How many {operating area} are to/by {Ireland} ?
Around Ireland, how many countries are there?
How many countries are around Ireland?
SELECT ( COUNT ( ?a ) AS ?r ) { ?a property:operating_area resource:Ireland }
SELECT (COUNT(?sub) AS ?subs ) {
?statement <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#subject> ?sub .
?statement <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#predicate> <http://www.wikidata.org/entity/P2541> .
?statement <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#object> http://wikidata.dbpedia.org/resource/Q27 .
} 

SELECT (COUNT(?sub) AS ?value ) { ?sub wdt:P2541 wd:Q27 }
18