Sports
Hurling
Hurling is a traditional Irish field sport. It is played with a ball and each player has got a stick, or a hurley. The players are allowed to touch the ball with the hurley, their hands or their feet! It is known as the fastest of all team sports.
Gaelic football 
Gaelic football is a mixture of soccer and rugby. It is played in a field and the ball in use is a bit smaller than the ball in soccer. The ball can be carried (not more than four steps), kicked or "handpassed". To score you have to get the ball either over or under the crossbar by hand or foot. There are fifteen players on each team in gaelic football. 
Gaelic Celtic Culture
 The ways of the Gaelic Celt are not dead and gone. They still exist as living things in the remote areas of Gaelic lands as well as in the records of those who preserved them for all time in written form. Even  though some of these old traditions have been abandoned due to the busy society we live in, the Irish are very eager to preserve those legacies of their ancestors. "They are the only way back to completeness for us today", many Irish people  claim. For this reason those  of Gaelic Celtic descent preserve what is left, and revitalize what is still much useful.
Fairs, Festivals and Banquets
In ancient Ireland during the rule of the Clann (family group) these occasions were very important, and brought together all parts of society. Notice that participation in the festivals were compulsory. The Irish claimed that it was an insult not to enjoy life........ The guests were seated according to rank, and the champion's portion was awarded to the warrior who showed the greatest courage. To hold a good banquet was a matter of much prestige, and the participants song a lot, they retold legends and recited clan genealogies. When that much people were gathered, it was practical to sign settlements and judgments of legal cases, but it was regarded as very important that nobody lifted weapon or collected debt. This should be a time of joy. Since the Irish make much effort in preventing these traditions from ancient Ireland, we know that a lot of the customs are alive today. The Irish are very social people who like to spend time together in public. The pubs are numerous all over Ireland, as well as Scotland and England, and the Irish often go there for a quick lunch and a beer. Anyhow, it is obvious that the social aspect is the most important, and the Irish are well known for their sense of humor, their stories, songs and poetry.
The Irish atmosphere
"An Irish pub is not quite a bar and it’s not a restaurant. A pub is something in between,"  A true Irish pub is distinguished by its "craic," - an Irish term referring to positive interaction among people through conversation, stories and music. Rounding the corner, guests journey back to ancient Ireland, where they dine at a large Celtic feasting table with a chieftain’s chair and a dolmen, a stone edifice such as those that once stood over the tombs of kings. The journey ends at the country cottage pub, where whitewashed plaster walls, overhead wooden beams and a crackling fireplace create a warm "welcome home" atmosphere.
Literature
Ireland is famous for its writers. Four of them have been awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature. Yeats in 1923, Shaw in 1925, Beckett in 1969 and Heaney in 1995.
James Joyce is a well known writer. His most famous work is Ulysses.
Oscar Wilde
Island Ireland is a good site for resources on Irish Literature.
Music
Ireland is famous for its music, both popular and traditional. Other famous Irish pop musicians are U2, The Cranberries and Sinead O'Connor. One of the more famous popular groups nowadays is Boyzone. The Dubliners was a very popular group in the sixties and are still quite famous. This was one of the first bands which drew attention to Irish folk music with great success. Another artist who has had success with folk music is Enya. She is known for her Celtic songs and beautiful ballads.
Traditional music instruments
The Irish and Celtic music has many special instruments. Some of them are familiar to us, like the fiddle and the flute. Others are not that common outside Ireland. The bodhran is an ancient drum traditionally made with a wooden body and a goat-skin head and played with a double headed stick.
The Uillean pipe is "a cousin" of the Scottish bagpipe. The difference from the Scottish relative is that the air is pressed through the pipes with the elbow, not by blowing into a mouthpiece.