1.
Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
2.
Cork (city)
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Cork is a city in Ireland, located in the South-West Region, in the province of Munster. It has a population of 125,622 and is the second largest city in the state, the greater Metropolitan Cork area has a population exceeding 300,000. In 2005, the city was selected as the European Capital of Culture, the city is built on the River Lee which splits into two channels at the western end of the city, the city centre is divided by these channels. They reconverge at the end where the quays and docks along the river banks lead outwards towards Lough Mahon and Cork Harbour. The citys cognomen of the city originates in its support for the Yorkist cause during the English 15th century Wars of the Roses. Corkonians often refer to the city as the capital in reference to the citys role as the centre of anti-treaty forces during the Irish Civil War. Cork was originally a settlement, reputedly founded by Saint Finbarr in the 6th century. Cork achieved an urban character at some point between 915 and 922 when Norseman settlers founded a trading port and it has been proposed that, like Dublin, Cork was an important trading centre in the global Scandinavian trade network. The citys charter was granted by Prince John, as Lord of Ireland, the city was once fully walled, and some wall sections and gates remain today. Neighbouring Gaelic and Hiberno-Norman lords extorted Black Rent from the citizens to them from attacking the city. The present extent of the city has exceeded the boundaries of the Barony of Cork City. Together, these baronies are located between the Barony of Barrymore to the east, Muskerry East to the west and Kerrycurrihy to the south, the medieval population of Cork was about 2,100 people. It suffered a blow in 1349 when almost half the townspeople died of plague when the Black Death arrived in the town. The then mayor of Cork and several important citizens went with Warbeck to England, oBrien published a third local newspaper, the Cork Free Press. In the War of Independence, the centre of Cork was burnt down by the British Black and Tans, during the Irish Civil War, Cork was for a time held by anti-Treaty forces, until it was retaken by the pro-Treaty National Army in an attack from the sea. The climate of Cork, like the rest of Ireland, is mild oceanic and changeable with abundant rainfall, Cork lies in plant Hardiness zone 9b. Met Éireann maintains a weather station at Cork Airport, a few kilometres south of the city. It should be noted that the airport is at an altitude of 151 metres and temperatures can often differ by a few degrees between the airport and the city itself, there are also smaller synoptic weather stations at UCC and Clover Hill
3.
Fenian
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The term Fenian is still used today, in Northern Ireland and less so in Scotland, where its original meaning has widened to include all supporters of anything Irish. It has also used as a demeaning term for Irish people of the Catholic faith. Fenianism, according to OMahony, is symbolised by two principles, firstly, that Ireland has a right to independence, and secondly. The term Fenianism was sometimes used by the establishment in the 1860s for any form of mobilisation among the Irish or those who expressed any Irish nationalist sentiments. They warned people about this threat to turn decent civilised society on its head such as that posed by trade unionism to the social order in the United Kingdom. James Stephens, one of the Men of 1848, had established himself in Paris and this would include the Phoenix National and Literary Society, with Jeremiah ODonovan among its more prominent members, had recently been formed at Skibbereen. Along with Thomas Clarke Luby, John OLeary and Charles Kickham he founded the Irish Republican Brotherhood on 17 March 1858 in Lombard Street, the Fenian Rising in 1867 proved to be a doomed rebellion, poorly organised and with minimal public support. The Fenian Brotherhood, the Irish Republican Brotherhoods US branch, was founded by John OMahony and Michael Doheny, in the face of nativist suspicion, it quickly established an independent existence, although it still worked to gain Irish American support for armed rebellion in Ireland. Initially, OMahony ran operations in the US, sending funds to Stephens, the US chapter of the movement was also sometimes referred to as the IRB. After the failed invasion of Canada, it was replaced by Clan na Gael, in Canada, Fenian is used to designate a group of Irish radicals, a. k. a. the American branch of the Fenian Brotherhood in the 1860s. They made several attempts to invade parts of the British colonies of New Brunswick and Canada. The ultimate goal of the Fenian raids was to hold Canada hostage, because of the invasion attempts, support and/or collaboration for the Fenians in Canada became very rare even among the Irish. Francis Bernard McNamee, the man who started the Fenian movement in Montreal, was a case in point, in public, he proclaimed his loyalty to the queen and called for an Irish militia company to defend Canada against the Fenians. The Fenians in England and the Empire were a threat to political stability. In the late 1860s the IRB control centre was in Lancashire, in 1868 the Supreme Council of the IRB, the provisional government of the Irish Republic, was restructured. The four Irish provinces, Connacht, Leinster, Ulster and Munster, Scotland, the north of England, later four honorary members were co-opted. The Council elected three members to the executive, the President was chairman, the Treasurer managed recruitment and finance and the Secretary was director of operations. There were IRB Circles in every city in England
4.
