Lisbon is the capital and the largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 505,526 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits with a population of around 2.8 million people, being the 10th-most populous urban area in the European Union. About 3 million people live in the Lisbon metropolitan area, which represents 27% of the country's population, it is the only one along the Atlantic coast. Lisbon lies in the western Iberian Peninsula on the River Tagus; the westernmost portions of its metro area form the westernmost point of Continental Europe, known as Cabo da Roca, located in the Sintra Mountains. Lisbon is recognised as an alpha-level global city because of its importance in finance, media, arts, international trade and tourism. Lisbon is one of two Portuguese cities to be recognised as a global city, it is one of the major economic centres on the continent, with a growing financial sector and one of the largest container ports on Europe's Atlantic coast.

Additionally, Humberto Delgado Airport served 29 million passengers in 2018, being the busiest airport in Portugal, the 3rd busiest in the Iberian Peninsula and the 20th busiest in Europe. The motorway network and the high-speed rail system of Alfa Pendular links the main cities of Portugal to Lisbon; the city is the 9th-most-visited city in Southern Europe, after Rome, Barcelona, Venice, Madrid and Athens, with 3,320,300 tourists in 2017. The Lisbon region has a higher GDP PPP per capita than any other region in Portugal, its GDP amounts to thus $32,434 per capita. The city occupies the 40th place of highest gross earnings in the world. Most of the headquarters of multinational corporations in Portugal are located in the Lisbon area, it is the political centre of the country, as its seat of government and residence of the head of state. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, the second-oldest European capital city, predating other modern European capitals by centuries. Julius Caesar made it.

Ruled by a series of Germanic tribes from the 5th century, it was captured by the Moors in the 8th century. In 1147, the Crusaders under Afonso Henriques reconquered the city and since it has been the political and cultural center of Portugal. Lisbon's name may have been derived from Proto-Celtic or Celtic Olisippo, Lissoppo, or a similar name which other visiting peoples like the ancient Phoenicians and Romans adapted accordingly, such as the pre-Roman appellation for the Tagus River, Lisso or Lucio. Classical authors writing in Latin and Greek, including Strabo and Martianus Capella, referred to popular legends that the city of Lisbon was founded by the mythical hero Ulysses. Lisbon's name was written Ulyssippo in Latin by a native of Hispania, it was referred to as "Olisippo" by Pliny the Elder and by the Greeks as Olissipo or Olissipona. Another claim repeated in non-academic literature, is that the name of Lisbon could be traced back to Phoenician times, referring to a Phoenician term Alis-Ubo, meaning "safe harbour".

Although modern archaeological excavations show a Phoenician presence at this location since 1200 BC, this folk etymology has no historical credibility. Lisbon's name is abbreviated as "LX" or "Lx", originating in an antiquated spelling of Lisbon as ‘‘Lixbõa’’. While the old spelling has since been dropped from usage and goes against modern language standards, the abbreviation is still used. During the Neolithic period, the region was inhabited by Pre-Celtic tribes, who built religious and funerary monuments, megaliths and menhirs, which still survive in areas on the periphery of Lisbon; the Indo-European Celts invaded in the 1st millennium BC, mixing with the Pre-Indo-European population, thus giving rise to Celtic-speaking local tribes such as the Cempsi. Although the first fortifications on Lisbon's Castelo hill are known to be no older than the 2nd century BC, recent archaeological finds have shown that Iron Age people occupied the site from the 8th to 6th centuries BC; this indigenous settlement maintained commercial relations with the Phoenicians, which would account for the recent findings of Phoenician pottery and other material objects.

