The truth: castles, books, beer

Czechoslovakia has long been forgotten - at least in England. Recently, in a BBC quiz show, the candidate was asked what the country was called before it was divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. “Prussia,” she answered without hesitation and was eliminated in the first round.

The division of the country doesn't necessarily make things easier for English quiz takers. Once someone answered the question about the Czech capital with Grozny. Czechia, as the Czech Republic is called in English, sounds similar to Chechnya, and that is Chechnya.

In Ireland, however, you remember Czechoslovakia well if you are interested in football. Both countries met four times in World Cup qualifying, and Czechoslovakia won four times. In March, Ireland lost to the Czech Republic and missed another World Cup.

Apart from that, Ireland and the Czech Republic have a lot in common. Both countries are roughly the same size, both have thousands of castles, and both are nations of beer drinkers and book lovers: on average, each Czech citizen reads about 13 books a year, and each Irish citizen writes an average of 13 books a year. While the Czechs are bookworms, in Dublin, according to James Joyce, the rats swim in the Guinness barrels.

When it comes to beer, however, the Czech Republic is ahead: more beer is drunk per capita than in any other country in the world, and Pilsner was invented in Plzeň, my great-grandfather's hometown, in 1842. That's why I'm conflicted: On the one hand, I want to support the Pilsner-Urquell brewery because of my ancestors, but on the other hand, I can't neglect the Guinness brewery, which was founded in 1759 in Dublin, where I live. The solution: drink a lot, but always alternately.

The historical connections between Ireland and the Czech Republic are evident not only in beer, but also in the center of Prague: Hybernská Street is named after the Irish Franciscan monks who founded the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception there in the 17th century. Hibernia is the Latin name for Ireland. The monks grew potatoes in the monastery garden, the Irish favorite food, without which there is no complete meal. French fries are even served with pizza and lasagna in Ireland.

The thousand or so Irish people who live in the Czech Republic have to do without this. There are 26 kilos fewer potatoes per person per year than in Ireland. The approximately 5,000 Czechs who live in Ireland, on the other hand, can enjoy an imaginative by-product of the Irish national tuber: Poitín, a colorless potato schnapps. If they drink enough of it, the Czechs even forget their source.