about Ireland

About Ireland

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Geography: Ireland is situated in the Atlantic Ocean and separated from Great Britain by the Irish Sea. Half the size of Arkansas, it occupies the entire island except for the six counties that make up Northern Ireland. Ireland resembles a basin—a central plain rimmed with mountains, except in the Dublin region. The mountains are low, with the highest peak, Carrantuohill in County Kerry, rising to 3,415 ft (1,041 m). The principal river is the Shannon, which begins in the north-central area, flows south and southwest for about 240 mi (386 km), and empties into the Atlantic.

Government: Republic.

Information:

The capital city of Ireland is Dublin
The Irish (Gaelic) word for Ireland is Éire. The Irish (Gaelic) language evolved from Celtic immigrants around 600 BC.
The first to bring the English language to Ireland were the Normans. English was adopted as the main language from the latter years of the eighteenth century on.
In 432 AD St. Patrick arrived to help convert the pagan Gaelic Kings to Christianity. Saint Patrick's Day (March 17th) is the national holiday of Ireland.
King Henry VIII (of England) declared himself King of Ireland in 1541 AD. He was the first English monarch to do this.
The Irish Parliament was granted legislative independence from England in 1782 AD
Ireland gained its independence in 1922.
The Irish flag has three vertical stripes in green, white and orange. The green represents the older Gaelic people, the orange represents the Protestants (under William of Orange) and the white represents the peace between the two groups.
There are two countries on the island of Ireland:
(1) The Republic of Ireland with the green, orange, white flag and it uses the Euro as currency.
(2) Northern Ireland which flies the Union Jack or the UK flag. They use British Pounds as currency because they are part of the UK.

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