For a
comparatively small country, Ireland has made a disproportionate contribution to
world literature in all its branches, mainly in English. Poetry in Irish
represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe with the earliest examples
dating from the 6th century. In more recent times, Ireland has produced four
winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature: George Bernard Shaw, William Butler
Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney.
The early history of Irish visual art is generally considered to
begin with early carvings found at sites such as Newgrange and is
traced through Bronze age artifacts, particularly ornamental gold
objects, and the religious carvings and illuminated manuscripts of
the medieval period. During the course of the 19th and 20th
centuries, a strong indigenous tradition of painting emerged,
including such figures as John Butler Yeats, William Orpen, Jack
Yeats and Louis le Brocquy.
Ireland
guide
