دوبلین و بلفاست

CHAPTER NINE

Dublin and Belfast

Dublin. Dublin is the most important city in the Republic of Ireland. Its population (the number of people who live there) is 496,000. The River Liffey goes through the centre of Dublin. Some people say that Ireland s famous black beer, Guinness, is water from the River Liffey, but it is not true. But you can walk beside the river, and drink Guinness in a pub when you are thirsty.

One of the most beautiful buildings beside the river is the Custom House. There is a nice walk along the river from the Custom House to the O’Connell Bridge. North of the bridge is O’Connell Street. Here you can see the Post Office, famous for Easter Monday 1916. Not far from here is St Mary’s, Dublin’s biggest Catholic church.

South of O’Connell Bridge is Trinity College, Ireland’s oldest and most famous university. In here you can see Ireland’s oldest books, like the Book of Kells, which is a thousand years old. The beautiful Bank of Ireland is opposite Trinity College. Ireland’s first Parliament was in this building.

Near Trinity College you can see the famous statue of Molly Malone. People say that she was a poor but beautiful girl, who sold fish called cockles and mussels on the streets to make money. But sadly, she died when she was still young. There is a famous Irish song about Molly:

In Dublin’s fair city

Where the girls are so pretty

I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone

As she wheeled her wheelbarrow

Down streets broad and narrow

Singing ‘Cockles, and mussels, alive alive-oh!’

Some of Ireland’s best town houses are in Merrion Square. Many of Ireland’s most famous writers, soldiers, and leaders lived here. They walked and talked in the small park in the square, or in St Stephen’s Green, not far away. Between Merrion Square and St Stephen’s Green is Leinster House, the home of Ireland’s Parliament today.

Dublin also has Phoenix Park, one of the largest parks in Europe. Ireland’s President lives here, in a house called, in Irish, Aras an Uachtarain. Not far away from the Phoenix Park is the old Kilmainham Prison. Here visitors can see how some of Ireland’s most famous men and women lived in prison.

Dublin is a city of theatres, music, and fine shops too. And there are dozens of pubs, big and small. Many people like to go to the pub to drink beer, talk, and tell stories. For example, there is a story about a visitor and an Irish farmer in the country. ‘Excuse me, can you tell me the way to Dublin, please?’ the visitor asks. The farmer thinks for a long time. Then he says: ‘No, I’m sorry. If you want to go to Dublin, this is the wrong place to start.’

Belfast. Belfast (population 276,000) is the biggest city in Northern Ireland, famous for the ships, aeroplanes, and clothes that were made here. The Titanic was built here in the Harland and Wolff shipyard. In 1912 the Titanic was the biggest, fastest, most expensive ship in the world. ‘This ship can never sink,’ people said. But when the Titanic went to sea for the first time, it sank, and about 1,500 people died. Many of them were poor Irish people who wanted to start a new life in America. Now this part of the city is called the Titanic Quarter, and it has new shops, offices, bars, cafes, and hotels. But you can still see the big Harland and Wolff cranes, called Samson and Goliath, from all over Belfast.

At Victoria Square, in the centre of Belfast, there are new shops, restaurants, and cinemas. And there are fine old buildings to see - City Hall, the Custom House with its wonderful statues, the Ulster Bank, and McHugh’s Bar - the oldest building in Belfast. Once it was a house by the Belfast River, and today it is a modern bar.