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.
Michael Collins (Irish leader)
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Michael Collins was a soldier and politician who was a leading figure in the struggle for Irish independence in the early 20th century. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-chief of the National Army, Collins was shot and killed in an ambush in August 1922 during the Irish Civil War. Born in Woodfield, Sams Cross, near Clonakilty, County Cork, Collins was the third son, most biographies give his date of birth as 16 October 1890, but his tombstone cites 12 October 1890. Referred to in a British secret service report as brainy, the Collins family were part of an ancient clan and they had republican connections that can be traced back to the 1798 rebellion. Collins father, Michael John, was a farmer by profession, a mathematician in his spare time, he had been a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood movement. The elder Collins was 60 years old when he married Mary Anne OBrien, then 23 and they brought up eight children on a 90-acre farm called Woodfield, which the Collins had held as tenants for several generations. On his death bed, his father predicted that his daughter Helena would become a nun and she later did, known as Sister Mary Celestine, based in Whitby. He then turned to the family and told them to care of Michael. Hell do great work for Ireland, Michael was six years old when his father died. Collins was a bright and precocious child with a fiery temper and he named a local blacksmith, James Santry, and his headmaster at Lisavaird National School, Denis Lyons, as the first nationalists to personally inspire his pride of Irishness. Lyons was a member of the IRB, while Santrys family had participated in, and forged arms for, there are a number of anecdotal explanations for the origin of his nickname, The Big Fellow. The most authoritative comes from his family, stating that he was called this as a child and it had been a term of endearment for their youngest brother, who was always keen to take on tasks beyond his years. It was certainly established by his teens, long before he emerged as a political or military leader. At the age of thirteen he boarded at Clonakilty National School, during the week he stayed with his sister Margaret Collins-ODriscoll and her husband Patrick ODriscoll, while at weekends he returned to the family farm. Patrick ODriscoll founded the newspaper The West Cork People and Collins helped out with general reporting jobs, in 1910 he became a messenger at a London firm of stockbrokers, Horne and Company. While living in London he studied law at Kings College London and he joined the London GAA and, through this, the IRB. Sam Maguire, a republican from Dunmanway, County Cork, introduced the 19-year-old Collins to the IRB, an organiser of considerable intelligence, Collins had become highly respected in the IRB. This led to his appointment as financial advisor to Count Plunkett, father of one of the Easter Risings organisers, Collins took part in preparing arms and drilling troops for the insurrection
3.
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
4.
John Redmond
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John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, and MP in the British House of Commons. He was best known as leader of the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 until his death in 1918 and he was also leader of the paramilitary organisation the Irish National Volunteers. He was born to an old prominent Catholic family in rural Ireland and he took over control of the minority IPP faction loyal to Charles Stewart Parnell when that leader died in 1891. Redmond was a politician who achieved the two main objectives of his political life, party unity and, in September 1914, the passing of the Irish Home Rule Act. The Act granted limited self-government to Ireland, within the United Kingdom, however, implementation of Home Rule was suspended by the outbreak of the First World War. However, after the Easter Rising of 1916, Irish public opinion shifted in favour of militant republicanism and full Irish independence, in sharp contrast to Parnell, Redmond lacked charisma. He worked well in small committees, but had success in arousing large audiences. Parnell always chose the nominees to Parliament, now they were selected by the local party organisations, giving Redmond numerous weak MPs over whom he had little control. He never tried to understand the unionist forces emerging in Ulster, Redmond was further weakened in 1914 by the formation by Sinn Féin members of the Irish Volunteers. His enthusiastic support for the British war effort alienated many Irish nationalists and his party had been increasingly hollowed out, and a major crisis—notably the Easter Rising—was enough to destroy it. John Edward Redmond was born at Ballytrent House, Kilrane, County Wexford and he was the eldest son of William Archer Redmond, MP by Mary, daughter of General Hoey, the brother of Francis Hoey, heir of the Hoey seat, Dunganstown Castle, County Wicklow. For over seven hundred years the Redmonds had been a prominent Catholic gentry family in County Wexford and Wexford town. They were one of the oldest Hiberno-Norman families, and had for a time been known as the Redmonds of The Hall. His more immediate family were a political dynasty themselves. After his death in 1866, his nephew, William Archer Redmond, John Redmond was the brother of Willie Redmond, MP for Wexford and East Clare, and the father of William Redmond, whose wife was Bridget Redmond. Redmonds family heritage was more complex than that of most of his nationalist political colleagues and his mother came from a Protestant and unionist family, although she had converted to Catholicism on marriage, she never converted to nationalism. As a student, young John exhibited the seriousness that many would come to associate with him. After finishing at Clongowes, Redmond attended Trinity College, Dublin to study law, in 1876 he left to live with his father in London, acting as his assistant in Westminster, where he developed more fascination for politics than for law
5.
