The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland
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Part One A Brief Introduction

• I. The Effects of its Imperial Role
• the fifty or more countries through a loose and
  voluntary organization called the Commonwealth of
  Nations

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• Multiracial population 1 in 20 are of
  non-European ethnicity ( India, Parkistan, the
  Caribbean)
• II. Differences that divide the United Kingdom

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• the distinction between the 4 constituent parts
  England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
• Religious differences
• Economically divided a society with a class
  structure

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• Regional differences the highland and
  lowland Scots cultural distinction between
  north and south England ( the south is more
  wealthy)
• The difference between the capital and the
  provinces ( the role of London)

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• III. The UK has been a member of the EU since
  1973, and it is a member of the Group of Seven
  (the United States, Britain, Germany, France,
  Japan, Italy and Canada)

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• IV. Basic facts about England
• 1. Cultural and economic dominance of England
  largest in size, the largest population

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• 2. British history has been a history of
  invasions
• 1) Before the 1st century AD British was made up
  of many tribal kingdoms of Celtic people

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• 2) In 43 AD British was invaded by the Roman
  Empire, and became part of the Roman Empire for
  nearly 400 years

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• 3) Then it came under threat from Germanic
  peoples --- the Angles, and the Saxon king
  Arthur and his Excalibur roundtable knights

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• 4) From the late 8th century on, raiders from
  Scandinavia, the ferocious Vikings threatened
  Britains shores King Alfred the great turned in
  the tide in the south against the Vikings

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• 5)The next invaders were the Normans, from
  northern France, who were descendants of
  VikingsWilliam the Conqueror in 1066 crossed the
  English Channel, and became William the First of
  england the Tower of London

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• 3. The next few hundred years following the
  Norman invasion can be seen as a process of
  joining together the various parts of the British
  Isles under English rule. At the same time power
  was gradually transferred from the monarch to the
  parliament.

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• 1) Charles the Firsts attempt to overrule
  parliament in the 1640s led to a civil war in
  which parliamentary forces were victorious, and
  the king was executed in 1649.

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• 2) England was ruled by parliaments leader,
  Oliver Cromwell for 11 years, and then the
  monarchy was restored.

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• 3) Further conflict between parliament and the
  king led to the removal of the Scottish house of
  Stuart from the throne, and William and Mary were
  imported from Holland to take the throne (1688,
  the Bloodless Revolution), thus finally
  establishing parliaments dominance over the
  throne.

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• 4. The British character a richly unconventional
  interior life hidden by an external conformity.
• V. Basic facts about Scotland

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• 1. Scotland is the most confident of its own
  identity because it has previously spent a
  substantial period of history as a unified state
  independent of the UK.

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• 2. The largest city is Glasgow, and its capital
  is Edinburgh. Both cities have ancient and
  internationally respected universities dating
  from the 15th century.

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• 3. Hadrians Wall a stone wall which the Roman
  emperor Hadrian ordered to be built acoss the
  north of England in 122 AD from the east coast to
  the west, in order to defend Roman Britain from
  attack by northern tribes such as Picts, the
  original Scottish celts.

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• 4.The Highlands and the Lowlands --- a cultural
  divide
• 1) The Highlands mountainous areas, esp. those
  in the north of Scotland people speak both
  English and Scottish Gaelic, the old celtic
  language.

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• 2) The Lowlands the central part of Scotland
  which is lower than the land surrounding it
• 5. The Battle of Bannockburn (1314) led to the
  independence of Scotland for 300 years.

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• 6. In 1707 Scotland joined the Union, which was
  followed by two rebellions in 1715 and 1745, and
  Scottish highland clan culture was effectively
  destroyed at this time.

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• VI. Basic facts about Wales
• The capital of Wales is Cardiff. 19 of the Welsh
  population speak Welsh, a Celtic tongue. They are
  also fluent in English.

