Ireland

Question 1

Basic Facts

Answer 1

• Capital city: Dublin
• Population: 4 857 000
• Official language: Irish, English
• Government: Unitary parliamentary republic
• National symbols: Irish wolfhound, Celtic cross, Saint Patrick´s Saltire, Tricolour

Question 2

Oceans and Rivers

Answer 2

• Atlantic Ocean, Irish Sea & Celtic Sea connected by St George’s Chanel
• Longest river: Shannon (another: Blackwater, Barrow)

Question 3

Hills and Mountains

Answer 3

• Centre: lowlands, West: hills, cliffs, islands, East: Wicklow Mountains, bays
• Highest peak: Carrauntoohil (MacGillycuddy´s Mountains in the South)

Question 4

History

Answer 4

6000 BC – First people came to Ireland from Europe

400 BC – Celtic tribes

795-1014 – Vikings Wars (Brian Boru defeated Vikings in Clontarf – now part of Dublin)

1541 – Henry VIII forced Irish Parliamentary to declare him as King of Ireland

1801 – Act of Union: Ireland (island) became part of the UK

1845-1849 – Great Potato Famine (1 milion die / 1,5 milion emigrated to USA)

3 May 1921 – Partition of Ireland (Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland)

June 1922 – May 1923 – Irish Civil War (IRA = Irish Republican Army)

2007 – 2008 - Financial crisis

Question 5

Government

Answer 5

Parliamentary system of government

• President – Michael D. Higgins
• Prime minister (head of government) – Leo Varadkar

Question 6

Places in Dublin

Answer 6

Trinity College, Dublin Castle, Phoenix Park + Dublin ZOO, St Patrick´s Cathedral

Question 7

National Park Killarney

Answer 7

The first national park in Ireland, huge population of birds and deer

Question 8

Samuel Beckett

Answer 8

(* 13 April 1906 † 22 December 1989)

• Avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, poet
• Nobel Prize in Literature
• Waiting for Godot, Endgame

Question 9

James Joyce

Answer 9

(* 2 February 1882 † 13 January 1941)

• Novelist, poet
• Best-known modernist avant-garde writer
• Ullysses, Dubliners, Finnegan´s Wake, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Question 10

Answer 10

Garnish Island, a popular tourist attraction in Ireland

Question 11

Answer 11

James Joyce

Question 12

Answer 12

Trinity College Library in Dublin

Answer 13

Carrauntoohil