Social Science and education in Southern Ireland

SOCIAL SCIENCE AND EDUCATION

I will focus this essay in many characteristics of Irish social sciences. Among them, history, demographics, economy, politics, and actual characteristics of Ireland today, as the Irish education system.

           

The beginning of the history of Ireland starts with the first known settlement around 8000 BC. When hunter-gatherers arrived from the continental Europe, probably through a land bridge. There are not many traces from them, but their descendants and later Neolithic arrivals were the responsible for the majority of Neolithic sites like Newgrange. At the arrival of Saint Patrick and other Christian missionaries in the early 5^th century AD, Christianity began to overcome the indigenous Celtic religion, a process that lasted until the year 600. 

Newgrange

Around 800 AD, with a century of Viking invasions brought disturbance to the monastic culture and on the island's regional dynasties, but both survive and assimilate the invaders. The arrival of Cambro-Norman mercenaries in 1169 marked the beginning of more than 700 years of direct English and British involvement in Ireland. The period between 1534 and 1691 was marked by a Crown policy of “plantation” that led the arrival of thousands of English and Scottish Protestant settlers and the displacement of the pre-plantation of Catholics. In the 17^th century the defeat of the Gaelic Ireland became evident, making the role of the religion as a divisive element more pronounced. From this period, sectarian conflict became a recurrent in the Irish history.

Myths and Legends in Southern Ireland

MYTHS AND LEGENDS

Ireland is a country with uncountable tales of myths and legends. As Ireland has an ancient society that comes from centuries back in time, the Druids and Celtics believed in the power of magic, and these beliefs are spread in form of legends again and again until our days. From leprechaun, fairies, and warriors; there is plenty myths and legends we can talk about.

The Leprechaun is perhaps the most known of all Irish legends. This legend exists from medieval times. A Leprechaun is a type of fairy in the Irish folklore. They usually have the image of an old man; they use a red or green coat, a hat and a beard. They are never a female. They spend all their time making shoes, and storing their golden coins at the end of the rainbow. If they are ever surprised by a human, a leprechaun has to give his coins or concede three wishes for him to be released. The legend says that when the Danes invaded Ireland, the leprechauns hid the treasure from people. They were given the task to guard the treasure. But, unfortunately for them, a rainbow always points the location of this treasure, so they must move it constantly.

Fairies are also known in the Irish legends. They like to take human form. They like to be beautiful, and also impossible to resist. This, so they can attract people. Most fairies love to bring misfortune and bad luck to those who are near them.

Food and Traditional Recipes in Southern Ireland

FOOD AND TRADITIONAL RECIPES

One would think that Irish food is full of extravagances. Weird animals and stuffs like that. But no, the way we could describe the Irish cuisine would be traditional, healthy and farm style home cooking, made up of warm soups and stews, home-made breads, and of course, potatoes that come roast, fried, boiled, mashed - every way imaginable.

The traditional Irish cuisine as we can see is usually made with very simple ingredients and the cooking process is quite easy. The majority of Irish food recipes are made with vegetables, meat or fish.

These ingredients are usually the base of the traditional recipes that have been the main source of food in Ireland for hundreds of years.

Popular Irish dishes include Bacon and Cabbage, Dublin Coddle, Irish Pheasant, Dublin Bay Prawns, Crannach (seaweed) along with every kind of seafood. Irish have always consumed seafood. Recently, all shellfish dishes have increased their popularity due to the high quality of shellfish found in all Ireland's coastline. The west of Ireland, produces excellent seafood, most of it caught by traditional methods dating back centuries.

Pastimes in Southern Ireland

Pastimes (sports, games, hobbies, etc.)

  

We can found many pastimes and sports in Ireland.

In 1884, there was a period of social decay of Irish culture and tradition. The revitalization of the traditional values was manifested in sports, mainly through the founding of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Before this, athletics in Ireland was controlled by the English Amateur Athletics Association founded in 1880, which excluded the common man from all British athletic competition. Maurice Davin and Michael Cuzack were the two Irishmen who signed a letter that became of historical importance to preservation of national pastimes.

In January of 1885, the first codes of rules were adopted for the games of hurling, football, weight throwing, jumping, running, walking and cycling. Clubs started to form throughout the country and the idea of national sports had its come back.

