A list of famous Irish must begin with St. Patrick (c.385–461), who, though not born in Ireland, represents Ireland to the rest of the world. Among the "saints and scholars" of the 6th to the 8th centuries were St. Columba (521–97), missionary to Scotland; St. Columban (540?–616), who founded monasteries in France and Italy; and Johannes Scotus Erigena (810?–80), a major Neoplatonic philosopher.

For the thousand years after the Viking invasions, the famous names belong to warriors and politicians: Brian Boru (962?–1014), who temporarily united the kings of Ireland and defeated the Vikings; Hugh O'Neill (1547?–1616), Owen Roe O'Neill (1590?–1649), and Patrick Sarsfield (d. 1693), national heroes of the 17th century; and Henry Grattan (1746–1820), Wolf Tone (1763–98), Edward Fitzgerald (1763–98), Robert Emmet (1778–1803), Daniel O'Connell (1775–1847), Michael Davitt (1846–1906), Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–91), Arthur Griffith (1872–1922), Patrick Henry Pearse (1879–1916), and Éamon de Valera(b.US, 1882–1975), who, with many others, fought Ireland's political battles. The politician and statesman Seán MacBride (1904-88) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974.

Irishmen who have made outstanding contributions to science and scholarship include Robert Boyle (1627–91), the physicist who defined Boyle's law relating to pressure and volume of gas; Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805–65), astronomer and mathematician, who developed the theory of quaternions; George Berkeley (1685–1753), philosopher and clergyman; Edward Hincks (1792–1866), discoverer of the Sumerian language; and John Bagnell Bury (1861–1927), classical scholar. The nuclear physicist Ernest T. S. Walton (1903–95) won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1951.

Painters of note include Sir William Orpen (1878–1931), John Butler Yeats (1839–1922), his son Jack Butler Yeats (1871–1957), and Mainie Jellet (1897–1944). Irish musicians include the pianist and composer John Field (1782–1837), the opera composer Michael William Balfe (1808–70), the tenor John McCormack (1884–1945), and the flutist James Galway (b. Belfast, 1939).

After the Restoration, many brilliant satirists in English literature were born in Ireland, among them Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin and creator of Gulliver's Travels; Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–74); Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816); Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854–1900); and George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950).

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) and James Clarence Mangan (1803–49) wrote patriotic airs, hymns, and love lyrics, while Maria Edgeworth (1767–1849) wrote novels on Irish themes. Half a century later the great literary revival led by Nobel Prizewinning poet-dramatist William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), another son of John Butler Yeats, produced a succession of famous playwrights, poets, novelists, and short-story writers: the dramatists Lady Augusta (Persse) Gregory (1859?–1932), John Millington Synge (1871–1909), Sean O'Casey (1884–1964), and Lennox Robinson (1886–1958); the poets AE (George William Russell, 1867–1935), Oliver St. John Gogarty (1878–1957), Pádraic Colum (1881–1972), James Stephens (1882–1950); Austin Clarke (1890–1974), Thomas Kinsella (b. 1928), and Seamus Heaney (b. 1939); the novelists and short-story writers George Moore (1852–1932), Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th baron of Dunsany (1878–1957), Liam O'Flaherty (1896–1984), Seán O'Faoláin (1900–91), Frank O'Connor (Michael O'Donovan, 1903–66), and Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan, 1911–66). Two outstanding authors of novels and plays whose experimental styles have had worldwide influence are James Augustine Joyce (1882–1941), the author of Ulysses, and Samuel Beckett (1906–89), recipient of the 1969 Nobel Prize for literature.

The Abbey Theatre, which was the backbone of the literary revival, also produced many outstanding dramatic performers, such as Dudley Digges (1879–1947), Sara Allgood (1883–1950), Arthur Sinclair (1883–1951), Maire O'Neill (Mrs. Arthur Sinclair, 1887–1952), Barry Fitzgerald (William Shields, 1888–1961), and Siobhan McKenna (1923–1986). For many years Douglas Hyde (1860–1949), first president of Ireland (1938–45), spurred on the Irish-speaking theater as playwright, producer, and actor.