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• Coal-mining and steel used to the key industries
  for Wales. South Wales has been very successful
  in attracting investment from abroad ---
  particularly Japan and the US.

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• In 1536, Wales was brought into the UK.
• VII. Basic facts about Northern Ireland

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• 1. Northern Ireland (often called Ulster after
  an ancient Irish kingdom) is small, but it is
  significant because of the political troubles
  there. Its capital is Belfast.

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• 2. Ireland has been divided by a long and bloody
  conflict as a result of its colonial history.
  Until 1921 the full name of the UK was The
  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

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• 3. One of the key issues in late 19th century
  British politics was a campaign in parliament for
  what was called home rule --- Irish political
  control of Irish affairs.

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• 4. The Easter Rising in 1916
• 5. The Provisional IRA( Irish Republican Army)
• 6. Sinn Fein(Ourselves Alone)

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• 7. Religious conflicts between the Irish and the
  British
• 1) The majority of Irish people were descendants
  of the original Celtic people.

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• 2) Most Irish people remained Catholics, while
  most British people had become Protestants.

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• 3) People from Scotland and Northern England, who
  were Protestants, were encouraged to emigrate to
  the troublesome north of Ireland in the 17th
  century, and they thought of themselves British
  and wished to remain a part of the British state.

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• 8. Partition of Ireland in 1921 The southern 26
  counties would form an independent free state,
  while the 6 north-eastern counties would remain a
  part of the UK. This ended 700 years of British
  rule in southern Ireland.

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• 9. Northern Ireland had its own parliament to
  deal with Northern Irish affairs. About a third
  of the Northern population was Roman Catholic,
  and they were discriminated.

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• 10. IRAs violence in the 1970s The IRA carried
  out a campaign of bombing and shooting. The
  Protestants formed their own illegal paramilitary
  groups and took revenge on Catholics, often
  murdering individuals at random.

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• 11. Bloody Sunday On Jan. 30, 1972, 468 people
  were killed in Northern Ireland, including 13
  Catholics, by British soldiers.

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• 12. The Good Friday Agreement As a result of
  multi-party negotiations, the Good Friday
  Agreement was approved on 10 April 1998.

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• This agreement assures the loyalist community
  that Northern Ireland remains part of the UK and
  it wont change its political status unless the
  majority of the people of Northern Ireland agree.

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• Under the terms of the agreement, Northern
  Ireland should be governed by 3 separate
  jurisdictions that of the republic of Ireland,
  that of Great Britain and that of its own elected
  executive governent of 10 ministers.

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Part Two The Government and Politics of the UK

• I. The Government
• 1. The Monarchy the ancient doctrine of the
  divine right of kings.

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• 1) For a thousand years, Britain has had a
  hereditary king or queen as the head of state
  with one brief exception, when the Roundheads
  succeeded in ousting the monarch, Charles I in
  1642.

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• 2) The monarchs unwillingness to receive advice
  from prominent men led to many battles between
  the king and other powerful groups like the
  Church and powerful land-owning feudal barons.

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• 3) In 1215, King John granted the feudal barons
  and the Church a charter of liberty and political
  rights, still known by its medieval Latin name of
  Magna Carta,

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• 4) The role of the monarch today is primarily to
  symbolize the tradition and unity of the British
  state.

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• The Queens other roles head of the executive,
  an integral part of the legislature, head of the
  judiciary, commander in chief of the armed forces
  and supreme governor of the Church of England.

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• 2. The Parliament
• 1) Traditionally, medieval kings were supposed to
  meet their own royal expenses out of their own
  wealth.

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• 2) By the 13th century, kings found they could
  not make ends meet in this way, and so they
  widened the Great Council to include
  representatives if counties, cities and towns to
  get them to give him money.

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• 3) In 1407 Henry IV decreed that all money grants
  should be considered and approved by the Commons
  before considered by the Lords, a formula which
  is almost the same today.

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• 4) In 1689 Parliament passed the Bill of Rights
  which ensured that the King would never be able
  to ignore Parliament.