Until the First World War, there were two governing bodies that controlled athletics in Ireland, mainly because of political situations of that period. Since the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922, a one national controlling body was formed.

Customs and Traditions in Southern Ireland

CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS

Traditions are usually passed from family’s generation to another in an oral way. The majority of them will dissolve with time, mainly because new ways of life. But the most important are kept as almost a rule in or modern times.

Irish customs and traditions are full of variety. They have a lot of feasts and historical legends that come from probably hundreds of years old and that they still maintain and celebrate to our days.

I will name some of the customs and traditions that were or are still present in Southern Ireland.

An old tradition that has been lost in Ireland is the “Irish Blessings”. It is not as popular as it used to be, although some people all over the world are still trying to keep it alive. Some blessing have hundreds of years old, some may have be created last week in another country. A  Blessing is always about welcoming, warmth and turning negative situations in positive, as an answer to the history of misery of Ireland. An Irish blessing as example:

May the friendships you make be those which endure and all of your Grey clouds be small ones for sure. And trusting in Him to Whom we all pray, may a song fill your heart every step of the way.

Literature in Southern Ireland

IRISH LITERATURE

LIBER FLAVUS FERGUSIORUM
courtesy  of the  Royal Irish Academy

With a manuscript tradition dating to the 6^th century, the Irish literature, the oldest vernacular literature in Western Europe is remarkable for its range: law texts, genealogies, scholarly treatises, devotional tracts, and especially imaginative literature. We will cover the history of Irish literature.

The Irish people have a proud and well-earned reputation as lovers of the word, spoken and written. This characteristic has resulted in a small nation making an out of proportion contribution to the culture of the world in the field of literature. The literature of Ireland, as of all countries, is almost a mirror reflection of the times, currents, moods and emotions of the era.

Ireland is extraordinarily rich in many of the expressions of literature, including the legends upon which storytellers recall an event or a place. Myths and legends are replete in Irish history. As always such myths and legends contain a certain amount of truth, and a certain amount of creative thinking, or in some cases, wishful thinking. There are tales of fairies, mystical gods, Druids, Celts, and of St. Patrick -the founder saint of Christianity in Ireland. According to legend, St. Patrick drove all of the snakes from Ireland and banished them from its shores. No one knows if there were even snakes in Ireland. Prior to the arrival of St. Patrick (432A.D.) Ireland was a Pagan land. The Vikings began to invade Ireland in eight century A.D.

Southern Ireland's flag

SOUTHERN IRELAND – ÉIRE

INTRODUCTION

Southern Ireland in green

The Republic of Ireland, known also as Éire (in Irish), is a state in Europe which occupies five-sixths of the Ireland island, with a population reaching 4,6 million in 2011. The capital of Southern Ireland is Dublin. Although Southern Ireland is considered a small country, it has made an enormous contribution to the world, in terms of arts, music, literature, sports and many more. Arts has roots that go centuries back, just like music and literature. Both with highly Celtic influence at its beginnings. Later, the influences of other cultures play a major role, but the celtic-style was never lost. Economy, demographics and education in Southern Ireland are topics mentioned in this work. Traditions, myths and legends, cousine and sports can also be found with an enormous celtic root. But in this case, their expansion throughout the world has been bigger.

Newgrange

Book of Horus.
Iluminated manuscript

High Cross Sculpture

Arts and music in Southern Ireland

ARTS AND MUSIC IN SOUTHERN IRELAND

For a small country, Ireland has made an enormous contribution to the world in terms of arts and music, which shall be explained in this post. 

The early history of Irish visual art begins with early carvings found at sites such as Newgrange and Bronze Age artefacts, particularly ornamental gold objects, Celtic brooches and illuminated manuscripts. During the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, a strong indigenous tradition of painting emerged, including figures such as John Butler Yeats, William Orpen, Jack Yeats and Louis le Brocquy.

The Irish tradition of folk music is also widely known. In the middle years of the 20th century, young people tended to look to Britain and, particularly, the United States as models of progress and jazz, and rock and roll became extremely popular. During the 1960s, and inspired by the American folk music movement, there was a revival of interest in the Irish tradition. This revival was inspired by groups like The Dubliners, the Clancy Brothers and Sweeney's Men and individuals like Seán Ó Riada.