Fact Or Fiction?

I've been doing some thinking lately and it brought about a question: When you are a fiction writer, how literal do you take the facts?

When I sat down to write my first MS, I researched every aspect (which I'm sure most writers do, and if you don't, you should). I have Irish characters in my story, and they use Irish Gaelic words here and there. So, my first stop was to translate some words I wanted to use. I decided to find a good site, with Irish people, who would have first hand knowledge. After looking around, I found an amazing site with wonderful people who entertained my questions that ended up going way past translations.

My first question brought on many more. And each time,  I gained more knowledge about what really happens in Ireland vs what Google/Bing/etc said happens in Ireland. The people who responded to my inquires where so helpful, even when I asked a question they had no answer for. There were times that something I wanted to know was too far fetched, and in those instances-they flat out told me. The best answer I got was when I asked about checking into a hotel at a certain time-what would a room service order be?