1.
Republic of Ireland
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Ireland, also known as the Republic of Ireland, is a sovereign state in north-western Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, which is located on the part of the island. The state shares its land border with Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. It is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, Saint Georges Channel to the south-east, and it is a unitary, parliamentary republic. The head of government is the Taoiseach, who is elected by the Dáil and appointed by the President, the state was created as the Irish Free State in 1922 as a result of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It was officially declared a republic in 1949, following the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, Ireland became a member of the United Nations in December 1955. It joined the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union, after joining the EEC, Ireland enacted a series of liberal economic policies that resulted in rapid economic growth. The country achieved considerable prosperity between the years of 1995 and 2007, which known as the Celtic Tiger period. This was halted by a financial crisis that began in 2008. However, as the Irish economy was the fastest growing in the EU in 2015, Ireland is again quickly ascending league tables comparing wealth and prosperity internationally. For example, in 2015, Ireland was ranked as the joint sixth most developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index and it also performs well in several national performance metrics, including freedom of the press, economic freedom and civil liberties. Ireland is a member of the European Union and is a member of the Council of Europe. The 1922 state, comprising 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland, was styled, the Constitution of Ireland, adopted in 1937, provides that the name of the State is Éire, or, in the English language, Ireland. Section 2 of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 states, It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland. The 1948 Act does not name the state as Republic of Ireland, because to have done so would have put it in conflict with the Constitution. The government of the United Kingdom used the name Eire, and, from 1949, Republic of Ireland, for the state, as well as Ireland, Éire or the Republic of Ireland, the state is also referred to as the Republic, Southern Ireland or the South. In an Irish republican context it is referred to as the Free State or the 26 Counties. From the Act of Union on 1 January 1801, until 6 December 1922, during the Great Famine, from 1845 to 1849, the islands population of over 8 million fell by 30%
2.
Ulster
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Ulster is a province in the north of the island of Ireland. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a rí ruirech, the definition of the province was fluid from early to medieval times. It took a shape in the reign of King James I of England when all the counties of Ireland were eventually shired. This process of evolving conquest had been under way since the Norman invasion of Ireland, particularly as advanced by the Cambro-Norman magnates Hugh de Lacy, Ulster was a central topic role in the parliamentary debates that eventually resulted in the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Under the terms of the Act, Ireland was divided into two territories, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, with the passing through the province. While these six counties and two boroughs were all in the province of Ulster, three other counties of the province – Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan – were assigned to the Irish Free State. Ulster has no function for local government purposes in either country. However, for the purposes of ISO-3166-2, Ulster is used to refer to the three counties of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan only, which are given country sub-division code IE-U. It has also suggested to have derived from Uladh plus the Norse suffix ster. The Irish name, Cúige Uladh, means the province of the Ulaid, the Ulaidh were a group of tribes who dwelt in the region. Ulaidh has historically been anglicised as Ulagh or Ullagh and Latinised as Ulidia or Ultonia, the latter two have yielded the terms Ulidian and Ultonian. Words that have used in English are Ullish and Ulsterman/Ulsterwoman. Northern Ireland is often referred to as Ulster, despite including only six of Ulsters nine counties and this usage is most common amongst people in Northern Ireland who are unionist, although it is also used by the media throughout the United Kingdom. Most Irish nationalists object to the use of Ulster in this context, Ulster has a population of just over 2 million people and an area of 21,552 square kilometres. About 62% of the area of Ulster is in the UK while the remaining 38% is in the Republic of Ireland. Ulsters biggest city, Belfast, has an population of over half a million inhabitants, making it the second-largest city on the island of Ireland. Three Ulster counties – Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan – form part of the Republic of Ireland, about half of Ulsters population lives in counties Antrim and Down. 8% to 42. 7%. While the traditional counties continue to demarcate areas of government in the Republic of Ireland
3.
County Donegal
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County Donegal is a county of Ireland. It is part of the Border Region of the Republic of Ireland and is in the province of Ulster and it is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. Donegal County Council is the council for the county and Lifford serves as the county town. The population of the county is 158,755 according to the 2016 census and it has also been known as Tyrconnell, after the historic territory of the same name. In terms of size and area, it is the largest county in Ulster, uniquely, County Donegal shares a small border with only one other county in the Republic of Ireland – County Leitrim. The greater part of its border is shared with three counties of Northern Ireland, County Londonderry, County Tyrone and County Fermanagh. While Lifford is the county town, Letterkenny is by far the largest town in the county with a population of 19,588, Letterkenny and the nearby city of Derry form the main economic axis of the northwest of Ireland. Indeed, what became the City of Derry was officially part of County Donegal up until 1610, there are two Gaeltacht districts in the west, The Rosses, centred on the town of Dungloe, and Gweedore. Another Gaeltacht district is located in the north-west, Cloughaneely, centred on the town of Falcarragh, the most northerly part of the island of Ireland is the location for three peninsulas of outstanding natural beauty, Inishowen, Fanad and Rosguill. The main population centre of Inishowen, Irelands largest peninsula, is Buncrana, in the east of the county lies the Finn Valley. The Laggan district is centred on the town of Raphoe, according to the 1841 Census, County Donegal had a population of 296,000 people. As a result of famine and emigration, the population had reduced by 41,000 by 1851, by the time of the 1951 Census the population was only 44% of what it had been in 1841. The 2006 Census, undertaken by the States Central Statistics Office, had County Donegals population standing at 147,264, according to the 2011 Census, the countys population had grown to 161,137. It has an indented coastline forming natural sea loughs, of which both Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle are the most notable. The Slieve League cliffs are the sixth-highest sea cliffs in Europe, the climate is temperate and dominated by the Gulf Stream, with warm, damp summers and mild wet winters. Two permanently inhabited islands, Arranmore and Tory Island, lie off the coast, Irelands second longest river, the Erne, enters Donegal Bay near the town of Ballyshannon. The River Erne, along with other Donegal waterways, has been dammed to produce hydroelectric power, the River Foyle separates part of County Donegal from parts of both counties Londonderry and Tyrone. A survey of the marine algae of County Donegal was published in 2003
4.