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• 5) The House of Lords consists of the Lords
  Spiritual (the Archbishops and bishops), and the
  Lords Temporal.

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• Peers speak and vote as individuals, not as
  representatives of the greater interests of the
  country, and they do not receive salaries.

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• 6) The house of Commons consists of about 650
  Members of Parliament (MPs). MPs receive a salary
  of about 31000 a year.

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• 7) The functions of Parliament to pass laws, to
  vote for taxation, to scrutinize government
  policy, administration and expenditure, and to
  debate the major issues of the day.

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• 3. The Constitution Britain has no written
  Constitution. There are statute law, the common
  laws and conventions.

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4.The Prime Minister and Cabinet

• 1) While Cabinet ministers were appointed by the
  sovereign, they had to have enough support in the
  House of Commons to enable them to persuade
  Parliament to pass laws and vote for taxes.

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• 2) In 1832, when a system for choosing the House
  of Commons by popular election replaced the
  monarchs job of appointing representatives, the
  modern political system was born.

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• 3) MPs assmebled themselves into groups which
  eventually would become political parties,
  organised groups which presented their policies
  and ideas to the electorate for approval.

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• 4) The party with the most supporters in the
  Commons forms the government, and by tradition,
  the leader of that party becomes Prime Minister.

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• II. Politics
• 1. General Elections

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• 1) General elections are very important because
  they provide opportunities for people to
  influence future government policies and to
  replace those incompetent political leaders.

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• 2) Anyone who is eligible to vote with 500 pounds
  as deposit can stand as an MP. British people are
  represented in parliament by one of 651 members
  of parliament representing the 651 geographical
  areas or constituencies into which the UK is
  divided.

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• 3) After a government has been in power for 5
  years it has to resign and hold a general
  election.

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• 4) The electoral campaigns before a general
  election, in order to make their ideologies and
  policies known to the public, the political
  parties would start their electoral campaigns.

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• 2. The Political Parties
• 1) The Labour party is the newest of the three,
  created by the growing trade union movement at
  the end of the 19th century.

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• It believes that the role of a government is to
  transfer wealth from richer to poorer by means of
  taxing the richer and providing support the
  poorer.

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• 2) The Conservative Party spent most time in
  power. Basically the Conservatives are seen as
  the party of the individuals

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• It protects the individuals right to acquire
  wealth and to spend it how they choose, and so
  favouring economic policies such as low taxes.
  They receive their funding from big companies.

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• The difference between the labour party and the
  Conservative Party is one of degree, not an
  absolute.

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• 3) The Liberal Democratic Party is the third
  biggest, and may be seen as a party of the
  middle, occupying the ideological ground
  between the two main parties.

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• 3. Class system in British society
• 1) Most of the British population would claim
  themselves to be either of middle-class or
  working-class

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• 2) Class divisions are not simply economic, they
  are cultural as well. People of different classes
  may differ in the kind of newspapers they read,
  in the way they speak, and in the kind of
  education they receive.

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• 3) What is distinctive about the British
  class-system, and what marks it as different from
  the American social structure, is that it has
  retained a hereditary aristocracy.

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• 4. Ethnic relations in the UK
• 1) Around 5 of British citizens are from
  non-European ethnic groups. South Asia and
  Caribbean countries

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• 2) The immigrants from other parts of the world
  has greatly enriched British culture. But ethnic
  relations are also sometimes tense

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• 3) The immigrant population is not well-off
  economically. They face problems of unemployment,
  under-representation in politics and unfair
  treatment by police and by the justice system.

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Part Three The UK Economy

• I. Absolute Decline and Relative Decline
• 1. By the 1880s the British economy was dominant
  in the world, producing one third of the worlds
  manufactured goods, half its coal and iron, half
  its cotton.

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• 2. The UK has experienced an economic decline
  since 1945. But this is a relative decline rather
  than an absolute one.

