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Most of the people of Northern Ireland are Presbyterians like the Scots or Episcopalians like the English, for theirancestors, many years ago, moved to Northern Ireland from Scotland.

The other part of Ireland, the south part, used to belong to England too. But the Irish people there never likedbeing ruled by the English and so they started a country of their own, with a city named Dublin for its capital. It is often said that the people in Dublin speak better English than even the people in England do. There isanother language used in southern Ireland besides English. It is called Irish and is the language spoken long ago by the ancient Irish people before they spoke English. Some of the Irish coins and postage stamps have Irishwords on them.

The country that the Irish formed is a republic with a president, and the King of England now is no longer theirking, as kings of England used to be.

Farther south than Dublin is another city with the strange name of Cork, and at some distance another place calledKilkenny. The Irish are famous for their quick wit. Once a man named Kenny was drinking a bottle of ginger-ale, when he swallowed a piece of the cork and nearly choked to death.Some one said to him, “That’s not the wayto Cork.” “No,” said Kenny, between coughs, “that’s the way to Kilkenny.”

Near Cork is an old ruined castle called Blarney. There is a certain stone high up in the wall of this old castle,and the story goes that if you kiss this stone you will be able to say very pleasant and nice things to people. People go long distances to kiss this Blarney stone, although they can only do it by lying on their backs almostupside down. So when a person says something to us that is very flattering, we reply, “Oh, you must have kissed the Blarney stone.”

Almost all the people of the Republic of Ireland are Roman Catholics, for their families have lived there since beforethe time of Christ, and missionaries from Rome taught them Christianity over a thousand years ago.

Ireland is often called the Emerald Isle because an emerald is a very beautiful green stone and Ireland has so muchrain the country is very green. That’s why green is the national color. Their flag is green, white, and orange, and a kind of clover, called the shamrock, which grows there, is their national leaf.

You have all heard of St. Patrick, who was supposed to have driven the snakes out of Ireland. Well, the British flaghas three crosses worked together like a monogram. One is the cross of St. George of England, the second is the cross of St.Andrew of Scotland, and the third is the cross of St. Patrick.

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北爱尔兰的大部分人像苏格兰人一样，是长老会教徒；或者像英格兰人一样，是圣公会教徒，因为他们的祖先是在很多年以前从苏格兰移居到了北爱尔兰的。

爱尔兰的另一部分，也就是南部，以前也属于英国。但是那里的爱尔兰人从来都不愿意接受英国人的统治，于是他们就成立了自己的国家，把一个叫做都柏林的城市定为首都。人们常说都柏林人说英语比英格兰人说得还纯正。除了英语之外在南爱尔兰，人们还说另一种语言，叫爱尔兰语，是古代爱尔兰人很久以前说的语言，那时，他们还不说英语。爱尔兰一些硬币和邮票上就印有爱尔兰语文字。

爱尔兰人成立的国家是共和国，国家元首是总统，英国国王统治爱尔兰的日子已一去不复返了。

从都柏林再往南有个城市，名字很奇怪，叫科克，不远处还有一个地方叫基尔肯尼。爱尔兰人以头脑机敏而出名。一次一个名叫肯尼的人正在喝一瓶姜味汽水，突然吞下了一片软木塞，几乎窒息而死。有人对他说，“那可不是去科克的路。”“是啊，”肯尼一边咳嗽一边说，“那是去基尔肯尼的路。”

在科克附近有一座古老的城堡，只剩下断壁残垣，叫做布拉尼。在这个古老城堡的高墙上有这么一块石头，相传吻到这块石头后，即口齿伶俐，善于奉承。人们千里迢迢来到这里亲吻布拉尼石，尽管他们向后仰着，几乎头朝下才能吻到这块石头。因此当有人对我们说了奉承话的时候，我们会回答说：“哦，你肯定吻过布拉尼石。”因此，“布拉尼石”常常译为“巧言石”。

爱尔兰共和国几乎所有人都是天主教徒，因为他们的家族自从耶稣诞生之前就居住在那里，罗马来的传教士在一千多年以前就把基督教传给了他们。

爱尔兰常被叫做“绿宝石岛”，因为绿宝石是一种非常漂亮的绿色宝石，而爱尔兰雨水充沛，绿野遍地。这就是为什么绿色是爱尔兰的民族代表色。爱尔兰国旗是由绿色、白色和橙色组成的，那里生长的一种红花草，叫做三叶草，是爱尔兰的国花。

你们都听说过圣帕特里克，据说是他把蛇驱逐出爱尔兰。英国的国旗是由三个十字交织在一起的，就像交织字母。一个十字代表英格兰的主保圣人圣乔治，第二个代表苏格兰的主保圣人使徒安德烈，第三个代表爱尔兰的主保圣人圣帕特里克。