1.
Lough Lene
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Lough Lene is a lake situated in north County Westmeath, Ireland, between the villages of Castlepollard, Collinstown and Fore. It possesses a rich and varied history and it also boasts the existence of prehistoric burial sites, old ruins, many ancient village-type communal circular dwellings locally called ringforts, stiles, and mass paths. The name of the lake has appeared in a variety of ways including Lane, Léin, sir Henry Piers believed the lakes name translated as Lake of Learning, tying in with his translation of Fore as the Town of Books. However, other sources seem more inclined to the tradition that the lake was named after the daughter of the fabled Manannán mac Lir, the lake is described in Lewiss Topographical as being an irregular oval shape, possibly 3.2 km long by 1.7 km broad. A freshwater lake, most sources focus on the clarity of the water and it sits approximately 97 metres above sea level and covers approximately 500 hectares. It plays a part in local life from being the water supply for Collinstown to playing an essential part in the social, historical and recreational life of the area. Nuns Island on Lough Lene was once the site of a convent, baile na gCailleach, the old Irish name for the town of Collinstown, when translated means the town of the veiled women, or the town of the old hags. This was an irreverent name which referred to the nuns of the convent on the island, the two other islands are Castle Island, and Turgesius Island. An ancient bell was found on Castle Island in 1881 and is now in the National Museum of Ireland, a survey revealed that Nuns Island was a complex stone structure with causeway-like features, while Castle Island showed the best potential, with a large assemblage of worked timbers. Two logboats were also recovered in 1968, one with dovetail joints and these Roman-period log-boats were constructed for lake fishing, and were about 8 m long,1.5 m wide, and 80 centimetres deep, were made of oak, yew, and possibly willow. Other notable constructional features are that they were complex boats, carved, dugout, mortice-and-tenon, in more recent times, since the Republic of Ireland joined the European Union, Lough Lene is also known as the first freshwater lake to obtain a Blue Flag for its pollution-free water. Lough Lenes clear water also acts as a reservoir for many surrounding villages, Collinstown, Rickardstown and Glenidan have come together to form a successful GAA club called the Lough Lene Gaels. Swimming, sailing and windsurfing are popular, dressing-rooms and picnic areas are available to tourists at the point locally referred to as the Cut about 2 km north from the Collinstown cross-roads. The Cut is situated on the east end of the lake, local Triathalon clubs and Meath Masters Swimming Club train and hold events here regularly. In Summertime average water temperatures are around 17c, sometimes a few degrees higher during periods of good weather, one of the more popular training swims is out to Turgesius Island a distance of exactly one mile from the slipway at the cut. Jet-skis and water-skiing are prohibited on Lough Lene, the European Unions Habitats Directive requires member states of the EU to protect wildlife areas. The European Communities Regulations 1977, as amended, implements the directive in the Republic, Lough Lene is a deep lake, which is 20 metres deep in some parts. It is a hard water lake with marl deposition particularly noticeable along long stretches of its shores
2.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
3.
