The Republic of Ireland and Canada

21.3.1. The Republic of Ireland occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned on 3 May 1921. The country is a parliamentary democracy which left the British Commonwealth and became a republic in 1949. Ireland is today a member of the EU, the OECD, and the UN. It is bordered by Northern Ireland to the north east, the Irish Sea to the east, St George’s Channel to the south-east, the Celtic Sea to the south and by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and north. The climate of Ireland is temperate maritime: mild winters and cool summers.
Ireland is a small, modern, trade-dependent economy. Agriculture, once the most important sector, is now dwarfed by industry.

21.3.2. Over 40% of the population of the republic resides within 100 km of Dublin, the country’s capital. What is now four provinces was probably in ancient times five. These are Ulster, Connacht, Munster, Leinster and Meath. Ireland’s population is approximately 4 million people which is still less than it was before the famine, when by 1851 over a million people had died. For over a two thousand years, Ireland has been a host to a surprising variety of languages and cultures: Irish Gaelic, English, French, German, Ulster Scots, Ancient Greek and Latin.
Nowadays most people speak Irish English, or like some claim, English with an Irish accent. A minority still speaks Irish Gaelic, one of the six Gaelic left forms of language. About 30% of the population is able to speak Irish Gaelic. Today the country ranks one of the first in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Quality-of-life index. Ireland also has high rankings for its education system, political freedom and civil rights, press freedom and economic freedom. The famous representatives of the nation include Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, Robert Boyle (sometimes called “The Father of Chemistry”), John Tyndall, one of greatest scientists of 19th century, etc.

21.3.3. Canada is the world’s second-largest country (9,976,140 km²), surpassed only by the Russian Federation. It is a constitutional monarchy and a federal state with a democratic parliament housing in Ottawa.

The country is very diverse in its people, its landscape, its climate, and its way of life. Canada’s climate is as varied as its topography, and this great expansive country includes a collection of extremes. Much of the north, which is virtually uninhabited, has an arctic climate. Canada's most populous regions, which lie in the country's south along the U.S. border, enjoy four distinct seasons. Canada is made up of ten provinces and three territories and has six time zones. Canada shares four of the five Great Lakes, the largest sources of fresh water in the world, with the United States. The largest lake situated entirely in Canada is Great Bear Lake (31,326 km²) in the Northwest Territories. Canada’s economy is made up of three main types of industries: natural resources, manufacturing and services.

21.3.4. Despite the enormous size of this country, approximately 80 percent of all the people in Canada live in a concentrated area of cities and towns within 100 km of the U.S. border. Canada’s population is over 30 million with the vast majority (77%) living in cities and towns. The largest cities in Canada are Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa-Hull and the National Capital Region. The country’s population is a patchwork of ethnical minorities. China and India are Canada’s two largest sources of immigrants, but others include Korea, the Middle East and Western Asia. Canada’s diversity is encouraged by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Canadian Multiculturalism Act. These laws say that all Canadians are free to promote and share our multicultural heritage.

Another major component of Canada’s multicultural heritage is the existence of aboriginal people in Canada. According to a recent census, more than four-fifths of Canadians are Christian, with Catholics accounting for about 45% of the population and Protestants about 35%. Other religions include Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism.

Canada has two official languages: English, the mother tongue of about 59% of Canadians; and French, the first language of 23% of the population.

A full 18% have either more than one mother tongue or a mother tongue other than English or French, such as Chinese, Italian, German, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Ukrainian, Arabic, Dutch, Tagalog, Greek, Vietnamese, Cree, Inuktitut, or other languages. Among the famous Canadians are Nelly Furtado, Keanu Reeves, Bryan Adams, Jim Carrey, Avril Lavigne, etc.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-04