which would be the salvation of the under-class, because we have lost those values ourselves.”
—Norman Podhoretz (b. 1930)
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