Hanging
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Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck. Hanging has been a method of capital punishment since medieval times. The first account of execution by hanging was in Homers Odyssey, in this specialised meaning of the common word hang, the past and past participle is hanged instead of hung. Hanging is also a method of suicide in which a person applies a ligature to the neck and brings about unconsciousness. There are four ways of performing a judicial hanging, suspension hanging, the drop, the standard drop. A mechanised form of hanging, the upright jerker, was experimented with in the 18th century. Suspension, like the drop, causes death by using the weight of the body to tighten the noose around the trachea. Prisoners are reported to have little or no struggle before they go limp because their jugular vein and carotid arteries are blocked and blood flow to the brain is reduced. The short drop is performed by placing the condemned prisoner on the back of a cart, horse, or other vehicle, the object is then moved away, leaving the person dangling from the rope. A ladder was also used with the condemned being forced to ascend, after which the noose was tied. Another method involves using a stool, which the condemned is required to stand on, the executioner stands on a stepped platform approximately 4 feet high beside the condemned, and guides the head downward with his hand simultaneous to the efforts of his assistants. Nazi war criminal Karl Hermann Frank was also executed in this manner in 1946 in Prague and its use rapidly spread to English-speaking countries and those where judicial systems had an English origin. It was considered an improvement on the short drop because it was intended to be enough to break the persons neck, causing immediate paralysis. This method was used to execute condemned Nazis under United States jurisdiction after the Nuremberg Trials including Joachim von Ribbentrop and Ernst Kaltenbrunner. In the execution of Ribbentrop, historian Giles MacDonogh records that, The hangman botched the execution, a Life magazine report on the execution merely says, The trap fell open and with a sound midway between a rumble and a crash, Ribbentrop disappeared. The rope quivered for a time, then stood tautly straight and this process, also known as the measured drop, was introduced to Britain in 1872 by William Marwood as a scientific advance on the standard drop. The careful placement of the eye or knot of the noose contributed to breaking the neck, between 1892 and 1913, the length of the drop was shortened to avoid decapitation. After 1913, other factors were taken into account
5.
Newgate Prison
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Newgate Prison was a prison in London, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey just inside the City of London. It was originally located at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall, the gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century, and demolished in 1904. The prison was extended and rebuilt many times, and remained in use for over 700 years, in the early 12th century, Henry II instituted legal reforms that gave the Crown more control over the administration of justice. As part of his Assize of Clarendon of 1166, he required the construction of prisons, in 1188, Newgate was the first institution established to meet that purpose. The addition included new dungeons and adjacent buildings, which would remain unaltered for roughly two centuries, by the 15th century, however, Newgate was in need of repair. The building was collapsing and decaying, and many prisoners were dying from the quarters, overcrowding, rampant disease. Indeed, one year,22 prisoners died from gaol fever, the situation in Newgate was so dire that in 1419, city officials temporarily shut down the prison. Some Londoners bequeathed their estates to repair the prison, two decades later, the executors of Lord Mayor Dick Whittington were granted a license to renovate the prison in 1422. The gate and gaol were pulled down and rebuilt, there was a new central hall for meals, a new chapel, and the creation of additional chambers and basement cells with no light or ventilation. The prison housed male and female felons and debtors and separated the prisoners into wards by gender. By the mid-15th century, Newgate could accommodate roughly 300 prisoners, though the prisoners lived in separate quarters, they mixed freely with each other and visitors to the prison. There were three main wards—the Master’s side for those could afford to pay for their own food and accommodations, the Common side for those who were too poor, and a Press Yard for special prisoners. The king often used Newgate as a place for heretics, traitors. The prison was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, the work followed the designs of George Dance and was almost finished when it was stormed by a mob during the Gordon riots in June 1780. The building was gutted by fire, and the badly damaged. The cost of repairs was estimated at £30,000, dance’s new prison was finally completed in 1782. The new prison was constructed to a terrible design intended to discourage law-breaking. The building was laid out around a courtyard, and was divided into two sections, a Common area for poor prisoners and a State area for those able to afford more comfortable accommodation
6.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
7.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
8.