Dublin
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Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, the city has an urban area population of 1,345,402. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2016, was 1,904,806 people, founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800, following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is administered by a City Council, the city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy, the name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, dubh /d̪uβ/, alt. /d̪uw/, alt /d̪u, / meaning black, dark, and lind /lʲiɲ pool and this tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn /d̪ˠi, other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b and those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Irish-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning town of the ford, is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, there are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford. Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times and he called the settlement Eblana polis. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay, the Dubhlinn was a small lake used to moor ships, the Poddle connected the lake with the Liffey. This lake was covered during the early 18th century as the city grew, the Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle
6.
Derry
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Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name Daire meaning oak grove, in 1613, the city was granted a Royal Charter by King James I and gained the London prefix to reflect the funding of its construction by the London guilds. While the city is usually known colloquially as Derry, Londonderry is also commonly used. The old walled city lies on the west bank of the River Foyle, the city now covers both banks. The population of the city was 83,652 at the 2001 Census, the district administered by Derry City and Strabane District Council contains both Londonderry Port and City of Derry Airport. Derry is close to the border with County Donegal, with which it has had a link for many centuries. In 2013, Derry was the inaugural UK City of Culture, according to the citys Royal Charter of 10 April 1662, the official name is Londonderry. This was reaffirmed in a High Court decision in 2007 when Derry City Council sought guidance on the procedure for effecting a name change. The council had changed its name from Londonderry City Council to Derry City Council in 1984, the decision of the court was that it had not but it was clarified that the correct procedure to do so was via a petition to the Privy Council. Derry City Council since started this process and were involved in conducting an equality impact assessment report, then the EQIA held two consultative forums, and solicited comments from the general public on whether or not the city should have its name changed to Derry. A total of 12,136 comments were received, of which 3,108 were broadly in favour of the proposal, and 9,028 opposed to it. Despite the official name, the city is usually known as Derry, which is an anglicisation of the Irish Daire or Doire. The name derives from the settlements earliest references, Daire Calgaich, the name was changed from Derry in 1613 during the Plantation of Ulster to reflect the establishment of the city by the London guilds. In McCaffertys survey of language use in the city, only very few interviewees—all Protestants—use the official form, apart from the name of Derry City Council, the city is usually known as Londonderry in official use within the UK. In the Republic of Ireland, the city and county are almost always referred to as Derry, on maps, in the media and in conversation. Whereas official road signs in the Republic use the name Derry, usage varies among local organisations, with both names being used. Most companies within the city choose local area such as Pennyburn. Londonderry railway station is referred to as Waterside railway station within the city but is called Derry/Londonderry at other stations
7.
