Ireland by Tim Vicary

    This week I read "Ireland."  As the title this book is written about Ireland' s history, culture and so on.

   This book consists of 12 chapters.  I think this book mainly tells about Ireland's history.

Chapter1and 2 are about nature of Ireland.

"Ireland is an island like a plate"(p.2)

   I think this is a good example. I thought that's like a shape of Kumamoto. Kumamoto is also surrounded by mountains so I could imagine easily. 

 Chapter3 tells about Celtic people.

"The  Celts are . . . tall and strong."(p.5)

   When I was a junior high school student, my English teacher was a Irish man. Now the reason why he is tall is that he got Celtic people's gene. I think.

Fron chapter 4 to chapter8 are about Ireland's history.

"You can see the Red Hand on the flags of Northern Ireland."(p.11)

   There is a story of Ulster's flag. A man cut off his hand to get a place in Ulster so there is a red hand on Ulster's flag.

   Chapter 9 and 10 are about important cities.

I would like to visit Dublin's biggest Catholic church. I can see a picture of it on the book. It's beautiful.

   Chapter 11 tells us famous people in Ireland and chapter 12 is about nowadays of Ireland.

   I thought Ireland is a just a peaceful country, but I learned that's not true from this book. There were many conflicts with British people and many people were killed by fights. Also, there were many poor people in Ireland and they had only potatoes to eat, however, one day potatoes were suddenly got black and dead, then thousands of Irish died. 

Now, Ireland is a very good country to visit and live. Irish people are very friendly and like to tell stories, drink, sing and dance. Views are also great.  My junior high school's English teacher was a Irish man. He often told us about his country.  He told about "Green Day" which is a festival's name. Literally, they paint and decorate everythings with green and wear green clothes. I want to go to Ireland to see this festival. I am interested in green beer!