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• 3. The reasons for the decline
• 1) Britain had gone heavily into debt in order to
  finance the war.

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• 2) The former British colonies became independent
  one after another, leaving Britain as just a
  medium-sized European country, with a population
  only one fifth the size of the US.

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• 3) Before the process of decolonisation was
  completed, Britain had to maintain an expensive
  military presence in many overseas locations.

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• 4) During the war Britains industry survived
  comparatively unaffected, which means there were
  low rates of investment.

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• II. Recent history
• 1. A particularly bad period in the 1970s high
  rates of inflation (25) many workers strikes
  the fall in the value of the UK currency

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• 2. In the 1980s, when the Conservative party
  under Margaret Thatcher was in power, an
  extensive program of privatisation was carried
  out.

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• 3. Overall it is second only to the US as a
  destination for international direct investment,
  and it is the second biggest international
  investor in the world (1995).

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• III. Main sectors of the UK economy
• 1. primary industries, such as agriculture,
  fishing, and mining

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• 2. secondary industries, which manufacture
  complex goods from those primary products (
  producing 22 of national wealth)

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• 3. tertiary industries (services), such as
  banking, insurance, tourism, and the selling of
  goods( producing 65 of national wealth)

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• IV. The City
• It refers to the historic area at the center of
  London.It is one of the biggest financial centers
  in the world with the greatest concentration of
  banks, insurance companies and businesses

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• V. The aerospace industry in the UK
• It is the third largest in the world,
  producing the full range of aerospace products
  from civil and military aircrafts to missiles,
  satellites and jet engines.

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• Part Five British Education System
• I. The purpose of the British education system

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• Not only to provide children with literacy and
  other basic skills they will need to become
  active members of society, but also to socialise
  children.

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• Children are taught practical skills, but they
  also learn the rules and values they need to
  become good citizens, to participate in the
  community, and to contribute to the economic
  prosperity of an advanced industrial economy.

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• II. The relationship between education and social
  class
• 1. Class inequality can be erased or continued
  according to educational policy.

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• 2. Educational opportunities for working-class
  and middle-class people can be very different.
• 3. In Britain, the accent you speak with, the
  clothes you wear, and the schools you attend are
  all markers that identify your social class.

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• 4. To attend the right schools (the famous
  boys public schools like Eton and Winchester)
  and the right universities (Oxford and
  Cambridge) is still the single best way to
  guarantee a successful career.

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• III.The major changes that have taken place to
  the British education system
• 1.The governments decision to become
  increasingly invloved in taking responsibility
  for the education of children.

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• 2. During WWII, the government began planning to
  reconstruct the education system, which would
  emphasize equality.

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• 3. In the 1960s, comprehensive schools were
  introduced all over the country, which ended the
  division between grammer schools and vocational
  schools.

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• 4. In 1976 British education was the focus of a
  new controversy when thw Labor party started the
  Great Education Debate about national stansards
  and styled of teaching.

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• 5. In 1989 the Conservative Government of
  Margaret Thatcher intriduced a National
  Curriculum, which has reintroduced competition
  between schools.

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V.The present education system

• 1. The function of the British education system
• It is run by the state, which provides funding,
  oversees standards, and tries to make sure that
  all British children receive a quality education.

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• 2. State schools
• They are funded by local and central
  government. About 93 of pupils receive free
  education from this sector.

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• 3. Independent schools
• They are commonly called public schools,
  which are actually private schools that receive
  funding through the private sector and tuition
  rates, with some government assistance.

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• 4. Grammar schools select children at the age of
  11, through an examination called the 11-plus.
  Those children with the highest marks go to
  grammar schools.

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VI. Higher education

• 1. British universities are public bodies which
  receive funds from central government. This
  differs from the US

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• 2. The UK has only one privately funded
  university, the University of Buckingham.

