Front: Lady Hazel Lavery (1887-1935), socialite and painter

Lady Hazel was born in the United States. She was the daughter of a Chicago industrialist of Irish extraction. A portrait of Lady Lavery, painted by her husband, Sir John Lavery, was reproduced on Irish banknotes from 1928 until the 1970s. This image of Lady Lavery was found as a watermark on Irish banknotes right up until the introduction of the Euro.

Back: Representation of river gods

Front: Queen Medb (first century B. C.), Warrior-Queen of Connacht

Medb is a mythological queen of Connacht. She had several husbands, all kings of Connacht while married to her. Medb's first husband was Conchobar mac Nessa of Ulster, but that marriage didn't last. She then murdered Conchobar's next wife, her own sister Eithne, while she was pregnant. Eithne's son, Furbaide, was born by posthumous caesarian section. Years later Furbaide sought revenge for the death of his mother Eithne. Medb often went to bathe in a pool on an island. Furbaide took a rope and measured the distance between the pool and the shore, and practiced with his sling until he could hit an apple on top of a stake Medb's height from that distance. The next time he saw Medb bathing he put his practice to good use and killed her with a piece of cheese.

Back: Old writing

Front: John Scotus Eriugena (810-877), medieval philosopher

Eriugena was born in Ireland. Years later he moved to France (around 845) and took over the Palatine Academy at the invitation of King Charles the Bald. The reputation of this school greatly increased under Eriugena's leadership, and he was treated with indulgence by the king.

He remained in France for at least thirty years. At the request of the Byzantine emperor Michael III (around 858), Eriugena translated the works of Pseudo-Dionysius into Latin. He was the first to introduce the ideas of Neoplatonism from the Greek into the Western European intellectual tradition, where they were to have a strong influence on Christian theology.

Back: Old writing

Front: Sister Catherine McAuley (1778-1841), Irish founder of the Sisters of Mercy

Catherine McAuley was born in Ireland. Her father was a prosperous Catholic gentleman. She learned from him great compassion for the poor. She inherited a considerable fortune at the age of 48. She used it to build a house where she and other compassionate women could take in homeless women and provide care and an education for them and their children.

Catherine's clerical mentor urged her to form a religious Institute. She and two other women entered the formation program of the Presentation Sisters to formally prepare for life as nuns. At the end of one year they professed vows and returned to the House of Mercy. The Sisters of Mercy consider December 12, 1831 the day of their founding as a religious community.

Back: School children

Ireland Republic, occupies five-sixth of the island of Ireland located in the Atlantic Ocean west of Great Britain, was an integral part of Great Britain from 1800 to 1921. Established as the Irish Free State dominion in 1921, and a republic in 1949. For a more detailed country profile, see CIA World Factbook on Ireland.

Beginning on January 1, 2002 Euro becomes the official currency for Ireland Republic.