Tullamore
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Tullamore is a town in County Offaly, in the midlands of Ireland. It is Offalys county town and is located in the centre of the county, Tullamore was designated a gateway town, along with Mullingar and Athlone, in late 2003 by the Irish Government, making it eligible for increased infrastructural investment. The town retained Gold Medal status in the National Tidy Town Awards in 2015, the Tullamore Show is held near the town every year. The towns most famous export is Tullamore Dew – an Irish whiskey distilled by Tullamore Distillery – that can be traced back to 1829, the original distillery shut down in the 1954, with the brand later being resurrected and produced at the Midleton Distillery, in Cork. However, the new owners, William Grant & Sons, invested in a new distillery near Tullamore. In ancient Gaelic Ireland, Tullamore was located in what was known as the landfill territory of Firceall ruled by the OMolloy clan. Firceall was then part of the ancient Kingdom of Meath, following the plantation of Offaly in the 16th and 17th centuries, Firceall was divided into the baronies of Ballycowan, Ballyboy and Eglish, with Tullamore located in Ballycowan. Tullamore was part of the first English plantation of Offaly in the 1570s, by the mid-1500s the lands that were originally ruled by the OMolloy clan were securely planted and in the hands of the Moore family. From this point on a dynasty was established which endured into the nineteenth century, commencing with the grant of the Tullamore area, comprising some 5000 acres. At that time the Tullamore estate included a castle, ten cottages. Sir Robert Forth, who leased the lands from Thomas Moore, Charles Moore, Lord Tullamore, grandson of Thomas, eventually regained possession of the estate and when he died in 1674 it went via his sister to Charles William Bury. Charles William was later created the 1st Earl of Charleville in a creation of the title. To this day, the shield depicts a phoenix rising from the ashes. The event is commemorated by the Phoenix festival which celebrates Tullamores resurrection from the ashes following the accident. The Grand Canal linked Tullamore to Dublin in 1798, during the Napoleonic Wars, a clash between troops of the Kings German Legion and a regiment of British Light Infantry who were both stationed in the town, became known as the Battle of Tullamore. Tullamore became county town of County Offaly in 1835, replacing Daingean, Tullamore has a long history of whiskey distilling, with two distilleries known to have operated in the two in the 1780s, though closed some years later. Subsequently, a new distillery, was established by Michael Molloy, when Molloy died, the distillery first passed to his brother Anthony, before eventually making its way into the hands of his nephew, Bernard Daly. When Daly died, his son, Captain Bernard Daly took ownership of the business, Williams brought electricity to Tullamore in 1893
8.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
9.
Scuttling
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Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull. This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea and their success would have halted his inland march and conquest of the Aztec Empire. HMS Sapphire was a 32-gun, fifth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy in Newfoundland Colony to protect the English migratory fishery, the vessel was trapped in Bay Bulls harbour by four French naval vessels led by Jacques-François de Brouillan. To avoid capture, the English scuttled the vessel on 11 September 1696, the British sank one ship on October 10,1781 to prevent it from getting captured by the French fleet. During the Belgian war of independence, Dutch gunboat commander Jan van Speijk came under attack from a mob of Antwerp labourers. When they forced him and his crew to surrender, he ignited a barrel of gunpowder, thus sinking his ship and killing himself, according to tradition, in his last words he said hed rather be blown up than become a Belgian. Van Speijk went on to become a hero in The Netherlands. After the war, it became a challenge to recover the ships. In 1861, the Federal steam frigate Merrimack was set afire in Gosport Shipyard to keep her from falling into Confederate hands, the unsuccessful attempt at scuttling enabled the Confederate Navy to raise and rebuild her as Virginia. Virginia was later sunk by the Confederates after her famous battle with USS Monitor to keep her from being taken back. During the War of the Pacific, as Chilean troops entered Lima and El Callao, in August 1914, SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was requisitioned by the Kaiserliche Marine and converted into an auxiliary cruiser, assigned to commerce raiding in the Atlantic. She was fitted with six 10.5 cm guns and two 37 mm guns, after sparing two passenger ships because they were carrying many women and children, she sank two freighters before she herself was sunk on 26 August 1914. She was caught refuelling off the shore of the then Spanish colony of Río de Oro in western Africa by the old British 6-inch gunned cruiser HMS Highflyer, badly outgunned, the ship eventually ran out of ammunition. The crew abandoned and scuttled her, British sources at the time insisted that Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse sank because of the damage inflicted by Highflyer. In December 1914, SMS Dresden was the only German warship to escape destruction in the Battle of the Falkland Islands and she eluded her British pursuers for several more months, until she put into Más a Tierra in March 1915. Her engines were out and she had almost no coal left for her boilers. There, she was trapped by British cruisers, which violated Chilean neutrality, dresdens Executive Officer - the future Admiral Wilhelm Canaris - negotiated with the British and bought time for his shipmates to scuttle Dresden. Thetis, Intrepid and Iphigenia were filled with concrete then sent to block a critical canal, heavy defensive fire caused the Thetis to scuttle prematurely, the other two cruisers sank themselves successfully in the narrowest part of the canal
10.