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• 3. Oxford and Cambridge date from the 12th and
  13th centuries. In Oxford and Cambridge the BA
  converts to an MA several years later, upon
  payment of a fee.

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• 4. Universities, reflecting the trend throughout
  the education system, have traditionally been
  rather elitist.

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• 5.The Open University was founded in 1960s for
  people who might not get the opportunity for
  higher education for economic and social reasons.

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Part Six British Foreign Relations

• I. Factors that influence British foreign policy
• its history
• its geopolitical traits long-term physical
  separation from the European continent

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• 3. its relationship with the United States
• II. How foreign policy is made
• 1. The Prime Minister and Cabinet decide on the
  general direction of Britains foreign policy.

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• 2. The Ministry of of Defence is responsible for
  ensuring Britains defence and maintaining
  Britains involvement in its military treaty
  commitments.

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• 3. The Department of Trade and Industry is
  concerned with formulating international trade
  policy and managing British commercial relations
  with other countries.

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• 4. The Treasury makes decisions on how much money
  other departments can have each year.

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• III. Britain and International Institutions
• 1. Britain is one of the five permanent members
  of the United Nations Security Council. It is the
  sixth largest contributor to the UNs budget.

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• 2. Britain is the member of the EU. It joined the
  EEC in 1973, given that British economic,
  political and military interests were already
  deeply bound up with other European countries.

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• 3. Britain is also a member of the Commonwealth,
  a voluntary association of states which is made
  up of mostly former British colonies. There are
  50 members of the Commonwealth.

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• 4. The keystone of British defence policy is its
  participation in the NATO. 95 of Britains
  defence expenditure goes to meeting NATO
  requirements.

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Part Seven The British Media

• I. Popularity and functions of the media
• 1. The media are central to British leisure
  culture.

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• 2. The functions of the media
• entertainment
• providing people with information about political
  and social issues

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• providing weather reports
• carrying advertisements
• for educational purposes

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• providing a forum for people to write letters or
  phone in to express their views or seek advice
• engendering a national culture

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• II. British newspapers
• 1. In the late 18th and early 19th century,
  more and more newspapers began to appear

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• 2. The Observer, first appeared in 1791, is the
  worlds oldest national weekly newspaper.
• 3. The Times, began publishing in 1785, is the
  UKs oldest daily newspaper.

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• 4. The watchdog function, keeping an eye on the
  government, is one of reasons why a free press is
  considered so important to the functioning of
  parliamentary democracy.

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• 5. This role is frequently criticised because the
  power of the press has usurped the power of
  parliament. ( favorable coverage not objective)

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• 6. Business people were quick to realize the
  power of the press to inform potential customers
  about their products and services, and so the
  advertising business was born.

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• 7. Newspapers are businesses that exist to earn
  money, not public services designed to inform the
  population.

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• 8. British newspaper culture is unusual in the
  extent to which class and educational differences
  are reflected in the newspapers people read.

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• 9.The quality press they refer to some of the
  daily national papers. They carry more serious
  and in-depth articles of particular political and
  social importance.

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• 10. The tabloids (the gutter press) they refer
  to small format newspapers with color photos and
  catchy headlines. They are interested in scandals
  and gossip usually about famous people.

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• 11. Fleet Street Until 1980s, almost all the
  national newspapers had their headquarters on or
  around Fleet Street in London,

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• III.The broadcast media --- television and radio
• 1. The messages and information which are sent
  over the airwaves into peoples homes, cars and
  workplaces reach virtually everyone.

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• 2. British people watch news, entertainment, and
  sports they also watch comedy, drama and game
  shows, and weather forecasts.

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• 3. American soap operas feature improbaly rich,
  famous and exciting characters, while British
  soap operas present gritty and realistic accounts
  of the everyday life of Britons.

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• 4. There are still only five television channels
  and satellite TV is still not as popular or as
  widely available as in the US.

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• 5.The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC, or
  the Beeb), which was founded in 1927 as a
  public service radio station, and later moved
  into TV, is Britains main public service
  broadcaster.

