A LAND OF ADVENTURE, WARFARE AND ROMANCE

Geographical regions and cities

Ireland is the second largest of the British Islands lying in the Atlantic off the west coast of Great Britain.

The island of Ireland is politically divided into two parts: Northern Ireland (Ulster), which forms part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, capital Belfast, and the Republic of Ireland – a separate state named Eire in Irish; its capital is Dublin.

The province of Northern Ireland consists of six counties: Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone, Fermanagh and Londonderry. The province is surrounded by sea to the north and east, by the Republican counties of Donegal to the west and Cavan to the south.

The population of Northern Ireland is 1.500 million people. Northern Ireland’s economy bases partly on agriculture, partly on the heavy industries and tourism.

Antrim

The Antrim coast is a remarkable stretch of country. Its geological composition goes back 300 million years. There are many delightful holiday resorts there. There are nine glens (valleys) of Antrim. Each of these green valleys has a character of its own. Together they form a lovely and romantic area of rivers, waterfalls, wild flowers and birds.

The people of the glens are great story-tellers. They will tell you that the places where the little people, or fairies, are said to go, are Lurigethan Mountain and Teveragh Hill. These little people are mischievous and take terrible revenge on anyone who cuts down a fairy thorn tree. Today many farmers throughout Ireland are so superstitious that they will not cut down a thorn tree, even if it is in the middle of their field!

Story-telling has always been a part of the Irish way of life – stories of gods and people who lived in a land of adventure, warfare and romance. Monks living in the late Middle Ages preserved many of these stories in the beautifully-decorated manuscripts. But it is a strong oral tradition of the Irish people which has made it possible for so many folk tales to survive. Over the centuries, story-telling was an important profession but nowadays such people would be hard to find. Perhaps the last story-teller was Peig Sayers who died in 1958. It was said that she had 375 stories to tell!

One of the most interesting places to see in the county of Antrim is the Giant’s Causeway that is considered to be the eighth wonder of the world. The Causeway is a mass of stone columns standing very near together. The tops of the columns form stepping stones leading from the cliff foot and disappearing under the sea. Over the whole Causeway there are 40 000 of these stone columns. The tallest are about 42 feet (13m) high.

Visitors in modern times have been told that the Causeway is a strange geological feature – the result of volcanic action. The ancient Irish knew differently, however. Clearly, this was giants work and, in particular, the work of the giant Finn McCool, the Ulster soldier and commander of the armies of the King of All Ireland.

Finn was extremely strong. On one occasion, during a fight with a Scottish giant, he picked up a huge piece of earth and threw it at him. The earth fell into the Irish Sea and became the Isle of Man. The hole it left filled with water and became the great inland sea of Lough Neagh.

People said that Finn lived on the North Antrim coast and that he fell in love with a lady giant. She lived on an island in the Scottish Hebrides, and so he began to build this wide causeway to bring her across to Ulster.

County Downis one of the best farming counties in Ireland. It is closely associated with St Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint, after whom the county town of Downpatrick is named.

Armaghis in the southern part of Northern Ireland. It was important long before Christianity as the home of Ulster kings for six centuries. The north of the county is a rich fruit-producing area.

Fermanaghis one of the historical counties of Northern Ireland. The rivers and lakes of Fermanagh are heavy with fish, and the largest lake in the area, Lough Erne, holds many world fishing records. Fermanagh is still wonderfully empty of crowds and the fishermen can go all day without meeting anything more than a raven or a swan.

People who don’t like fishing can hire a boat on Lough Erne and visit some of the islands in the lake. One of the most interesting islands is Devenish. In the Middle Ages there was a chain of island monasteries in Lough Erne. At Devenish there still stands a perfect 12^th century round tower, which the monks used for defence. The island also has a small church of about the same date and the remains of the 15^th century abbey.

Londonderry

Londonderry is county capital and a port. The county of Londonderry has fine beaches in the north and the Sperrin Mountains in the south. The city of Derrycomes from the Irish “doire”, a place of oaks. It has a long history going back fourteen hundred years. The city of London in England sent over builders and money to rebuilt Derry. As a result Derry was renamed Londonderry, but today both the long and the short names are used.

The best way to see the city of Derry is to walk along the famous city wall built in 1614. It is still unbroken – the only complete city wall in Britain or Ireland – in spite of the fact that it has stood against several sieges.

Belfast

Belfast is one of the youngest capital cities in the world and it has grown incredibly fast. Belfast is a modern city situated in a district of mountains and rivers, and a chief port of Northern Ireland. Today the city has a population of 400 000, nearly a third of the entire population of Northern Ireland, but in the 17^th century it was only a village. Then, during the 19^th century, the development of industries like linen, rope-making, engineering, tobacco and the sea-trade doubled the town’s size every ten years. The city is well-known for shipbuilding – it was here that the ‘Titanic’, was built and sent out on her fatal maiden voyage.

One of the first things that must strike the visitor to Belfast is that Belfast is beautifully situated. Lying in a broad natural amphitheatre, gracefully surrounded by hills, Belfast has rich variety and offers many pleasant surprises. The centre of the city is built like Amsterdam on piles driven into mud, a tight-packed area of industrial and commercial buildings. The mass of the city’s buildings are late Victorian or belong to the present century.

In spite of the years of trouble, there are many cultural and leisure facilities. The Albert Memorial Clockin High Street is one of those buildings which despite piling have shown signs of subsidence. Built nearly a hundred years ago, this Belfast landmark shows visible evidence of a desire to emulate the leaning tower of Pisa. The hands, by the way, move only each half-minute. The “Albert’s” great night is New Year’s Eve, when celebrating crowds gather around it.

An Art Gallery is particularly rich in modern Irish painting, a fine collection of Irish silverware, and exhibits which give a vivid picture of Ulster history, geology, and animal life. There is a specialist library which includes early Belfast-printed books, a fascinating collection of photographs which record Ulster life half a century ago, and the Horner collection of spinning wheels.

The Transport Museum, situated in Witham Street, is administered by the Belfast Corporation. It houses one of the finest collections of transport vehicles in Europe.

The Botanic Gardens were originally owned by a private society but have been the property of the public for about seventy years. Its main features are the conservatory, the tropical greenhouses, and the rose walks.

Behind the conservatory are grouped the main buildings of the Queen’s University of Belfast, so called because it was originally one of three colleges founded by Queen Victoria under an 1845 Act of Parliament.

Among the modern buildings in Belfast, the six-storey Telephone House in May Street and the six-storey Broadcasting House in Ormeau Avenue are perhaps the most pleasing. The use of silver-grey bricks on a granite base gives character to the functional exchange and a handsome curved front is a feature of the impressive BBC buildings. Not far away from the BBC is the headquarters of Ulster Television, the commercial television contractors.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 926