St Colman's Cathedral, Cobh
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The Cathedral Church of St Colman, usually known as Cobh Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Cobh, Ireland. It is the church of the Diocese of Cloyne. It overlooks Cork harbour from a prominent position, construction began in 1867 and was not completed until over half a century later due to increases in costs and revisions of the original plans. The architects were Edward Welby Pugin and George Ashlin, construction began in 1867, when Pugin died in 1875, Ashlin took on the services of a Dublin architect, Thomas Aloysius Coleman, to assist him in the completion of the project. The clerk of works was Charles Guilfoyle Doran, who supervised the project until his death in 1909, the cathedral was finally consecrated in 1915. The cathedral contains the only church carillon which, with 49 bells, is one of the largest carillons in the Europe, an automated system strikes the hour and 15 minute intervals while it also rings the bells in appropriate form for Masses, funerals, weddings and events. The carillon is played on special occasions and generally every Sunday afternoon by its current carillonneur Adrian Gebruers. Patrick Thompson, Guide to St. Colmans Cathedral, Cobh, revised edition, Carraig Print, jeremy Williams, A Companion Guide to Architecture in Ireland 1837-1921, Irish Academic Press 1994. Paul Atterbury and Clive Wainwright, Pugin, Yale University Press 1994, Pugin, A Master of Gothic Revival, Yale University Press 1995 Bernard J. Canning, Bishops of Ireland 1870-1987, Donegal Democrat,1987
9.
Valentia Island
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Valentia Island is one of Irelands most westerly points. It lies off the Iveragh Peninsula in the southwest of County Kerry and it is linked to the mainland by the Maurice ONeill Memorial Bridge at Portmagee. A car ferry departs from Reenard Point to Knightstown, the islands main settlement. A second, smaller village named Chapeltown is located at roughly the midpoint of the island,3 kilometres from the bridge, the permanent population of the island is 665. Its approximately 11 kilometres long by almost 3 kilometres wide, Valentia was the eastern terminus of the first commercially viable transatlantic telegraph cable. The first attempt in 1857 to land a cable from Ballycarbery Strand on the mainland just east of Valentia Island ended in disappointment, Transatlantic telegraph cables operated from Valentia Island for one hundred years, ending with Western Union International terminating its cable operations in 1966. Prior to the telegraph, American longitude measurements had a 2. Benjamin Gould and his partner A. T. Mosman reached Valentia on 2 October 1866 and they built a temporary longitude observatory beside the Foilhommerum Cable Station to support synchronized longitude observations with Hearts Content, Newfoundland. After many rainy and cloudy days, the first transatlantic longitude signals were exchanged between Foilhommerum and Hearts Content on October 24,1866, in 1993, an undergraduate geology student discovered fossilised tetrapod trackways, footprints in mud preserved in Devonian rocks on the north coast of the island. About 385 million years ago, a primitive vertebrate passed along a shoreline in the equatorial swampland that is now southwestern Ireland. The prints were preserved by silt overlying them, and were converted to rock over the ages, the Valentia Island trackways are among the oldest signs of vertebrate life on land. The combined features and history of the make it an attractive tourist destination. Geokaun Mountain and Fogher Cliffs, the highest mountain on Valentia Island, on the northeast of the island stands Glanleam House amid sub-tropical gardens. Protected by windbreaks from Atlantic gales and never touched by frost, the gardens are laid out in a naturalistic style as a series of walks. There are plants from South America, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, the gardens are memorialized in a selected golden-variegated Luma apiculata Glanleam Gold that originated as a sport in the garden. The gardens are open to the public, the slate quarry which reopened in 1998 provided slates for the British Houses of Parliament. The Telegraph Field is the site of the first permanent communications link between Europe and North America Transatlantic telegraph cables operated from Valentia Island from 1866, the Valentia Island Weather Station is located 51°56 23N, 10° 1440W and is 25 metres above mean sea level. It is one of the 22 coastal weather stations whose reports are broadcast as part of the BBC Shipping Forecast, Valentia Observatory is part of Met Éireann, the Irish Meteorological Service
10.
