Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador

Instituto Pedagógico de Caracas

Departamento de Idiomas Modernos

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (EIRE)

Geographical Location

- Capital city: Dublin

- Official languages: Irish and English

- Religion: Roman Catholicism

- Land Extention: 70, 273 sq km

- Population: 4,832,765 (2014)

- Highest Point: Carrantuohill peak 1,041 m

- Lowest Point: Atlantic Ocean 0m

- Most important River: Shannon

- Resources: Limestone, dolomite, barite,

natural gas, petroleum, silver, peat, copper, lead,

blueberries and gypsum.

- Currency: Euro (€)

Basic Information

Geographical division

- Dublin- Wexford- Cork- Limerick

Landscapes

Bonney Valley

Cliffs of Mother

Carrauntoohil peak

- GDP (Official Exchange rate): $220.9 billion (2013 )

- GDP Composition: agriculture: 1.6%, industry: 28%, services: 70.4%

(2013)

- Agriculture – Main products: Barley, potatoes, wheat; beef, dairy products.

- Industrial products: Pharmaceuticals, chemicals, computer hardware and

software, food products, beverages.

- Unemployment rate: 13.5% (2013)

- Population below poverty line: 5.5% (2009)

- Inflation rate: 0.6% (2013 )

- National debt: $2.164 trillion (2012)

Economic Indicators

Dates to remember - 700 BC Celts arrived in Ireland, they built numerous stone forts, divided Ireland into many kingdoms called tuathas and Irish society was divided into 3 classes: Kings and Aristocrats at the top, freemen and farmers below them and slaves at the bottom.

- 432 AD St. Patrick arrived Ireland and organizes the church in Ireland along Roman rules and Bishops as leaders which further changed to monasteries.

- 795 Vikings invaded the island and gave Ireland its name; Éire, and founded the main shires; Wexford, Limerick, Dublin and Cork.

- 1541 Henry II proclaimed king of all Ireland by the Treaty of Windsor after a series of invasions and battles by Norman and Englishmen.

- 1264 The first Irish Parliament was established but represented by the Anglo-Irish ruling class only

- In 1558 plantations in Ireland started under the reign of Elizabeth I and much of the lands in Munster were confiscated and given to English settlers.

- In 1592 Elizabeth founded the first university in Ireland; Trinity College, Dublin.

- In 1649 Oliver Cromwell imposed Protestantism on Ireland and land belonging to Catholics was confiscated and given to English colonists.

- In 1798 the Irish Rebellion known as clashes between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland that ended after thousands of deaths over the course of three months.

- Potato Famine 1845 – 1852, the greatest famine registered in Ireland.

- In 1920 Michael Collins masterminds the War of Independence between Britain and Ireland.

- In 1948 Ireland is declared a Republic by Costello and its named changes from Irish Free State to Éire or Republic of Ireland.

Irish culture

Leprechaun

Literature

- Gabriel Rosenstock

- Michael Harnett (poet)

- Áine Ní Ghlinn (novelist)

-Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill (professor)

- Jonathan Swift (the great Anglo-Irish satirist) “Gulliver’s travels.

- William Butler Yeats (Nobel Prize for literature 1923)

- Seamus Heaney (Nobel Prize for Literature1995)

- James Joyce

- C.S Lewis

Literature