All postal, telegraph, telex, and telephone services are controlled and operated by the government through the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. In 2001 there were approximately 1.6 million main line telephones in use with an additional 2 million mobile cellular phones. An autonomous public corporation, Radio Telefis Éireann, is the Irish national broadcasting organization; on 1 January 1976, this service celebrated 50 years of operation. Ireland's second radio service, Raidio na Gaeltachta, an Irish language broadcast, was inaugurated in 1972; it broadcasts VHF from County Galway. As of 1998, there were 9 AM and 106 FM radio stations. In 2001, at least 43 stations were independent. In 2001 there were 4 television stations. In 2000 there were 7695 radios and 399 television sets for every 1,000 people. About 177 of every 1,000 people subscribed to cable television. The same year, there were about 359 personal computers in use for every 1,000 people, with 22 Internet service providers serving about1.25 million users in 2001.

In 2001, there were eight independent national newspapers, as well as many local newspapers. There were three major independent current affairs magazines along with hundreds of special interest magazines.

Waterford, Limerick, Galway, and many other smaller cities and towns have their own newspapers, most of them weeklies.

The Constitution provides for free speech and a free press; however, government bodies may decree without public hearing or justification any material unfit for distribution on moral grounds. The Office of Film Censor, which rates films and videos before they can be distributed, can ban or require edits of movies which contain content considered to be "indecent, obscene, or blasphemous," or which expresses principles "contrary to public morality." In 2001, 26 videos were banned, primarily for violent or pornographic content.
 

There are many types of organizations in Ireland: trade unions and trade organizations, farmers' groups, sport and athletic associations, religious clubs, political clubs, clubs for the preservation and promotion of the Irish language and culture, and societies devoted to art, literature, music, drama, science, and other branches of learning.

The Oldest and best known of the learned societies are the Royal Dublin Society, founded in 1731, and the Royal Irish Academy, founded in 1785. The Royal Irish Academy of Music was added in 1856, the Irish Society of Arts and Commerce in 1911, the Irish Academy of Letters in 1932, and the Arts Council of Ireland in 1951. Many organizations exist for research and study in medicine and science, including the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

National youth organizations include the Church of Ireland Youth Council, Comhchairdeas (the Irish Workcamp Movement), Confederation of Peace Corps, Federation of Irish Scout Associations, Irish Girl Guides, Student Christian Movement of Ireland, Voluntary Service International, Workers Party Youth, Young Fine Gael, and chapters of YMCA/YWCA. The Irish Sports Council serves as an umbrella organization for numerous athletic organizations both on amateur and professional levels.

Civil rights organizations include the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the National Women's Council of Ireland. The Consumers Association of Ireland is active in advocating consumer information services. International organizations with chapters in Ireland include the Red Cross and Amnesty International.

Trinity College Library, which dates from 1591 and counts among its many treasures the Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow, two of the most beautiful illuminated manuscripts from the pre-Viking period, is the oldest and largest library in Ireland, with a stock of 4.1 million volumes. Among other libraries in Dublin are the Chester Beatty Library, noted for one of the world's finest collections of Oriental manuscripts and miniatures, the National Library of Ireland, founded in 1877, which houses 500,000 volumes, and University College Dublin library, with more than one million volumes. The Dublin public libraries have holdings of over 1.4 million volumes and have special collections on Jonathan Swift and Yeats; political pamphlets and cartoons; and Dublin periodicals and 18th-century plays. Nationally, the public library system has 351 service points holding a total of 11.2 million volumes as of 1997.

Dublin, the center of cultural life in Ireland, has several museums and a number of libraries. The National Museum contains collections on Irish antiquities, folk life, fine arts, natural history, zoology, and geology. The National Gallery houses valuable paintings representing the various European schools from the 13th century to the present. The National Portrait Gallery provides a visual survey of Irish historical personalities over the past three centuries. The Municipal Gallery of Modern Art has a fine collection of works by recent and contemporary artists. There is a Heraldic Museum in Dublin Castle; the National Botanic Gardens are at Glasnevin; and the Zoological Gardens are in Phoenix Park. There is a James Joyce Museum in Dublin housing personal memorabilia of the great writer, including signed manuscripts. Yeats Tower in Gort displays memorabilia of W. B. Yeats. The Dublin Writers' Museum opened in 1991.