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• 6. Given the vast amounts of coverage in British
  homes, TV, like the press, is very important to
  British politics.

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Part Eight Sports, Hoilidays and Festivals

• I. Sports
• 1. Football it is a boisterous sport still
  played in winter and early spring when the
  weather is cool and often wet.

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• 2. Football hooligans they are supporters of
  rival teams, sometimes clash before, during and
  after matches and occasionally run riot through
  the town, breaking windows and beating each other
  up.

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• 3. Tennis and Wimbledon tennis is played in
  summerthe worlds best players gather to compete
  on grass courts in Wimbledon, a London suburb.

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• 4. Cricket and fair play Cricket was one of
  the very first team sports in Britain to have
  organized rules and to be played according to the
  same rules nationally.

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• 5. Golf The game of golf was invented by the
  Scottishand today avid golfers around the world
  dream of playing on the famous and ancient golf
  course at St Andrews, not far from Edinburgh.

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• 6. Horse racing the true sport of British Kings
  (and Queens) is horse racing. There are two kinds
  of horse racing flat racing, and steeplechasing

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• II. Holidays and festivals
• Religious holidays
• 1) Christmas is the biggest and best loved
  British holiday.

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• 2) Easter is the most important Christian
  festival for church goers. It commemorates the
  crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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• 2. National holidays
• 1) Trooping the Color (????????)around
  Buckingham Palace in London on the second
  Saturday in June.

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• 2) One truly English holiday is Bonfire Night, or
  Guy Fawkes Night, celebrated in the early autumn.
  The biggest Bonfire Night celebration is held in
  the small medieval town of Lewes.

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• 3) In Scotland, New Years Eve called Hogmany is
  the major winter celebration with its widely
  practised custom first footing

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• 4) Halloween is a Scottish festival that comes
  from the great feast of the pagan Celts, which
  marked the arrival of the winter half of the
  year.

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Ireland

• Part One Land, People and History
• I. Geograpgy, land and environment

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• 1.The border between the Republic of Ireland and
  Northern Ireland, drawn up in 1920, was
  constructed along the political and religious
  fault lines (???)

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• 2. Geographically, Ireland is situated in the
  extreme northwest of Europe with a temperate
  climate.

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• 3. For most of its history Ireland has been an
  agricultural country, and one in which cattle are
  particularly valued.

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II. Population

• 1. As the result of starvation and consequent
  mass emigration from the mid-1840s onwards, that
  part of the island that is now the Republic of
  Ireland lost about half of its people.

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• 2. Emigrants before the Great Famine (1845-48)
  were often young farmers who were seeking to
  better their economic position by seeking land in
  the areas of the New World

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• 3. Emigrants after the Great Famine made their
  passage to the New World on what were called
  coffin ships because of the huge mortality
  among the passengers

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• 4. The Great Fmine (1845-1848) became a watershed
  in Irish history

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• 5. The population of the Republic of Ireland is
  surprisingly stable and homogeneous, with 93 of
  the population born there. More than half of the
  4 million Irish people in the RI were declared to
  be under the age of 25.

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III. History

• 1. The earliest settlers arrived around 7000 BC
  in the Mesolithic or middle Stone Age period. It
  is believed that the Celtic invaders may have
  come to Ireland as early as the 6th cenruty BC.

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• 2. By order of the government of the RI, the
  language of Irish must be learned by all Irish
  children up to the age of 16.

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• 3. Along with their language, the Celts also
  brought a legal system, the Brehon law. Under
  this law, the primal unit was the fine, or the
  family unit comprising all relations of the male
  descent for five generations.

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• 4. Christianity was introduced into Ireland some
  time in the 5th century by Saint Patrick, who
  became the patron saint of Ireland.

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• 5. From around 800 onwards the Vikings attacked
  ireland as well as England. They are credited
  with founding most of the major towns, including
  Dublin, Coek, Limerick, and Waterford.

