اطراف جزیره

CHAPTER TWO

Around the island

Ireland is an island like a plate: it is higher on the outside than in the centre. Because of this, the centre of Ireland is full of beautiful lakes and rivers, and many people go there to fish and sail. Ireland’s largest lake is Lough Neagh. Its longest river, the Shannon, is 260 kilometres long. It goes through many small lakes and two large ones, Lough Ree and Lough Derg.

Most of Ireland’s mountains are near the outside of the plate, near the sea. They are not very high - the highest is Carrantouhill (1,040 metres) in the south-west. But they are beautiful, and good places for walks. At the Cliffs of Moher, in the west, you can look 200 metres straight down into the sea. The Giant’s Causeway, in the north, is made of strange rocks two metres tall with six sides.

There are hundreds of small islands in the sea around Ireland. On the Aran Islands, in the west, most people speak Irish, not English. Life has changed very little here in a hundred years.

Much of the north and west of Ireland is very beautiful. There are hundreds of flowers in the green fields, and there are wonderful beaches and lakes (called ‘loughs’ in Ireland). The weather is warm and wet, with rain and sun nearly every day. But it is hard to farm here because of the rocks and mountains.

The centre and east of Ireland are very different. The land is good here, and Irish milk and meat are some of the best in the world. Farming is one of the most important jobs in Ireland.

Thousands of horses live here too. Some of the best horses in the world come from Ireland, and Irish people sell horses to Britain, America, Australia, and Japan. People go to watch horse races in many Irish towns, and in Lay town, north of Dublin, there are horse races along the beach every September.

All Ireland’s important cities - Dublin, Belfast, Derry, Galway, Limerick, Cork, and Waterford - are near the sea. If we look at Ireland’s history, we will see why.