Roger Casement
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He then made efforts during World War I to gain German military aid for the 1916 Easter Rising that sought to gain Irish independence. In Africa as a man, Casement first worked for commercial interests before joining the British Colonial Service. In 1891 he was appointed as a British consul, a profession he followed for more than 20 years, influenced by the Boer War and his investigation into colonial atrocities against indigenous peoples, Casement grew to distrust imperialism. After retiring from service in 1913, he became more involved with Irish republicanism. He sought to obtain German support and weapons for a rebellion in Ireland against British rule during World War I. He was arrested, convicted and executed for treason, before the trial, the British government circulated excerpts said to be from his private journals, known as the Black Diaries, which detailed homosexual activities. Given prevailing views and existing laws on homosexuality, this material undermined support for clemency for Casement, debates have continued about these diaries, a handwriting comparison study in 2002 concluded Casement had written the diaries but this was still contested by some. Casement was born in Dublin to an Anglo-Irish family, living in early childhood at Doyles Cottage, Lawson Terrace. His father, Captain Roger Casement of the Regiment of Dragoons, was the son of a bankrupt Belfast shipping merchant, Hugh Casement, Captain Casement had served in the 1842 Afghan campaign. He traveled to Europe to fight as a volunteer in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 but arrived after the Surrender at Világos. After the family moved to England, Rogers mother, Anne Jephson, according to an 1892 letter, Casement believed his mother was descended from the Jephson family of Mallow, County Cork. However, the Jephson familys historian provides no evidence of this, the family lived in England in Worthing in genteel poverty, Rogers mother died when he was nine. They returned to Ireland to County Antrim to live near paternal relatives, when Casement was 13 years old his father died, having ended his days in Ballymena, dependent on the charity of relatives, the Youngs and the Casements. He was educated at the Diocesan School, Ballymena and he left school at 16 and went to England to work as a clerk with Elder Dempster, a Liverpool shipping company headed by Alfred Lewis Jones. Roger Casements brother, Thomas Hugh Casement, helped to establish the Irish Coastguard Service and he drowned in Dublins Grand Canal on 6 March 1939. and is buried in Deansgrange Cemetery. During his commercial work, he learned African languages, in 1890 Casement met Joseph Conrad, who had come to the Congo to use a merchant ship, Le Roi des Belges, to recover a European from a trading post on the upper reaches of the Congo River. Both had come inspired by the idea that European colonisation would bring moral and social progress to the continent and free its inhabitants from slavery, paganism, each would soon learn the gravity of his error. Conrad published his novel, Heart of Darkness, in 1899
11.
County Kerry
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County Kerry is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county, Kerry County Council is the local authority for the county and Tralee serves as the county town. The population of the county was 147,554 in 2016, Kerry is the fifth-largest of the 32 counties of Ireland by area and the 15th-largest by population. It is the second-largest of Munsters six counties by area, uniquely, it is bordered by only two other counties, County Limerick to the east and County Cork to the south-east. The diocesan see is Killarney, which is one of Irelands most famous tourist destinations, the Lakes of Killarney, an area of outstanding natural beauty are located in Killarney National Park. The tip of the Dingle Peninsula is the most westerly point of Ireland, there are nine historic baronies in the county. While baronies continue to be officially defined units, they are no longer used for administrative purposes. Their official status is illustrated by Placenames Orders made since 2003, the county is bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean and on the north by the River Shannon. Just off the coast are a number of islands, including the Blasket Islands, Valentia Island, skellig Michael is a World Heritage Site, famous for the medieval monastery clinging to the islands cliffs. The county contains the extreme west point of Ireland, Dunmore Head on the Dingle Peninsula, or including islands, Tearaght Island, the most westerly inhabited area of Ireland is Dún Chaoin, on the Dingle Peninsula. The River Feale, the River Laune and the Roughty River flow through Kerry, the North Atlantic Current, part of the Gulf Stream, flows north past Kerry and the west coast of Ireland, resulting in milder temperatures than would otherwise be expected at the 52 North latitude. This means that plants such as the strawberry tree and tree ferns, not normally found in northern Europe. Because of the area and the prevailing southwesterly winds, Kerry is among the regions with the highest rainfall in Ireland. Owing to its location, there has been a reporting station on Valentia for many centuries. The Irish record for rainfall in one day is 243.5 mm, in 1986 the remnants of Hurricane Charley crossed over Kerry as an extratropical storm causing extensive rainfall, flooding and damage. Kerry means the people of Ciar which was the name of the tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich, in Old Irish Ciar meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective describing a dark complexion