James II of England
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James II and VII was King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685 until he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland, the second surviving son of Charles I, he ascended the throne upon the death of his brother, Charles II. Members of Britains Protestant political elite increasingly suspected him of being pro-French and pro-Catholic and he was replaced by his eldest, Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. James made one attempt to recover his crowns from William. After the defeat of the Jacobite forces by the Williamites at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690 and he lived out the rest of his life as a pretender at a court sponsored by his cousin and ally, King Louis XIV. James, the surviving son of King Charles I and his wife. Later that same year, he was baptised by William Laud and he was educated by private tutors, along with his brother, the future King Charles II, and the two sons of the Duke of Buckingham, George and Francis Villiers. At the age of three, James was appointed Lord High Admiral, the position was honorary, but would become a substantive office after the Restoration. He was designated Duke of York at birth, invested with the Order of the Garter in 1642, as the Kings disputes with the English Parliament grew into the English Civil War, James stayed in Oxford, a Royalist stronghold. When the city surrendered after the siege of Oxford in 1646, in 1648, he escaped from the Palace, aided by Joseph Bampfield, and from there he went to The Hague in disguise. When Charles I was executed by the rebels in 1649, monarchists proclaimed Jamess older brother as Charles II of England, Charles II was recognised as king by the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of Ireland, and was crowned King of Scotland at Scone in 1651. Although he was proclaimed King in Jersey, Charles was unable to secure the crown of England and consequently fled to France, like his brother, James sought refuge in France, serving in the French army under Turenne against the Fronde, and later against their Spanish allies. In the French army James had his first true experience of battle where, according to one observer, he ventures himself, in the meantime, Charles was attempting to reclaim his throne, but France, although hosting the exiles, had allied itself with Oliver Cromwell. In 1656, Charles turned instead to Spain – an enemy of France – for support, in consequence, James was expelled from France and forced to leave Turennes army. James quarrelled with his brother over the choice of Spain over France. In 1659, the French and Spanish made peace, James, doubtful of his brothers chances of regaining the throne, considered taking a Spanish offer to be an admiral in their navy. Ultimately, he declined the position, by the year the situation in England had changed. After Richard Cromwells resignation as Lord Protector in 1659 and the subsequent collapse of the Commonwealth in 1660, although James was the heir presumptive, it seemed unlikely that he would inherit the Crown, as Charles was still a young man capable of fathering children
11.
Constance Markievicz
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Constance Georgine Markievicz, known as Countess Markievicz was an Irish Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil politician, revolutionary nationalist, suffragette and socialist. In December 1918, she was the first woman elected to the British House of Commons, though she did not take her seat and, along with the other Sinn Féin TDs and she was also the second woman to hold a cabinet position in the world. During the famine of 1879–80, Sir Henry provided free food for the tenants on his estate at Lissadell House in the north of County Sligo in the north-west of Ireland. Their fathers example inspired in Gore-Booth and her sister, Eva Gore-Booth, a deep concern for working people. The sisters were friends of the poet W. B. Yeats, who visited the family home Lissadell House, and were influenced by his artistic. Yeats wrote a poem, In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz, Eva later became involved in the labour movement and womens suffrage in England, although initially Constance did not share her sisters ideals. Gore-Booth decided to train as a painter, but, at the time, in 1892, she went to study at the Slade School of Art in London. It was at time that Gore-Booth first became politically active. Later she moved to Paris and enrolled at the prestigious Académie Julian where she met her husband, Casimir Markievicz. Markievicz was known in Paris as Count Markievicz, however, the Department of Genealogy in Saint Petersburg said that he was entitled to claim to be a member of the nobility. Markievicz was married, though separated, at the time that they met and she was afterwards known as Countess Markievicz. She gave birth to their daughter, Maeve, at Lissadell in November 1901, the child was raised by her Gore-Booth grandparents and eventually became estranged from her mother. She undertook the role of mother to Stanislas, Casimirs son from his first marriage, the Markieviczes settled in Dublin in 1903 and moved in artistic and literary circles, with Constance gaining a reputation as a landscape painter. This group included the figures of the Gaelic League founded by the future first President of Ireland. Although formally apolitical and concerned with the preservation of the Irish language and culture, at Pursers house, Markievicz met revolutionary patriots Michael Davitt, John OLeary and Maud Gonne. In 1906, Markievicz rented a cottage in the countryside near Dublin, the previous tenant, the poet Padraic Colum, had left behind copies of The Peasant and Sinn Féin. These revolutionary journals promoted independence from British rule, Markievicz read these publications and was propelled into action