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• 6. In 1541, Henry VIII declared himself king of
  Ireland --- the first English monarch to do so.
• 7. In 1601, the army of Queen Elizabeth I
  defeated the Irish at the Battle of Kinsale, and
  a new order began.

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• 8. Throughout the 18th century the British
  government enforced a severe code of penal
  legislation against Catholics, preventing them
  from pwning land, attending university, or
  entering the professions.

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• 9. After the defeat of the 1789 rebellion by the
  united Irishmen, the Irish parliament came out of
  existence, which ended the hopes of the Irish for
  a nation of their own separate from that of Great
  Britain.

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• 10.Home Rule a slogan put forward by Isaac Butt
  for the Irish nationalist movement from 1870 to
  1914, which sought a separate Irish parliament
  subordinate to London.

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• 11.Sinn Fein Arthur Griffith developed a
  political party in the period of 1905-1908 known
  as Sinn Fein, meaning we ourselves in the
  Irish language.

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Part Two Politics and Economy

• I. Politics
• 1. Ireland is a representative democracy, i.e.
  most of its offices are filled through election,
  either direct or indirect, by the Irish people.

172

• 2.The president the president is elected by the
  direct vote of the people. The term of office is
  7 years, and a president can be reelected only
  once. The president acts as a symbolic Head of
  State only and does not have executive functions.

173

• 3.The government The Government has the
  executive powers of the State, and shall consist
  of 7 to 15 elected members of the Irish
  Parliament. The Prime Minister is appointed by
  the President on the nomination of the
  Parliament.

174

• 4. Parliament The sole of making laws for the
  State is vested in the Irish Parliament, which
  consists of two houses --- the Dail and the
  Senate, but the Government is responsible to the
  Dail alone.

175

• 5.Voting in elections and referenda (????) The
  electoral system used in Ireland is called
  proportional represnetation

176

• 1) the election of the President (every 7 years)
• 2) Dail elections (at least every 5 years)
• 3) Referenda on proposed Constitutional
  amendments (as they are called)

177

• 4) The election of representatives to the
  European Parliament (every 5 years)
• 5) Elections to local authorities (every 5 years)

178

• 6. The civil service the civil service is
  divided into 16 Government Departments, each
  headed by a ,Minister appointed by the Prime
  Minister.

179

• 7. The hierarchy of the Irish legal system The
  District Court --- the Circuit Court --- the High
  Court --- the Supreme Court

180
II. Economy

• Ireland is a small, open, trade-dependent
  economy.
• From its founding in 1922 until the 1970s,
  Ireland as an economy tended to be
  inward-looking, and tried to be self-sufficient.

181

• 3.What changed this stagnant economy into one of
  the most vital in Europe?
• First, there was a population boom, with large
  numbers of young people.

182

• Secondly, the reform of education meant that
  young people were better educated and more aware
  of their options in life. Finally, the government
  had a conversion to market economics.

183

• 4. What benefits has Irelands entrance to the EU
  in1971 provided to ireland?
• 1) EUs funds for agriculture, infrastructure,
  education, etc.

184

• 2) Mobility of Irish people to the other EU
  countries( more racially mixed)
• 3) Further opening up of the Ireland market and
  its accession to the EU market
• 4) Faster economic development

185

• 5) Growing wealth of the Irish people
• 6) The change in the status of women
• 7) The change in Irelands labor market.

186

• 5. The existing problems after its entrance to
  the EU
• 1) The demise of the family farm
• 2) Inequality in wealth distribution

187

• 3) A wide variety of corruption (tax avoidance
  and evasion)
• 4) Overcrowding, pollution, rising house prices
  in urban areas, esp. in Dublin
• 5) The lack of adequate public facilities and
  programs to tackle thses problems.

188
Part Three Irish Culture

• I. How the Irish Live Now
• 1. Rapid social change in the past 30 years,
  Ireland has passed from being a traditional
  culture to a post-industrial one.

