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Ireland is the second largest part of the British Isles lying

in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Great Britain.

The island of Ireland is politically divided into two parts:

Northern Ireland (Ulster), which forms part of the United

Kingdom of Great Britain, capital Belfast, and the Republic of

Ireland — a separate state named Eire in Irish; its capital is

Dublin.

Northern Ireland has an area of 14,139 sq km and has a

population of about 1.6 million. It occupies only one-sixth

of the island of Ireland. Six of the counties of Ulster: Antrim,

Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyron and Londonderry or

Derry, formed the country. These traditional counties are no

longer used for local government purposes; instead there

are 26 districts of Northern Ireland. The majority of people are

descendants of Scots and English settlers who crossed to the

north-east of Ireland, mainly in the 17th century.

Northern Ireland is surrounded by sea to the north and

east and by the Republican counties to the west and to the

south. The Antrim Coast (to the east) is a remarkable stretch

of the country. Its geographical composition goes back 300

million years.

The west coast of Northern Ireland is characterized

by steep cliffs and hundreds of small islands torn from the

mainland mass by the powerful forces of the Atlantic Ocean.

Several large

bays cut into the coast. Bay Foyle and

Belfast Bay provide excellent harbours

for Londonderry and Belfast. Lake Neath

(Lough Neagh) is the largest lake in the

United Kingdom. It is about 29 km long

and about 18 km wide. It has an area of

about 390 sq. km. The rivers of Ireland

are short but deep. The largest of them

is the river Shannon.

There are low hills and peaks

of rocks in the northwest, while

the northeast part of the island is a plateau. The Mourne

Mountains are in the southeast. The highest point is Slieve

Donald (848 m).

One of the most famous sights of Ireland (Ulster) is the

Giant's Causeway, the eerie geometric pillars, which is an

area of 40,000 tightly packed basalt columns resulting from a

volcanic activity 60 million years ago that runs from the cliffs

into the sea. The tallest of them are 13 m high.

The outstanding feature of the Irish weather is its

changeability. Extremely high or low temperatures are

unknown. The Irish Sea also has some warming influence

in winter. The rainfall over most of the island is not as great

as it is sometimes supposed to be. Ireland is considered, as

a whole, drier than either Wales or Scotland. There is an old

Irish saying that Ireland must be the cleanest place in the

world, because God washes it every day. Ireland is also called

the Emerald Isle because of its beautiful green fields. It is not

very cold in Ireland because it is the first European country to

meet the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.

The capital of Northern Ireland is Belfast. Although the

official language is English, most of people speak Gaelic. It is

their historic mother tongue and it is taught in most schools

as the first language.