• The Famous Newgrange Passage Tombnewgrange walll and standing stone image by Joe Houghton from Fotolia.com
  
  Legally recognized by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, National Monuments are designated sites in the Republic of Ireland that are recognized for national importance. National Monuments are preserved by funds from the state, managed under the auspices of the National Monuments Service, and comprise nearly 1,000 monuments in total. Included here are three of Ireland's most famous monuments.
  
  

Blarney Castle

• Made popular by the mythic Blarney Stone suspended from the castle's battlements, Blarney Castle was a medieval stronghold outside the city of Cork on the River Martin. Originally built as a wooden fortification, the structure was upgraded to a stone fortress in 1446 by then-King Cormac MacCarthy of Munster. The myth of the Blarney Stone, believed to be the Lia Fail--a magical stone whereupon the Irish Kings were crowned--has increased the castle's renown to the point that it is now a famous tourist attraction receiving an average of 500 visitors a day. Visitors wishing to kiss the stone, and therefore take on the "gift of the gab"--a sort of magical eloquence enhancer--must hang upside-down over a sheer drop in the battlements while holding on to iron bars. The increase of tourist visits has enabled the castle to hire a staff, whose chief job is to hold visitor's legs while they kiss the stone.
  
  

The Daniel O'Connell Monument

• Easily the most visible monument in Dublin, the famous Daniel O'Connell Monument commemorates the revolutionary politician and activist who successfully campaigned to repeal anti-Catholic legislation imposed by the British Government. The monument, standing very tall at the top of O'Connell Street (formerly Sackville Street), where the street meets the Liffey River, can be seen from much of central Dublin. Known as "the liberator," O'Connell is commemorated with a large life-like statue at the top of a large column flanked by four angels, each representing one of the traditional provinces of Ireland: Ulster, Munster, Leister and Connaught.
  
  

Newgrange and Brú na Bóinne

• Easily the oldest of these three monuments, the famous Newgrange passage tomb dates back 5,000 years to the Neolithic period--effectively dating it 500 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza and 1,000 years older than Stonehenge. Constructed in County Meath in the Boinne River Valley, Newgrange was built at the base of a large barrow or hill, with one entrance dug into the center of the structure. Famous for its astrological alignment as much as for its age, Newgrange was constructed in such a way that a narrow beam of sunlight enters it on the dawn of the shortest day of the year--the winter solstice--illuminating the floor of the central chamber at the end of the long passageway. While the original use of the site remains a mystery, the evidence of the surrounding fire pits, passage cairns, and the nearby passage tombs of Knowth and Howth, suggest that its original uses were purely ceremonial.