Provinces and territories of Canada
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Canadas geography is divided into administrative divisions known as provinces and territories that are responsible for delivery of sub-national governance. Over its history, Canadas international borders have changed several times, the ten provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. Several of the provinces were former British colonies, Quebec was originally a French colony, the three territories are Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon, which govern the rest of the area of the former British North America. Together, the provinces and territories make up the worlds second-largest country by area, the powers flowing from the Constitution Act are divided between the federal government and the provincial governments to exercise exclusively. In modern Canadian constitutional theory, the provinces are considered to be co-sovereign divisions, the territories are not sovereign, but simply part of the federal realm, and have a commissioner who represents the federal government. Notes, There are three territories in Canada, unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent sovereignty and have only those powers delegated to them by the federal government. They include all of mainland Canada north of latitude 60° north and west of Hudson Bay, the following table lists the territories in order of precedence. Prior to Confederation, Ontario and Quebec were united as the Province of Canada, over the following years, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island were added as provinces. The Hudsons Bay Company controlled large swathes of western Canada referred to as Ruperts Land and the North-Western Territory until 1870, subsequently, the area was re-organized into the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. The remaining Arctic islands were transferred by Britain to Canada in 1880,1898 saw the Yukon Territory, later renamed simply as Yukon, carved from the parts of the Northwest Territories surrounding the Klondike gold fields. On September 1,1905, a portion of the Northwest Territories south of the 60th parallel north became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1912, the boundaries of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba were expanded northward, Manitobas to the 60° parallel, Ontarios to Hudson Bay, in 1907, Newfoundland acquired dominion status. In the middle of the Great Depression in Canada with Newfoundland facing a period of economic crisis. In 2001, it was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1903, the Alaska Panhandle Dispute fixed British Columbias northwestern boundary. This was one of two provinces in Canadian history to have its size reduced. In 1999, Nunavut was created from the portion of the Northwest Territories. Yukon lies in the portion of The North, while Nunavut is in the east. All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada, covering 3,921,739 km2 in land area and they are often referred to as a single region, The North, for organisational and economic purposes
4.
Quebec
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Quebec is the second-most populous province of Canada and the only one to have a predominantly French-speaking population, with French as the sole provincial official language. Quebec is Canadas largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division and it also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Quebec is Canadas second-most populous province, after Ontario, most inhabitants live in urban areas near the Saint Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, the capital. Approximately half of Quebec residents live in the Greater Montreal Area, the Nord-du-Québec region, occupying the northern half of the province, is sparsely populated and inhabited primarily by Aboriginal peoples. Even in central Quebec at comparatively southerly latitudes winters are severe in inland areas, Quebec independence debates have played a large role in the politics of the province. Parti Québécois governments held referendums on sovereignty in 1980 and 1995, in 2006, the House of Commons of Canada passed a symbolic motion recognizing the Québécois as a nation within a united Canada. These many industries have all contributed to helping Quebec become an economically influential province within Canada, early variations in the spelling of the name included Québecq and Kébec. French explorer Samuel de Champlain chose the name Québec in 1608 for the colonial outpost he would use as the seat for the French colony of New France. The province is sometimes referred to as La belle province, the Province of Quebec was founded in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 after the Treaty of Paris formally transferred the French colony of Canada to Britain after the Seven Years War. The proclamation restricted the province to an area along the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, the Treaty of Versailles ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. After the Constitutional Act of 1791, the territory was divided between Lower Canada and Upper Canada, with each being granted an elected legislative assembly, in 1840, these become Canada East and Canada West after the British Parliament unified Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada. This territory was redivided into the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario at Confederation in 1867, each became one of the first four provinces. In 1898, the Canadian Parliament passed the first Quebec Boundary Extension Act that expanded the provincial boundaries northward to include the lands of the aboriginal peoples. This was followed by the addition of the District of Ungava through the Quebec Boundaries Extension Act of 1912 that added the northernmost lands of the Inuit to create the modern Province of Quebec. In 1927, the border between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador was established by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Located in the part of Canada, and part of Central Canada. Its topography is very different from one region to another due to the composition of the ground, the climate. The Saint Lawrence Lowland and the Canadian Shield are the two main regions, and are radically different
5.