189

• 2. Paradoxical or contradictory attitudes to the
  English
• 1) On the one hand, the English has left the
  Republic of Ireland with a secure and workable
  administrative, educational, and judicial system.

190

• 2) On the other hand, the Irish ar proud they do
  not have a monarchy. They think of themselves as
  citizens, not as subjects.

191

• 3) This ambivalence frequently takes the form of
  a full-blown love/hate relationship, and
  admiration/condemnation attitude.

192

• 3. The power of the Roman Catholic Church began
  to decline in the past 30 years.
• 1) It has lost its dominanceas a value in Irish
  culture. Irish Catholicism concentrated on what
  it saw as matters of sexual purity

193

• 2) The Catholic Church also exercised a firm hold
  over educational structures, over hospitals, over
  the media, and over the way people thought about
  themselves and their lives.

194

• 4. The family
• 1) Traditionally, Irish family were large, with
  up to 16 or more children.

195

• 2) the birth rate has now dropped from 3.76 in
  1960 to 1.98 in 2001
• 3) In the last 30 years, the structure of Irish
  family life has changed dramatically.

196

• 4) Beginning in the early 1970s, the womens
  movement concentrated first on gaining control of
  their own fertility, deamnding bith control,
  divorce, and the right to have an abortion if
  necessary.

197

• 5. Pub culture The communal facility in both
  city and countryside that is patronized is the
  public house or pub.

198

• 6. Work culture The Irish pay less attention to
  schedule than to completing a task, so their work
  style can be described as informal.

199

• 7. Education
• 1) In the last 30 years, the Irish government
  applied significant resources to reform the
  educational system.

200

• 2) First-level schools the vast majority of
  children receive their primary education in
  national schools --- state-aided promary
  schools.

201

• 3) Second-level schools they are designed for
  students from 12 years of age upward.

202

• 4)Third-level education there are 4 universities
  in the State. Many of the third-level
  institutions expanded rapidly in the 1970s to
  meet the governments demand for more inclusive
  university education for the Irish people.

203

• 8. Language
• 1) Traditionally, the Irish people spoke their
  own language, called Irish or Erse. The death
  blow to the Irish language was the Great Famine
  of 1845-48.

204

• 2) After the Republic of Ireland was set up in
  1922, a concerted, official attempt was made to
  make Irish once again the national language. All
  Irish children are taught the Irish language from
  4 to 15.

205

• 3) Despite of this, the language that is
  universally spoen in the republic of Ireland is a
  version of standard Englis known as
  Hiberno-English (??????).

206

• 9. Oral culture
• The Irish retain one element of their native
  culture they talk. The basis for this is in the
  original peasant culture

207

• 10. Art culture
• Ireland is a traditional culture and it is true
  to say virtually every art form in Ireland
  derives from its rich folk heritage.

208

• Ireland is famous for its fine traditional music
  culture, and the intricacy and fervor of its folk
  dances ( the stage production of Riverdance),
  andfancy footwork in intricate patterns.

209

• 11. Literature
• 12. Sports
• The Irish team of soccer made its first
  appearance in the World Cup Finals in Italy in
  1990.

210

• Rugby football, imported form England, is also
  very popular with the Irish.
• Hurling is the most natively Irish game.
• The newset and most fashionable ball game in
  Ireland is golf.

211

• 13. Science and technology
• 14. About Irish culture
• 1) Ireland is a culture where art flourishes,
  mostly associated with the ear, not the eye.

212

• 2) Ireland is also a very people-oriented
  society, which regards the family as central to
  its values.
• 3) It is a very congenial society, which loves
  talk and outings and drinking.

213

• 4) The work culture is also very sociable, with
  little distinction being between peoples public
  and private lives.

214

• 5) Th Irish identify with the under-dogs, with
  oppressed nations --- with those they see as
  having been denied their rights as a people.