Northern Ireland

Name: Karin Höfer

Klasse: 9a

Datum: 12.01.2000

Table of contents:

1. Northern Ireland

2. Land and Climate

3. Economy

4. Government and History

5. Belfast

1. Northern Ireland

The northeastern part of the island of Ireland is occupied by Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. It covers only one sixth of the total area of the island but has about one third of the population. The rest of the island is occupied by the Republic of Ireland.

Northern Ireland is sometimes called Ulster because it includes six of the nine countries that made up the early Celtic kingdom, or province, of Ulster. The cultural links of most of the people of Northern Ireland with Scotland and England are quite strong, although some have closer familial ties with the Republic of Ireland. About two thirds of the people of Northern Ireland are descended from Scottish and English settlers who came to Ulster mainly in the 17^th century, and most of them are Protestants. The remainder of the population are Irish in origin and are mainly Roman Catholics.

2. Land and Climate

The land is shaped like a saucer, with lowlands in the center rimmed by highlands. Glaciaton left the lowlands with a variety of drift deposits and gave the landscape ist gentle, rolling hills, ist marshy hollows and peat bogs, and ist river valleys. The Antrim Plateau rises in the northeast, the Sperrin Mountains in the northwest, and the Mourne Mountains in the southeast . The highest point is Slieve Donard, rising to 2,796 feet (852 meters) in the Mourne Mountains in County Down.

3. Economy

Unlike the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland is highly industrialized. Locally grown flax and an abundant supply of fresh water stimulated the development of the famous Irish linen industry in Ulster in the 18^th century. Much of the flax is now importend, and the linen industry has been surpassed by the cotton and synthetic fiber industries.Northern Ireland has almost no native fuel supplies, and coal, natural gas, and oil are imported from Great Britain, Quarries supply basalt, san and gravel, grit and conglomerate, limestone, granite, rock salt, chalk, and clay.

4. Government and History:

Northern Ireland, as a part of the United Kingdom, is represented by 12 members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons in Westminster. The Northern Ireland government is at Stormont , near Belfast. It is directed and conrolled by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, a national government cabinet post as outlined in the Nonthern Ireland Act of 1974. The national government`s concern has been principally with law and order, political and constitutional affairs, and security policy. The 26 local government districts are subdivided into 526 wards. General elections at the local government level take place every four years.

5. Belfast

The capital and largest city of Northern Ireland and the busiest port in all Ireland is Belfast. It is located on Belfast Lough, an inlet of the Irish Sea.

From the city`s airport at Aldergrove, 13 miles (21 kilometers) to the northwest, there are sevices to the principal Scottish and English cities. Belfast also has steamship links with Heysham, Liverpool, and Manchester, in England, and Glasgow and Ardrossan, in Scotland.

The city is the shopping, retail, educational, commercial, entertainment, and service center for Northern Ireland.Chief exports are ships, aircraft, argicultural produce and livestock, and linen textiles. Other industries include tobacco and food processing.

Educational institutions include Queen´s University of Belfastand the Belfast College of Technology. Nearby is Stormont, the site of Northern Ireland´s Parliament buildings.