23. Northern Ireland – Culture

• part of their symbols and emblems of Ireland are: shamrock, harp, leprechaun, Saint Patrick

• capital and the largest city – Belfast, Londonderry, Lisburn, Newtownabbey, Bangor, Craigavon, Castlereagh

• languages: English, Irish, Ulster Scots

• religion: Non-Roman Catholic Christian 45.57%, Roman Catholic 40.26%, other 14.18%

• famous people: Liam Neeson, Kenneth Branagh, Oscar Wilde, Dakota Fanning, Saorise Ronan, Megan Fox, Mischa Barton, Maccaulay Culkin, Chris Evans, Olivia Wilde

• Irish whiskey, Irish coffee, Irish dance

• [!] Titanic was built and launched from Belfast Harbor.

24. Wales

• their national emblems and symbols are Red Dragon, St. Davids Flag, their national flag, leeks, daffodils, Celtic knots, cawl and lots of other things.

• capital: Cardiff

• languages: Welsh, English

• religion: Christianity

• famous people: Timothy Dalton, Anthony Hopkins, George Everest, Bullet for my Valentine, Skindred, Ryan Giggs, Aaron Ramsey

• national parks: Lake District, Snowdonia, Dartmoor, Pembrokeshire Coast, North York Moors, Yorkshire Dales

• Eisteddfod is a Welsh festival of literature, music and performance. The tradition of such a meeting of Welsh artists dates back to at least the 12th century, when a festival of poetry and music was held by Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth at his court in Cardigan in 1176 but, with the decline of the bardic tradition, it fell into abeyance. The present-day format owes much to an eighteenth-century revival arising out of a number of informal eisteddfodau. The closest English equivalent to eisteddfod is "session"; the word is formed from two Welsh morphemes: eistedd, meaning "sit", and bod, meaning "be"

• Owain Glyndŵr was a Welsh ruler and the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales (Tywysog Cymru). He instigated a fierce and long-running but ultimately unsuccessful revolt against the English rule of Wales

• Llywelyn ap Gruffydd or Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf was the last prince of an independent Wales before its conquest by Edward I of England.

• Prince of Wales (Welsh: Tywysog Cymru) is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms (and formerly of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, before that the Kingdom of Great Britain and before that the Kingdom of England). The current Prince of Wales is Prince Charles, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II.

• [!] All the statues surrounding Cardiff Castle are of animals.

• [!] Wales is the land of mythical Kind Arthur.

25. Scotland – Geography

• capital: Edinburgh

• cities: Glasgow, Dundee, Perth, Aberdeen, Inverness

• lakes: Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, Loch Morar, Loch Awe, Lake Louise [Skibo Castle], Lake of Menteith [monastery; laich – low place], Lake of the Hirsel [Home family, British PM], Smeaton Lake [curling competitions]

• mountains: Ben Nevis, Ben Macdui, Braeriach, Cairn Toul, Sgor an Lochain Uaine

• [!] Scotland has some 790 islands, 130 of which are inhabited.