The Emerald Isle

The shamrock

The Celtic Harp

Music…fiddle, drums, accordion…

Free space for your pictures…

IRELAND TODAY

POPULATION: about 4.3 ml

(1.7 ml in Dublin)

LANGUAGE: English and Irish Gaelic

LANDMARKSCeltic crosses,

monasteries and abbeys

SPORTS: cricket, golf, Gaelic

football, hurling, hockey, soccer

PATRON SAINT: St Patrick ( 17

th March)

IRELAND TODAY

RELIGION

•CATHOLIC (85%)

SYMBOLS

•Shamrock•Harp

MAJOR CITIES

•Dublin•Galway•Cork• Limerick• Belfast

IRELAND TODAY - GOVERNMENT

EIRE = REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Capital: DUBLIN President (7

years) : Michael D. Higgins (since 2011)

Parliament: Senate + House of Representatives = Dail

(elected by universal suffrage every 5 years)

NORTHERN IRELAND (UK)

Capital: BELFAST

IRELAND TODAY - ECONOMYAGRICULTURE:

cattle , dairy farming, fishing (smoked salmon, oysters, mussels, cod….), potatoes, racehorses

FOOD PROCESSING and drinks: soda bread, stews, Guinness beer, whiskey, artisan cheeses, fruit and potato cakes

MANUFACTURING: computer technology, metal, engineering , crystal, tweed

TOURISM

THE CELTIC TIGER

1995-2007: rapid economic growth

2009: end of economic boom

Collapse of banking system

Property bubble burst

Fewer US investments

THE IRISH QUESTION

5 th century

•St Patrick Monasteries: writing and learning•Eg Book of Kells

7 th –11 th century

•Irish Chieftains inland + Vikings controlled the ports - Dublin

12 th century

•Henry II Plantagenet: the first British colony•Christ Church + St Patrick’s cathedrals

THE IRISH QUESTION

16th-17th century

•The Tudors: “plantations”•Protestant settlers + persecution of rebels•Elisabeth I : Trinity Colllege

1650s •Oliver Cromwell: civil war

1690•Battle of the Boyne : victory of the “Orangemen” led by William of Orange•Persecution for Catholics

Ireland – XIX century

•PM William Pitt: 1/5 Irish Representatives in British Parliament

1801Act of Union

•The Great Famine :•1ml died + 2mls emigrated1845-46

•Charles Parnell: Irish MP who demande HOME RULE (Fenian ideal)1885

Irish Independence

•Easter rising: about 700 republican rebels too Dublin’s GPO and kept it for 4 days•IRA and Civil War

24 th April1916

•Sinn Fein was born 1905 and organised the IRA, using guerrilla methods to fight for Independence•Leader Michael Collins

1919•Anglo-Irish Treaty and creation of the Irish Free State, a dominion without Ulster (six counties).:President de Valera• 1932: Stormont Castle built to house the Northern Itreland Assembly

1921 PARTITION

THE IRISH QUESTION

1937 : EIRE left the Commonwealth

1949: Republic of Ireland

ULSTER AND “THE TROUBLES”

•Civil Rights Movement for Catholics1960s

•Pacific march demanding Civil Rights: 13 civilians shot dead by the “Black and Tan” (British police)

Bloody Sunday1972Londonderry

•Bobby Sands = martyr for freedom: died in prison during a hunger strike1981

Ireland : Towards Peace

•Reynolds- Major: Downing Street Declaration: right of self-determination for Northern ireland•Anglo-Irish Agreement: ceasefire

1993-94

•IRA attack in London•Protestant attack on Catholics: 3 dead children• Good Friday 1998: Cease fire

1996-98

•Trimble (Unionist)-Adams (Fenian): peace Agreement: local Governement with Catholic representatives + IRA give up all weapons.

December 1999

Ireland : Towards Peace

•Ian Paisley (Unionist): Prime Minister•Arthur McGinness (Nationalist) Deputy Prime Minister• = shared power

2007ELECTION

S

Some Famous Irish Writers(dealing with the Irish question)

Johnathan SwiftOscal WildeWilliam Butler YeatsJames JoyceSamuel BeckettFrank McCourtRoddy Doyle

Johnathan SWIFT (1667-1745), Protestant Dubliner

1729: A Modest Proposal (+ other pamplets) Criticism on the British who don’t do anything against Irish poverty + criticism on Irish passivity

Oscar WILDE (1854-1900), born in Dublin, lived in England and Paris

James JOYCE (1882-1941), left Dublin for a cosmopolitan, detached perspective

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS (1865-1939)

A) Anglo-Irish family => passion for the Irish countryside and folklore

- The Rose (1893): romantic, exotic, languid, symbolic

B) Love for Maud Gonne, a fervent patriot and actress => the artist has to encourage national consciuosness, themes, traditions

- 1899, Irish Theatrical Society , plays at the Abbey theatre

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS (1865-1939)

C) Gradual disillusionment as nationalism became mixed up with Catholic middle-class values

D) After 1916 => sympathy for “moderate” members of the new government;

became senator of the DIAL - Michael Robartes and the Dancer, 1921

IRISH SYMBOLISM: “Norman Tower” => historical cycles &

the past“Parnell” => past and present

possibilities

SEAMUS HEANEY (1939 -…)

County of Derry – Northern Ireland; eventually settled in Dublin

Graduated in English language and literature; taught in Dublin, Oxford and Harvard (USA)

1995: Nobel Prize for literature

Lived throught the conflicts of his time; got involved into the civil rights movement

POETRY: a mode of resistance and responsibility

SAMUEL BECKETT (1906-1985)

Family: protestant, Anglo-Irish, well-off

Education: modern languages and literatures at Trinity College, Dublin; worked as a secretary for Joyce; travelled to France

1946: Settled in Paris: taught English and wrote in French

1969: Nobel Prize for literature

Francis "Frank" McCourt Irish- American (1930 – 2009)

1996: Angela's Ashes memoir that consists of various anecdotes and stories of Frank McCourt's impoverished childhood and early adulthood in BROOKLYN, New York

and Limerick, Ireland, as well as McCourt's struggles with poverty, his father's drinking issues, and his mother's attempts of keeping the family alive.

1996 : it won the Pulitzer rize for Biography and Autobiography. A sequel to the book, 'Tis, was published in 1999, and was followed by Teacher Man in 2005

Roddy Doyle (Dublin 1958, )

Novelist, dramatist, screenwriter; several of his books have been made into successful films , e.g. The Commitments, 1991

1993: Booker Prize for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, a novel in which the world is described, understood and misunderstood by a ten-year-old Dubliner.

A Star Called Henry (1999) - The story of Henry Smart, an IRA assassin and 1916 Easter Rebellion fighter, from his birth in Dublin to his adulthood when he becomes a father.

Oh, Play That Thing! (2004) — Henry Smart's adventures in 1924 America, specifically the Lower East Side of New York City , where he catches the attention of local mobsters by hiring kids to carry his sandwich boards. He also goes to Chicago where he becomes a business partner with Louis Armstrong. The title is taken from a phrase that is shouted in one of Louis Armstrong's songs, "Dippermouth Blues".

The Dead Republic (2010) — Henry Smart's adventures with Hollywood film-making