Districts of Northern Ireland

Antrim Armagh Down Fermanagh

Londonderry Tyrone

The Irish People as They Are

Ever since the first English soldiers set foot on Irish soil eight centuries ago, there has been much misery and bloodshed.

Ireland was the first English colony. The problem of Ireland is essentially colonial, not religious as some people see it. It was Ulster Loyalists (Protestants loyal to the British Crown) who forced the British Government to partition Ireland. After a fierce and brutal war the Irish were given their independence. In 1922 the Catholic South became an independent Republic. But the Protestant North remained part of the United Kingdom. In Northern Ireland it was quite impossible to separate completely Catholics from Protestants. Whole communities were left behind like islands in the Protestant sea. They became minority, a large minority. Only a third of Northern Ireland is Catholic. Ever since partition, Protestants who were strongly attached to England and Scotland, have been getting the best jobs and the best houses. Since partition Catholics have been demanding their civil rights (equally with Protestant in all branches of society).

Terrorism began on a large scale in 1970. Interment, which was introduced in August 1971 made the situation even worse. Many Irish were arrested and detained in concentration camps without any trial as long as the Government thought fit. Interment brought out the Civil Rights marches again. On January 28, 1972, now called Bloody Sunday, paratroopers, send to stop a peaceful Civil Rights march, fired on demonstrators in the Catholic districts of Londonderry. They killed 13 innocent people.

Until 1972 Northern Ireland had a parliament of its own called “Stormont”, apart from the twelve representatives Northern Ireland sends to the Parliament in Westminster, Stormont had the right to deal with all home affairs without interference from Westminster. But ever since it was founded in 1922 it had been controlled by one party, the Ulster Unionists, who are all Protestants. In 1972 the British Government decided to take over full control of Northern Ireland themselves and suspended Stormont. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Northern Ireland resigned.

Of all anti-Unionist organizations the IRA (Irish Republican Army) is the most extreme. The IRA’s object is the unification of Ireland - not a union under the present Catholic government of the Irish Republic, but a union planned and run by the political organization of the IRA itself.

WALES

Wales is the small country, bounded on the north and west by the Irish Sea, and on the south by a Bristol Channel. Its total area is 8,006 square miles and its total population is 2.8 million people. Wales is divided into thirteen counties, but 70 per cent of the population resides in the three industrial counties of the South - Glamorgan, Monmouth and Carmarthen. Wales became part of England in 1536 by the Act of Union. Until then it had been regarded as a separate principality but a dependency of England. The Welsh call their country Cymru, and themselves they call Cymry, a word which has the same root as ‘comrader’(friend or comrade).

The Welsh are very proud of their language and culture, which are best preserved in the north and west of the country, for in the south and east they have been more challenged by industrialization. The west coast, mid Wales and North Wales are wild and beautiful!

Although Welsh folklore abounds in stories of heroes who leap on to bubbles without breaking them, of missionary saints who sail the seas on leaves. These legends are the product of a land whose remote mountains, lakes, windswept cliffs and languid sands still have the power to unfetter the imagination.

The Welsh Massif is mainly plateau country with much moorland, well known for its cool and rainy climate. Settlements and farmlands are largely concentrated in the valleys and along the coast. The Snowdon Massif is the highest part of Wales and is situated in the north-west of the country. The highest mountain of both England and Wales is Snowdon itself which is 3,561 feet high. It is impossible to describe the magnificence of the view on a clear day. There are many lakes in the Snowdon country. To the north-west of this area is the isle of Anglesey which is a remnant of a very ancient land mass. The first station in Anglesey after crossing the bridge, which is a technical masterpiece, designed by Stephenson and finished in 1850, is famous as having the longest name of any place in the world: LLANFAIRPWILLGWINGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH. The local people are proud of this extraordinary name, and can even repeat it to you from memory, but the railway and ordinance survey authorities firmly refuse to recognize more than the first two syllables, and so it is officially known as Lanfair P.G.

The valleys are quite different from the uplands. The climate is milder as they are sheltered from high winds. South Wales is the region of contrasts. The industrial cities of Swansea, Cardiff and Newport are only a short journey away from sandy beaches and busy holiday resorts.

The capital of Wales is Cardiff.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 1010