Archaeological excavations made near the Castle of São Jorge and Lisbon Cathedral indicate a Phoenician presence at this location since 1200 BC, it can be stated with confidence that a Phoenician trading post stood on a site now the centre of the present city, on the southern slope of Castle hill. The sheltered harbour in the Tagus River estuary was an ideal spot for an Iberian settlement and would have provided a secure harbour for unloading and provisioning Phoenician ships; the Tagus settlement was an important centre of commercial trade with the inland tribes, providing an outlet for the valuable metals and salted-fish they collected, for the sale of the Lusitanian horses renowned in antiquity. According to a persistent legend, the location was named for the mythical Ulysses, who founded the city when he sailed westward to the ends of the known world. Following the defeat of Hannibal in 202 BC during the Punic wars, the Romans determined to deprive Carthage of its most valuable possession: Hispania.

The defeat of Carthaginian forces by Scipio Africanus in Eastern Hispania allowed the pacification of the west, led by Consul Decimus Junius Brutus C

Feidhlimidh Mág Samhradháin, the Second, d. 20 January 1622, was head of the McGovern dynasty and Baron or Lord of Tullyhaw barony, County Cavan from before 1611 until his death on 20 January 1622. His male pedigree was Feidhlimidh son of Brian son of Tomás son of Maghnus son of Tomás Óg son of Tomás na Feasoige son of Fearghal son of Tomás son of Brian'Breaghach' Mág Samhradháin, he was the third eldest son and had two brothers who preceded him as head, Tomas Óg Mág Samhradháin and Brian Óg Mág Samhradháin, together with a third brother Emonn of Lissanover. Mág Samhradháin first comes to notice on 19 January 1586 when Queen Elizabeth I of England granted a pardon to Phelim m'Brien m'Thomas Magawran, of Colleaghe, for fighting against the Queen's forces. On 30 April 1605 King James VI and I granted a further pardon to him as Phelim McGaran of Tolaghagh, for fighting against the King's forces. Mág Samhradháin's castle was in the townland of Coologe, now in the parish of Templeport, County Cavan.

An earthen ringfort now on the shore of Coologe Lough is the site of the castle. Poem 1 by Giolla Pádraig mac Naimhin in the Book of Magauran describes what the castle looked like about 1290 A. D, it is described as a strong compact stout castle with interior walls of white hazel-wood which were covered with satin and tapestries. Along the wall were weapon racks with blued-iron spears and bridles; the door of the castle was ribbed in gold. The palisade outside was bright with berries. In the feast-hall were poets, musicians with harps, a hundred warriors and hounds held by gold-linked chains; the guests drank wine from gem-encrusted gold goblets. The castle was burned on 3 May 1298 in an attack by the clan Muircheartaigh Uí Conchobhair; the Annals of Connacht for 1298 state- Brian Bregach Mag Samradain, chieftain of Tullyhaw, the most generous and valorous man of his time, was killed by Aed Brefnech O Conchobair and the Clan Murtagh in his own house at Coologe on the third day of summer. Sometime about 1400 the chief's castle moved to Ballymagauran townland and Coologe Castle was given to the Tánaiste of the clan, which office Feidhlimidh held in 1586.

Tánaiste was the Irish word for the heir of the chief, under the Gaelic system of tanistry. On the death of his brother Tomas Óg Mág Samhradháin, sometime after 1586, Feidhlimidh became head of the Mág Samhradháin dynasty and moved from his home in Coologe to the chief's residence in Ballymagauran. About 1602 the poet Aonghus Ruadh na nAor Ó Dálaigh was employed by the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy to go around among the remaining Gaelic lords and satirise them on their fallen estate in order to instigate enmity among them. Few of these were able to maintain a poet in their household and O'Daly was glad of a job from anyone; however he paid for his insolence by being assassinated. His satire on the Mág Samhradháin dynasty was- The race of Samhradhan of small Boolies', and they all with little food. In the Plantation of Ulster by grant dated 29 April 1611, King James VI and I granted the modern day townlands of Ballymagauran, Boley, Camagh, Gortaclogher, Killymoriarty, Killywillin and Sruhagh, to Phelim Magawran, but it is probable that the lands had been in the possession of the Mág Samhradháin dynasty for several hundred years before this and it was just a Surrender and regrant confirming the existing title to the McGoverns.

