Today is Switzerland's national day, a fact not many people know (except the Swiss). But Foreign Affairs Correspondent Deaglán de Bréadún can list more about the mountainous country than the fame of its cheese and chocolate

1. Forty-eight mountains in Switzerland are over 4,000 metres high.

2. The Swiss flag is a white cross on a red background, the reverse to the Red Cross emblem.

(But you all knew that already.)

3. New Hampshire is known as "The Switzerland of America" for its natural beauty.

4. Switzerland decided on March 3rd to join the United Nations, with 54.6 per cent of the popular vote and a majority of the regional cantons voting in favour.

This leaves the Vatican as the only internationally-recognised state which is not a UN member.

5. The theme of the celebrated Lucerne Music Festival (August 14th to September 15th) for the next three years is seduction.

Aspects covered include the stilling of passion, man's fascination with the mysterious and strange, the seductive appeal of opposition and resistance . . . that's enough in a family newspaper.

6. Despite being landlocked, Switzerland has its own merchant marine, with a fleet of 20 ships.

So no more jokes about the Swiss navy, please.

7. Swiss women did not have the right to vote or hold public office until 1971.

8. James Joyce is buried in Zurich with his wife, Nora, son Giorgio, and beside the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Elias Canetti.

The interior of the bar in the old Jury's Hotel on Dublin's Dame Street (not to be confused with the new Jury's on Pembroke Road) was transported to Zurich in the 1970s and reopened as the James Joyce Pub.

9. Switzerland has 67 airports.

10. Sky Television's exclusive rights to live broadcasting of Republic of Ireland home soccer games begins with the European Championship qualifier against Switzerland in October.

Eight years ago, FIFA granted special permission for Swiss fans to jangle cowbells at World Cup matches in the US.

11. Switzerland has four main languages. They are German, spoken by 63.7 per cent of the population; French (19.2 per cent); Italian (7.6 per cent); Romansch (0.6 per cent).

12.The estimated total population in July 2001 was 7,283,274.

13. Most famous movie quotation about Switzerland?

"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance.

"In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had 500 years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." - Orson Welles, The Third Man (1949).

14. Scott Fitzgerald's opinion? "Switzerland is a country where very few things begin, but many things end."

15. Ireland's Ambassador to Switzerland is Mr John Lawton; the Swiss ambassador to Ireland is Mr Eric Pfister.

16. The new national airline of Switzerland is called simply Swiss, successor to the defunct Swissair.

17. According to the latest figures available, 47.3 per cent of Swiss citizens are Protestants; 43.3 per cent Roman Catholic.

18. Swiss neutrality has never been violated since the country's borders were fixed by treaty in 1815.

19. The Swiss president's term of office is one year.

20. The Swiss Banking Law of 1934 made it a penal offence for a bank to provide information about clients without their explicit permission or a court order.

When foreign authorities wish to investigate Swiss accounts, criminal charges must have been made in a foreign court and been accepted as valid by Switzerland.

21. There are 680 yodelling clubs in Switzerland.

Defined as "to sing so that the voice fluctuates rapidly between the normal chest voice and a falsetto", the term derives from a German word meaning "exclamation of delight".

22. Switzerland is considering legalising cannabis for personal use.

23. Wine growers from the Swiss village of Champagne have launched a bid in the European Court of Justice to continue to be able to call their wine "champagne". Up till now the name has been jealously guarded by the snooty French.