SUMARY CHAPTER 6, Ireland

Food:

The national dish is Irish stew that is made from lamb, potatoes, onions, carrots and parsley. Irish people drink more tea than English people.

Sport:

The national sport of Ireland is Gaelic football. It’s different from normal football because in that football you can throw the ball by hand, there are 15 players in each team. Another Irish sport is hurling, in this sport you hit the ball with a stick. In Ireland are horse racing, rugby, golf and football (normal).

Music and Dance:

Irish dancing is also popular and the show Riverdance was an international success. There are also many Irish rock and pop stars (U2, Boyzone, Westlife…).

The best-known traditional Irish song is “Danny Boy”, the music of this song is Irish but the words were written by a Englishman.

The Economy:

Ireland has been a poor country with many problems but from 1995 to 2007 there was an economic boom there. This means that the Irish economy grew fast. People called Ireland the “Celtic Tiger” at this time. Unfortunately the Irish economy got worse after 2008.

Ionic places:

Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland. It is a beautiful city with Georgian buildings, a castle, art galleries and a famous theatre, the Abbey Theatre.

Inside the Post Office you can see the bullet holes in the stone when some of the Republicans organized a revolution.

Trinity Collage is the most important Irish University; in the book of Kells you can read parts of the Bible.

Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland. For many years it was divided between the Catholics and the Protestants.

The Giant’s Causeway is on the east coast of Northern Ireland. There is a legend, which says that an Irish giant made this type of bridge by throwing rocks in the sea so that he could cross to Scotland to fight a Scottish giant.

The Blarney Stone is a bluestone, which is an ancient, piece from Corks a city near Blarney castle.

The west coast of Ireland on the Atlantic Ocean is famous for its great beauty. The Lakes of Killarney is in a ring of mountains.

In many places there are very tall round towers. The most famous are Rock of Cashel and the Glendalough.

Ionic people:

There are many famous Irish writers and artists, for example G.B Shaw, W.B Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde and Seamus Heaney.

Another ionic people were Bob Geldof who was the leader of an Irish punk band and the Boomtown Rats. He formed Band Aid to raise money for Ethiopia in 1984 and organized Live Aid, a rock concert, in 1985.

The first woman president of Ireland between 1990 and 1997, and was later the United Nations High Commissioner was Mary Robinson.

Saint Patrick:

Saint Patrick wasn’t Irish but Irish pirates caught him. He was a slave in Ireland, je escaped but returned to Ireland and he converted the Irish people to Christianity.

The Irish celebrate St Patrick’s Day on 17^th March with special parades.

Stories from the past:

There are lots of stories in Ireland about leprechauns. Leprechauns are little old men who wear green or red jackets, carry a stick and wear a tall hat. If you catch a leprechaun, maybe you will find his pot of gold and he might give you three wishes.

Many Irish people don’t like this image of leprechauns, which they think is something just to please the tourists.

Actually there are lots of legends, one of these is about “Deirdre of the Sorrows”.

Ireland has not had an easy history. It’s divided into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, there has been a difficult division between Roman Catholics and Protestants. 

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Leprechaunds