Under the terms of the Ulster Plantation grant, Feidhlimidh was obliged to build a new castle in Ballymagauran. In a visitation by George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes in autumn 1611 he states that "Magauran had his own land given him on this division". By 1613, Feidhlimidh Mág Samhradháin had progressed with building work. Sir Josias Bodley reported on 6 February 1613-"Proportion No. 31: 1,000 acres. Magauran is seated, near to his Irish house by a lough's side hath begun an English building of lime and stone of 40 feet long and 20 broad, not yet raised above the first story, but with this season intendeth to set it forward: There is round about it a trench and dike of earth and sod, which with little labour may be made of good strength, that, it seemeth, by his beginning, he hath a purpose to do."By 1619 Pynnar's Survey of Land Holders found that Mág Samhradháin had built a castle on his holdings. Feidhlimidh Mág Samhradháin had at least two sons and Giolla na Naomh. An Inquisition of King Charles I of England held in Cavan town on 4 October 1626 stated that the aforesaid Phelim Magawrane died on 20 January 1622 and his lands went to his son Brian who succeeded him as head of the lineage.

Brian was married to Mary O'Brien. According to local tradition Feidhlimidh is buried on Inch Island in Templeport Lough. A survey taken at Ballymagauran in August 1622 stated that- "Brian Magauran hath 1,000 acres in, a bawn of sodds and within it a stone howse thatched, with chymneys and a part of it lofted, he setts his land from yeare to yeare to ye Irish, who plowgh by ye taile." The castle that Mág Samhradháin erected after 1611 was besieged and destroyed by Oliver Cromwell's army in 1649. Sir William Petty's Down Survey map of 1659 shows the castle in the townland of Dromkirke with inscription "Stone house in repair"

Contact, l'encyclopédie de la création is a television series broadcast by Quebec's public broadcaster Télé-Québec. Each one-hour program offers an up-close personal portrait of a creator; this new incarnation of the series is the brainchild of broadcaster Stéphan Bureau who created under the title Contact in the early 1990s. Each episode, shot over the course of two or three days, centers on interviews conducted by Bureau with the featured creator; the complete program is shot on location in settings. In 2006, the first season of Contact, l'encyclopédie de la création was composed of 13 episodes, most of which were shot in Europe. From La Louvière, Belgium, to Las Vegas, Franco Dragone left his name of some of the most memorable stage creations of the last decade. Dragone directed most of the earliest shows of Cirque du Soleil as well as Céline Dion's A New Day... and Le Rêve presented at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino. In Contact, he tells Bureau what it meant for him after his international success to bring back some hope to his dying mining community by creating his Dragone production company.

He reflects on his creative process and on the fear of having no more to offer to his art. The quintessential Parisian, Jean D'Ormesson has written extensively about his royalist family and his love of Venice; the son of an ambassador, D'Ormesson became in 1973 the youngest member of the Académie française to which he contributed getting the first woman admitted. In Contact, the 82-year-old writer gets teary eyed saying that his father may have died thinking him a failure; the most sold author in the French language, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt lives in Brussels and his plays have been staged all over the world. He wanted to be a musician but turned to philosophy and became a writer. A survivor of the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz Simone Veil became lawyer, a judge and major political figure in France and at the European parliament. In Contact, she poignantly recollects how the detainees in the death camp were stripped of any shred of humanity, she saw her mother die from disease in the camps and her father and brother were never heard of again after being deported.

An adviser to French President François Mitterrand, Jacques Attali is an economist and thinker. He was the first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and founded PlaNet finance a non-profit organization specializing in Micro credit; the brother of a psychoanalyst, Attali says he always refused to go into analysis because he is scared that the delicate movements of his mind could not be put back together after having been disassembled. He states: "I'm know I am crazy, but I am fine like that." Quebec-born Robert Lepage is a director. When he is not in Copenhagen or Tokyo he is working out his Quebec City theater built in an old fire station. Remembering his childhood, Lepage tells Stephan Bureau children don't move me, they can be mean. Much more so than adults