Montreal
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Montreal, officially Montréal, is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the 2nd-most populous in Canada as a whole. Originally called Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, it is believed to be named after Mount Royal, the city has a distinct four-season continental climate, with warm-to-hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In 2016, Montreal had a population of 1,704,694, Montreals metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927 and a population of 1,958,257 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. Legally a French-speaking city,60. 5% of Montrealers speak French at home,21. 2% speak English and 19. 8% speak neither, Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 56% of the population able to speak both official languages. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris, historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s. It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, culture, tourism, gaming, film, Montreal was also named a UNESCO City of Design. In 2009, Montreal was named North Americas leading host city for international events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress. According to the 2015 Global Liveability Ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in the 2017 edition of their Best Student Cities ranking, Quacquarelli Symonds ranked Montreal as the worlds best city to study abroad. Also, Montreal has 11 universities with 170,000 students enrolled, the Greater Montréal region has the highest number of university students per capita among all metropolitan areas in North America. It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics, currently, the city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival. In 2012, Montreal was ranked as a Beta+ world city, in Kanien’kéha, or Mohawk language, the island is called Tiohtià, ke Tsi or Ka-wé-no-te. In Anishinaabemowin, or Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang, though the city was first named by French colonizers Ville Marie, or City of Mary, its current name comes from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The most popular theory is that the name derives from Mont Réal, Cartiers 1535 diary entry, naming the mountain, according to the Commission de toponymie du Québec and the Geographical Names Board of Canada, Canadian place names have only one official form. Thus, Montreal is officially spelled with an accent over the e in both English and French. In practice, this is limited to governmental uses. English-speaking Montrealers, including English-language media, regularly omit the accent when writing in English, archaeological evidence demonstrates that First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By the year AD1000, they had started to cultivate maize, within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at locations in the valley since at least the 14th century
6.
Verdun, Quebec
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Verdun is a borough of the city of Montreal, Quebec, situated along the St. Lawrence River. It consists of the city of Verdun, which was merged with the city of Montreal on January 1,2002. The settlement of Verdun was founded in 1671, making it one of Canadas oldest cities, in 1956, Nuns Island was amalgamated with Verdun, which is on the Island of Montreal. The borough of Verdun is located in the part of the Island of Montreal. Verdun proper and Nuns Island are joined by the Pont de lÎle-des-Sœurs on Aut,15, part of the Champlain Bridge complex that crosses Nuns Island and links it to Brossard on the south shore of the St. Lawrence. Archaeological traces in and around the Maison Nivard de Saint-Dizier in western Verdun demonstrate the presence of Aboriginal people in Verdun as early as 4,000 years ago, Verdun had its origins in as an area known as Côte des Argoulets at the foot of the Lachine Rapids. It was initially a militarized area, with concessions given to militiamen who agreed to guard the area against an Iroquois assault on the colony of Ville-Marie. In 1671, the Sulpician Order, lords of the Island of Montreal since 1663, granted the area as a fief to Major Zacharie Dupuis and he is believed to have named the area after his natal village of Saverdun in southwestern France. Côte des Argoulets was renamed Côte de Verdun shortly afterward and he then donated his land to St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, founder of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, who in turn sold it to Étienne Nivard de Saint-Dizier in 1769. The nuns building, now called the Maison Nivard de Saint-Dizier, around 1800, Chemin de la Rivière-Saint-Pierre was opened. The Canal de lAqueduc, now Verduns northwestern boundary, was dug in 1854 to furnish Montreal with drinking water from the St. Lawrence, chartered by the government of Quebec, it became the municipality of Verdun the following year. Settlement had been hampered due to frequent flooding, but a dyke was built starting in 1896, the dyke itself became host to Verduns popular Boardwalk, before land reclamation in the 70s led to the expansion of the waterfront park along the whole length of Verduns riverbank. The first Église Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs was built in 1899, followed by a town hall, fire hall. The tramway also arrived in 1899, connecting Verdun to downtown, a larger Église Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs was built in 1914. In 1881, the Montreal Hospital for the Insane was founded as a Protestant counterpart to the Catholic Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu east of the city and it would be built on two farms, purchased in 1887 and 1907, in the western end of Verdun. Affiliated with McGill University in 1946, it was renamed the Douglas Hospital in 1965, today, not only is it one of Verduns largest public institutions, but its campus is one of the boroughs most important greenspaces. Verdun became a town in 1907 and a city in 1912, between 1911 and 1924 the population tripled and urbanization expanded rapidly westward, and the farms were divided for residential use. The Verdun Natatorium was built in 1930, the Verdun Hospital in 1932, the municipality of Île-Saint-Paul, occupying what was by then universally known as Nuns Island or Île des Sœurs, was annexed to Verdun in 1956
Canada
Quebec
12 Île-des-Sœurs
