Museums, libraries, and galleries

The Natural History Museum in London

17 of the 25 United Kingdom UNESCO World Heritage Sites fall within England.[274] Some of the best known of these include; Hadrian's Wall, Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites, Tower of London, Jurassic Coast, Saltaire, Ironbridge Gorge, Studley Royal Park and various others.

There are many museums in England, but the most notable is London's British Museum. Its collection of more than seven million objects is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world,

The British Library in London is the national library and is one of the world's largest research libraries, holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats; including around 25 million books.

The most senior art gallery is the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, which houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900.

The Tate galleries house the national collections of British and international modern art; they also host the famously controversial Turner Prize.

SYMBOL

The St George's Cross has been the national flag of England since the 13th century.

^{Northern Ireland}

Ireland was partitioned between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland in 1921 under the terms of Lloyd George's Government of Ireland Act 1920 during the war of independence between Ireland and British forces. At the conclusion of that war on 6 December 1922, under the terms of the resulting treaty, Northern Ireland provisionally became an autonomous part of the newly independent Irish Free State, with the right to opt out of it.

Governance

The Northern Ireland Office represents the UK government in Northern Ireland on reserved matters and represents Northern Ireland's interests within the UK Government. Additionally, the Government of Ireland also has the right to "put forward views and proposals" on non-devolved matters in relation to Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Office is led by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, who sits in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland is a distinct legal jurisdiction, separate from the two other jurisdictions in the United Kingdom (England and Wales and Scotland). Northern Ireland law developed from Irish law that existed before the partition of Ireland in 1921

Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Belfast, seat of the assembly.

Counties

Main article: Counties of Northern Ireland

Mussenden Temple, County Londonderry

Northern Ireland consists of six historic counties: County Antrim, County Armagh, County Down, County Fermanagh, County Londonderry,County Tyrone

The population in 2011 was 1.811 million,

Languages

Culture

The Twelfth is a bank holiday and a public holiday involving Orange Order parades

Attractions include cultural festivals, musical and artistic traditions, countryside and geographical sites of interest, public houses, welcoming hospitality and sports (especially golf and fishing). Since 1987 public houses have been allowed to open on Sundays, despite some opposition.

Education

Queen's University Belfast

Unlike most areas of the United Kingdom, in the last year of primary school many children sit entrance examinations for grammar schools.

Integrated schools, which attempt to ensure a balance in enrolment between pupils of Protestant, Roman Catholic and other faiths (or none) are becoming increasingly popular, although Northern Ireland still has a primarily de facto religiously segregated education system. In the primary school sector, forty schools (8.9% of the total number) are Integrated Schools and thirty two (7.2% of the total number) are Gaelscoileanna.

The two main universities in Northern Ireland are The Queen's University of Belfast, and the University of Ulster

Media and peppers

Has a division called BBC Northern Ireland with headquarters in Belfast. As well as broadcasting standard UK-wide programmes, BBC NI produces local content, including a news break-out called BBC Newsline.

The Belfast Telegraph is the leading newspaper, and UK and Irish national newspapers are also available. There is a range of local newspapers such as the News Letter and the Irish News.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 934