Public libraries and small museums, devoted mostly to local historical exhibits, are found in Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, and other cities.

Health services are provided by regional boards under the administration and control of the Department of Health. A comprehensive health service, with free hospitalization, treatment, and medication, is provided for low-income groups. The middle-income population is entitled to free maternity, hospital, and specialist services, and a free diagnostic and preventive service is available to all persons suffering from specified infectious diseases. Insurance against hospital and certain other medical expenses is available under a voluntary plan introduced in 1957.

Since World War II, many new regional and county hospitals and tuberculosis sanatoriums have been built. As of 1999, there were an estimated 2.3 physicians and 3.7 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

While deaths from cancer, particularly lung cancer, and heart disease are rising, those from many other causes have been decreasing rapidly. Infant mortality has been reduced from 50.3 per 1,000 live births in 1948 to 6 in 2000. Tuberculosis, long a major cause of adult deaths, declined from 3,700 cases in 1947 to only 15 per 100,000 in 1999. Average life expectancy at birth in 2000 was 76 years. The general mortality rate was an estimated 8 per 1,000 people as of 2002. Tobacco consumption decreased from 2.4 kg (5.3 lbs) during 1984–86 to 2.2 kg (4.9 lbs) a year per adult in 1995. In 1993, the major causes of death per 100,000 people were: heart and circulatory disease (399.2), cancer (211.5), and ischemic heart disease (218.7). Heart disease rates were higher than average for highly industrialized countries. Between 1990–93, the likelihood of dying after age 65 of heart disease was 349 (for men) and 324 (for women) per 1,000 people.

In 1994 children up to one year old were immunized as follows: diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus, 65%; polio, 63%; and measles, 78%.

As of 1999, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS was estimated at 2,200 and deaths from AIDS that year were estimated at fewer than 100. HIV prevalence was 0.1 per 100 adults.

The aim of public housing policy is to ensure, so far as possible, that every family can obtain decent housing at a price or rent it can afford. Government subsidies are given to encourage home ownership, and local authorities provide housing for those unable to house themselves adequately. Housing legislation has encouraged private construction through grants and loans. Projected and existing housing needs are assessed regularly by local authorities, and their reports are the basis for local building programs, which are integrated with national programs and reconciled with available public resources.

In 2002, 51,932 new private dwellings and 5,763 social housing buildings were built.

The Department of Education administers primary and post-primary education. Six years of primary education are free and education is compulsory for nine years. Post-primary education is free in over 90% of voluntary secondary day schools and in all vocational, comprehensive, and community schools. All secondary schools are private, and many are operated by religious orders. Most post-primary education is single-sex. The Department of Education makes grants and allowances to secondary and vocational schools, as well as to colleges, for training teachers of all religious denominations. It also pays the salaries of primary, secondary, comprehensive, and community-school teachers.

In the secondary schools, the Department of Education allocates grants on the basis of pupil enrollment that serve to pay more than 90% of all teachers' salaries. Approximately 90% of the cost of maintaining vocational schools is paid from state funds; the rest is paid by local authorities.

Ireland has two universities: the University of Dublin (Trinity College) and the National University of Ireland, which consists of three constituent colleges in Dublin, Galway, and Cork. St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, is a recognized college of the National University. Universities are self-governing, but each receives an annual state grant, as well as supplementary grants for capital outlays. There are also various colleges of education, home economics, technology, and the arts.

In 1997, there were 358,830 pupils in primary schools, with 16,202 teachers. The Student-to-teacher ratio stood at 22 to 1. At the secondary level in the same year, 389,353 students were taught by 27,273 teachers. Also in 1997, there were 8,979 teachers and 134,566 students enrolled in higher-level institutions. As of 1999, 90% of primary-school-age children were enrolled in school, while 99.8% of those eligible attended secondary school. Approximately 13.5% of government expenditure was allocated to education in the latter half of the 1990s. As of 1999, public expenditure on education was estimated at 4.5% of GDP.