Scotland and Ireland: History, Inventions, and Cultural Significance, Sintesi del corso di Inglese

Scarica Scotland and Ireland: History, Inventions, and Cultural Significance e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Scotland Scotland is in Great Britain. The capital is Edinburgh which is in the Firth of Forth in the North Sea. In Scotland there are about 5 thousand 3 hundred million people. Scotland is very under-populated. They speak English and Scottish Gaelic (celts), that is a old language which is spoken in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Brittany (in France) and in the Basque Country (in the north of Spain) They aren’t rich, the live of: • Sheep rearing (a type of sheep: MESINO) • Turism The Scottish are famous for their whiskey (they produce it) and for the tartan (a fabric made of wool) Tartan is chequered (a quadri). There are many clans in Scotland and each clan has their own color of tartar. It is common knowledge that the Scots were responsible for lots of inventions and discoveries. • the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell (1876), • penicillin by Alexander Fleming (1928) • the television by John Logie Baird (1925), • Alexander Bain (1810–77) created a primitive version of the fax machine, a complicated mechanism able to reproduce graphic signs, in laboratory experiments in 1843. • Charles Macintosh (1766–1843) he developed a technique of putting a layer of rubber between two pieces of cloth, making it waterproof. Nowadays, we use his name when we refer to a raincoat, or ‘mac’ or ‘mackintosh’. • John Boyd Dunlop (1840–1921) patented his pneumatic tyre in 1888. • Sir Robert Watson-Watt (1892–1973) developed radar in 1926. • New inventions emerge from Scotland’s scientists and engineers with an amazing rapidity. Recent examples include the frst MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan, invented at the University of Aberdeen in 1980. Ireland The Republic of Ireland is in the south-west of Britain. Its population it’s of circa 4.6 milion and the capital is Dublin (in the east of England). Irish spoke English and Gaelic. Gaelic is also spoken in Scotland, Brittany, Wales and the Basque Countries. It’s a poor country and they live of tourism, sheep rearing and beer (Guiness). Ireland is divided in two parts: Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland belongs to Great Britain and its capital it’s Belfast, which in Gaelic it’s called Ulster. While the Republic of Ireland is a member it’s a member of the European Union. This is mostly because of religion, considering that the Republic of Ireland is Catholic while Northern Ireland is protestant. The history of the Republic of Ireland is long, bloody and tragic because they had to fight to get their independence from Britain. The Irish began to ask for independence at the beginning of the 20th century and, during “Easter Rising” in 1916, a group of Irish nationalist (a secret army called IRA) tried to occupy the most important place in Dublin, where there were all the money that the Great Britand sent to pay the English people who worked there, the post office. But they failed because outside there were the English Army waiting for them. So all the nationalist were arrested and executed. Ireland finally obtained the independence in 1922, but wasn’t officially proclaimed until 1949, after the World War II. The City Of London and the Bank of England The City of London is UK’s major financial district, and one of the world leading financial centres. In fact, the service industries, particularly banking, insurance and business services, employs around 70% of the working population in London and are responsible of the largest proportion of GDP (gross domestic product). The Bank of England it’s the banking centre of the world and Europe’s business centre. It was the first National Bank of the world and then the other states founded their national bank taking inspiration from the Bank Of England. After Johannesbug, Cape Town is the second largest city by population in South Africa. • Bloemfontein: (in the centre) is the judicial capital where the minister of justice is locatedd There are 11 official languages spoken like English and Afrikaans (which is the international language). There are also some people who speaks Dutch because of the Dutch colonization. It’s currency it’s the rand. South Africa is also called the Rainbow Nation because it is made up of lots of peoples of different races, with different cultures and languages. When the Dutch came in South Africa, they founded the national party (1948-1994) and they exploited the Afrikaans people and created the apartheid laws. Apartheid is an Afrikaans word that means “the state of being apart”. This law separated black people from white people. This means that they couldn’t use the same busses, they couldn’t go to the same schools. And for most careers, the jobs were mainly for white people so black people couldn’t reach a higher success in careers. But then, Nelson Mandela started to fight for the rights of the black people and he became the first black president in 1994, the same that apartheid laws were abolished. Its current life expectancy it’s only of 59 years. That’s because an estimated 5.6 million of the 52 million citizens have HIV, one of the highest totals in the world (with the highest prevalence among adults aged 25 to 34). HIV experts around the world believe that a combination of political unrest, poor government support and political denial has caused the public health disaster in this country. Because of this, South Africa became one of the last African nations to introduce a combination of antiretroviral drugs, which can prolong the lives of those with the disease by many years. The first government programme to distribute these drugs began in April 2004. Moreover, government officials have started to cooperate with a international medical humanitarian organisation. This organisation provide medical assistance to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, healthcare exclusion and natural disasters. They believe that if they increased testing for AIDS and could begin treatments earlier, they would be able to reduce the rate of transmission of the disease in South Africa. Northern Ireland Northern Ireland (Ulster in Irish) is a part of the United Kingdom and it’s located in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Its area it’s of 14,139 km2 and its population is of about 1.84 million and they speak English, Irish Gaelic, Ulster. Its capital it’s Belfast (which is in the east of Ireland) and other important cities are Londonderry (in the north-west) and Omagh (in the south-west/center) They are mostly protestant and catholic and their patron is St. Patrick, which it’s celebrated the 17th of March. They are part of the UK but like Scotland (that can print their own banknotes) and Wales, (that has their own parliament) Northern Ireland has an assembly and can discuss about their problems. They’re important for their castles, valley and for their mountains. But most importantly they’re famous for their bloody history. NORTHERN IRELAND HISTORY Northern Ireland separated from the Republic of Ireland after the 2nd world war (1948) because there was a referendum and most of the people voted for staying with Great Britain. In the late 1960s problems between Catholic Republicans , who wanted a united Ireland, and Protestant Unionists, who wanted to stay within the UK, started ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. “The Troubles” was a civil war (a war between people from the same country) which involved violence and bombings. Because of this problems, IRA got a “rebirth” in Northern Ireland, thanks to the Catholics who wanted the republic. IRA in Northern Ireland was considered minority. More than 3,500 people died, and people that were suspected of being members of IRA in Northern Ireland were imprisoned, tortured and arrested without trial. IRA and English killed. After the sunset there were a curfew (copri-fuoco). There were many groups who wrote songs about it. These singers with these songs made the world aware of this war and it helped the awareness. The most famous one is a song by U2 called Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday was a protest (a peaceful one) that happened in Derry the 30th of January 1972 where the British Soldiers killed un-harmed people who were peaceful protesting. There was also another event called “Hunger Strikes”. A young men called Bobby Sands from Northern Ireland, member of IRA, was arrested and sent to the worst prison in Belfast. This prison is called “The Maze” and it’s called like that because it’s a symbol that means “when you enter you don’t know what could happen to you”. In this prison there was another protest where prisoners didn’t wear uniforms because they wanted to be treated like “political prisoners” and not like terrorist. For the cause of this war, Bobby Sands decided to sacrifice himself. He stopped eating and then he also stopped drinking, and after 65 days he died. The death of this young man was something that the media talked about and, after this, the English were obliged to stop torturing them and to give a trial before putting them in prison. They were also convicted by the European Union. The conflict officially ended in 2005 with the decommissioning of the IRA (Irish Republican Army). But now, Northern Ireland now doesn’t want BREX-IT, so there is a possibility that it might unite with the Republic.