Question: Why do all waves go towards land because ireland is surrounded by water and if you go to the beach anywhere in ireland the waves are coming in at you?

Ollie Otter answered on 5 Mar 2020:

Waves are created by storms out at sea and will travel from where they were made until they reach a coast line and then will break. The way waves travel, kind of works like when you throw a pebble in a pond; the waves spread out in all directions until they reach the coast. So it’s not just Ireland that receives the waves, but also to our neighbouring countries and even America and Canada across the Atlantic Ocean. Weather systems are always moving around so that’s why it seems that there are always waves coming towards Ireland from the sea, no matter which beach you go to.
Waves need a bit of distance to travel first before they can grow in size, so the waves that hit the beach have always been travelling for a while from the sea towards the coast and that’s why it seems waves are always coming towards you when you are at the beach.
When the wind blows from the land there will just be small ripples in the water going away from the beach because they couldn’t travel far yet, big waves can never start at the beach and travel to the sea.
But if the wind is blowing from the beach in Ireland out to sea then the waves will start growing the further they get from the beach. They will travel across the ocean and in the US they will get big waves on their beach after a while.
So, the further waves can travel, the bigger and more powerful they get. That’s why the biggest waves are always on the west coast of Ireland and the Irish Sea usually only gets small waves.
Hope that makes sense!
Here’s a nice video that explains a bit more how waves work: