V. Do you remember?

1. The patron saint of Wales.

2. Why is Caernarfon the most famous castle in Wales?

3. What legend is very famous in north Wales?

Northern Ireland - the Land of the Giant's Causeway

Historically all Ireland consists of 4 provinces, of which Ulster is the northern province. Since 1921 (see Unit 8) 6 counties of Ulster remained part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Today Northern Ireland includes the following counties: Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone, Fer­managh and Londonderry. Belfast is the capital city. Until recently Northern Ireland had its own parliament at Stormont in Belfast which was responsible for the province's internal (not foreign) affairs.

A s we remember from the previous unit about the British, the political division of Ireland was to a great degree the result of religious differences, for while the Irish Repub­lic is almost entirely Catholic, over sixty per cent of the population of Northern Ireland is Protestant, as a result of the arrival of Protestant settlers from England and Scotland in the 17th century. However, to many visitors the only visible difference is that in the Irish Republic the post-boxes, telephone kiosks and buses are green in contrast to the familiar British red of the North and that in the North, English is the only language used while in the South, Irish is used, and Irish signs are seen. The police are known as "gardai" and telephone is spelt "telefon". Actually there are many more serious divisions between the North and the South. Scattered around the countryside are the ruins of castles and monasteries, symbols of those two oppos­ing forces in the country's past, war and religion. In the towns, especially in Belfast, you can see the tragic results of the conflict of the past 30 years.

Northern Ireland is making great efforts to attract more industry and tourism. It has a lot to offer. The countryside is beautiful and, by English standards, underpopulated. Belfast is a first-class port, and frequent air services put it only an hour's flight away from London. Away from the busy centre of Belfast the roads are quiet and driving is enjoyable. South of the border there is more beautiful country to enjoy and all within a day's car ride. Belfast, the capital of North­ern Ireland with a population of nearly half a million, has considerable industries, but in the 17th century it was only a village. Then, during the 19th century, the development of industries like linen, rope-making, engineering, tobacco and the sea-trade made it a big city. The city is well-known for shipbuilding — it was here that the famous ship "Titanic": was built.

Belfast has a great artificial harbour for its sea-trade and about 10 kilometres of quays. The pride of Belfast is its City Hall, built at the beginning of the present century. The great dome rises high over the city centre and Donegall Square. Belfast has been a university city since 1905, when the former Queen's College received the status of a university. The impressive buildings of the University are connected with the Botanical Gardens in which are situated the Museum and the Art Gallery.

At Stormont about 8 kilometres to the south-east of the city stands Parliarnant House, a fine modern building which was opened in 1932. Some of the Belfast streets have often been the scenes of the violence — street-names such as the Falls Road and Shankill Road are well known not only throughout Britain because they have been heard so often on the news — but people still live in Belfast and there are new hopes that the conflict will eventually be solved. Belfast is now, of course, the principal port of Northern Ireland, but many years ago the chief port was the harbour of Carrickfergus, some 16 kilometres away on Belfast Lough. "Carrick" means the rock — the rock on which stands the great Norman Castle. The Castle dates from the end of the 12th century and has been well restored. Its main tower reminds you of the White Tower of the Tower of London, and, like the latter, has ah interesting collection of armour.

Antrim is famous for its coast road, a route of about 130 kilometres of coastal beauty. The hills are mainly composed of basalt and through them narrow glens or valleys reach down to the sea. There are nine of them, each having a character of its own. Together, they form a lovely and romantic area of rivers, waterfalls, wild flowers and birds. The people of this area are great story­tellers. They will tell you tales about fairies who become very angry if anybody cuts down a fairy thorn tree. Today many farmers in Ireland will never cut down a thorn tree, even if it is in the middle of their field!

The Glens of Antrim were very hard for travellers to reach until the building of the Antrim Coast Road in 1834. For many kilometres this follows the Causeway Coast, named after its most famous place of interest, the Giant's Causeway. Story­telling has always been a part of the Irish way of life. These stories of gods and people who lived in a land of adventure, war and romance are quite often told in the evenings by the fireside. Monks living in monasteries preserved many of these stories in beautifully-decorated manuscripts of which the Book of Leinster is very well known. However, the oral tradition or telling the stories by mouth from generation to generation was very popular. Due to these story-tellers the stories came down to us today. Unfortunately, the traditions are dying away, and it is hard to find such a story­teller. Some knew hundreds of stories.

The most famous spot on the Antrim Coast is the Giant's Causeway which 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. There are more than 40,000 columns of basalt, most of them six-sided. The tallest columns are about 13 metres high. This strange formation is a result of volcanic action. There are such formations on the other side of the sea in Scotland, in Fingal's Cave, in Staffa, and this fact gave rise to many legends that a giant built the causeway of stepping-stones between the two countries.

According to one story the causeway was the work of the giant Finn McCool. Finn was extremely strong. Once, 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 lake known as Lough Neagh.

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

Armagh is known as the orchard of Ulster, but other crops are grown, especially flax. This small county is beautiful in spring when the apple trees are blossoming. The eastern part of county Tyrone runs through Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the British Isles, which is also noted for excellent fishing. Agriculture is the main occupation of this hilly county. Like Tyrone, Fermanagh is thinly populated. In the county is the valley of the Erne river with its many charming lakes, where fishermen can go all day without meeting anybody.

Londonderry, always called "Derry" by Irishmen, is the second largest town in Northern Ireland and the only other port besides Belfast. Its history goes back to the 6th century, at the time when St. Columba founded a monastery here. But the town was largely built by settlers from England in the 17th century. The mighty wall and the four gates were built then. The wall is about 1.5 km around and 6.5 m thick, and it is still unbroken — the only complete city wall in Britain or Ireland. The wall withstood several sieges of which most famous was the siege of 1688-89. The city was surrounded by James II's army in December and the siege lasted 105 days till July. Though 7,000 people out of a population of 30,000 died of hunger the town was not taken. The historical event is remembered every year when the ceremony of closing the gates of the city takes place.

Near the city of Deny a family called Knox still lives in a house called Prehen House where a tragedy took place in 1760.

A man called John Macnaghten tried to kidnap Mary Knox, but she resisted, and during the fight he shot her by mistake. He was sentenced to death by hanging, but during the execution the rope broke. The crowd of people shouted that Macnaghten should be saved, because you couldn't hang a man twice. However the prisoner did not agree. He said that he did not want to be called "half-hanged Macnaghten". So he put a new rope around his neck and hanged himself.

Some say that a popular game in Britain, called Hangman, is connected with this tragedy. The game can be played in pairs. One person thinks of a word and writes down the same number of lines as there are letters in the word. For example, if the word thought of is "Material" (8 letters) you are to write 8 lines: - - - - - - - - . The other player then tries to guess the correct word. Every time a correct letter is given, it is written in the right place. Every time a wrong letter is said a line is drawn to make up a picture of a man who is to be hanged. The drawing is made up of 13 lines, so the player is allowed 12 wrong guesses before the 13th one hangs him.

If this story is true it shows that games can be connected with tragedies.

In any case the game helps you learn the correct spelling of words.

Comprehension Check