Though Ireland is a small country, it has made great contributions to the world of literature. The most famous works outside the country are written in English. A significant body of literature is written in Irish Gaelic, both ancient and recent, as well as an oral tradition of poetry and legends. The earliest Irish vernacular poetry dates from the 6th Century AD, among the oldest in Europe. Ireland is also home to four popular winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature: George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, William Butler Yeats and Seamus Heaney.

The Visual Arts in Ireland is said to have started with early carvings discovered in the Newgrange passage tomb, the gold objects of the Bronze Age, and the illuminated manuscripts and religious carvings of the medieval period. The 19th and 20th Centuries gave rise to a native tradition of painting by such artists as John Butler Yeats, Jack Yeats, Louis le Brocquy and William Orpen.

Ireland has a world-renowned ancient tradition of folk music and dance. In the mid-20th Century, as Irish society was making efforts to modernise in urban areas, traditional Irish music was not favoured. The rising interest of young people to Jazz and Rock music in the UK and the U.S. brought these trends to Ireland as well. A revival of interest in Irish music tradition was inspired by the American folk music movement of the 1960s, popularised by such groups and individuals as The Dubliners, Sweeney’s Men, the Clancy Brothers and Sean O’Riada. A unique new sound was formed by incorporating elements of traditional Irish music into rock idioms by musicians and groups as Van Morrison, Horslips and Thin Lizzy. However, the distinction between Rock and traditional music became blurred in the 1970s and 80s, and seen even later with such Pop bands as The Corrs, The Cranberries and U2.