Lifford
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Lifford is the county town of County Donegal, Ireland. It is the capital of the county and the seat of Donegal County Council. Lifford lies in the Finn Valley area of East Donegal where the River Finn meets the River Mourne to create the River Foyle, the Burn Deele, a burn, flows into the River Foyle just north of Lifford. The town grew up around a castle there by Manghus Ó Domhnaill, ruler of Tír Chonaill. It later became a British Army garrison town until Ireland won independence as a dominion in early December 1922 and it lies across the River Foyle from Strabane and is linked to that town by Lifford Bridge. Manus ODonnell began building the castle in 1527 on the Wednesday after St. Brendans day and he completed the masonry and woodwork by the end of that summer even though the O’Neill’s of Tyrone were at war with him. In 1543 the castle of Leithbher was given to Cahir OGallagher to be guarded for the O’Donnell clan and he then proceeded to banish the people loyal to the O’Donnell’s from the castle so that he could keep it for himself. In 1544 Calvagh, the son of ODonnell, went to the English Lord Justice, and brought back English soldiers with him to Tirconnell, the olden name for County Donegal. ODonnell, Calvagh, and these men went with ‘ordnance and engines for taking towns’ to the castle of Lifford to take it back from the descendants of the OGallaghers. Cahir, the son of Tuathal Balbh & Turlough, the son of Felim Fin OGallagher, as the English attacked one was killed instantly so they killed Cahir, the son of Tuathal on the spot. The castle was surrendered to O’Donnell to spare the life of Turlough. The Battle of Lifford was fought in 1600 during Tyrones Rebellion, following the defeat of ODohertys Rebellion at the Battle of Kilmacrennan in 1608, a number of captured rebels were brought to Lifford where they were tried by Irish civilian courts and executed. The most notable rebel to be executed was Phelim Reagh MacDavitt, in 1611 Lifford came into the possession of Sir Richard Hansard during the Plantation of Ulster. One of the conditions of his grant was that a ferry crossing be provided over the River Finn and this service continued until 1730 when the first bridge linking Lifford and Strabane was built. In some of the cases of counties Donegal and Tyrone this would have been the middle of Lifford Bridge, the present bridge was constructed by engineering company McAlpines in 1964, jointly funded by Donegal County Council and the old Tyrone County Council. During The Troubles in 1968, an attempt was made to blow the bridge up, However, it was only closed for a short time and today remains an important road link. Lifford achieved national recognition in the 2008 Tidy Towns Awards as the best newcomer to the competition in Category C, Lifford was once a constituency that elected two M. P. s from the area to the Irish House of Commons from the years 1692 until 1800. More information on who represented the area can be here at Lifford
5.
Bundoran
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Bundoran is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. The town is located on the N15 road near Ballyshannon, and is the most southerly town in Donegal, the town is a popular seaside resort, and tourism has been at the heart of the local economy since 1777. Bundoran is a surfing area and was listed by National Geographic magazine in 2012 as one of the Worlds Top 20 Surf Towns. Bundoran, or as it is known in Irish Bun Dobhráin, was, up until over a century ago, Bundoran was the village west of the bridge over the River Bradoge. This area is now called the West End, East of the bridge, about 2 kilometres away, was the village of Single Street. In between these two communities was the townland of Drumacrin. The area of Drumcacrin is now part of what is todays town centre, Single Street was where most of the local population lived. The first official record of Bundoran is in a deposition by Hugh Gaskein on 16 May 1653 and he was a witness to events during the 1641 Rebellion when he was an apprentice butcher in Sligo. In 1689 a skirmish was fought near Bundoran between a Jacobite force under Sir Connell Ferrall and the retreating Protestant garrison of Sligo, william Cole, Viscount Enniskillen, built Bundoran Lodge, his summer home, in 1777. This building still stands on Bayview Avenue and is now called Homefield House, the Viscount seems to have started a trend amongst his contemporaries as more of them discovered Bundoran and visited it to enjoy the seaside and what were believed to be its health benefits. Canon Kelaghan also had the present Catholic church built in 1859, the Great Northern Railway operated the E&BR line from 1876 and absorbed the company in 1896. In this period Bundoran emerged as one of Irelands most popular seaside resorts, by the end of the 19th century it had become one of the main seaside resorts in Ulster. Hotels and lodging houses were opened around the town and the GNR built the Great Northern Hotel, during The Emergency of 1939–45 the GNR introduced the Bundoran Express that linked Dublin and Bundoran via Dundalk and Enniskillen. It also carried pilgrims to and from Pettigo, which was the nearest station for Lough Derg in County Donegal, there were also through trains between Bundoran and Belfast. The partition of Ireland in 1922 turned the boundary with County Fermanagh into an international frontier, henceforth Bundorans only railway link with the rest of the Irish Free State was via Northern Ireland, and as such was subject to delays for customs inspections. The Government of Northern Ireland closed much of the GNR network on its side of the border in 1957 and this gave the Republic no practical alternative but to allow the closure of the line between the border and Bundoran. Thereafter the nearest railheads for Bundoran were Sligo in the Republic and Omagh in Northern Ireland, today, the closest railway stations to Bundoran are Sligo Mac Diarmada Station in Sligo Town and Waterside Station in Derry. For almost two centuries people have flocked to Bundoran beach on hot summer days, the tradition of bathing boxes began in Victorian times
