英美概况教案2

Chapter 2 NORTHERN IRELAND

General Introduction

Teaching Aims: Let the students get a general knowledge of Northern Ireland

Difficult Points：

population and physical features of Northern Ireland

economy of Northern Ireland

the Home Rule Bill

the Easter Rising of 1916

the Sinn Fein Party

the religious conflicts between the Irish and the British

a partition of Ireland in 1921

a Civil Rights Movement

Main Points:

IRA's violence in the 1970s

Bloody Sunday

the collapse of the power-sharing

cooperation between the British and Irish governments

IRA's refusal to hand over their weapons

future for Northern Ireland still in doubt

Periods:

Teaching Procedure：

1.Introduction

Northern Ireland (often called "Ulster” after an ancient Irish kingdom which once existed in that part of Ireland) is the smallest of the four nations, both in area and population. With only 1.5 million people, it is smaller than many Chinese cities. Its capital, Belfast, is a relatively small town of around 350 000 people, but is much the biggest city in the province. Though Northern Ireland is small it is significant because of the political troubles there.

Physically, it is mostly rural, with low hills, a beautiful lake district in the south-west, and a rugged coastline, which includes its most famous landmark, the "Giant' s Causeway"~, a rocky promontory made up of black hexagonal columns formed by cooling lava millions of years ago. Legend has it that the giant Finn MaCool built it to cross the sea to Scotland. The nature of its link to Great Britain has been a key element in Northern Ireland's history, and remains an issue today.

2.Detailed study of this part

Northern Ireland has an active cultural life with many theatres,restaurants, pubs and museums: its best known poet, Seamus Heaney,won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995. Film-maker Neil Jordan won an Oscar for the "Best Original Screenplay” in 1992 with his film The Crying Game. Van Morrison is an internationally famous pop musician. Brian Friel4 is a playwright whose stageplays are acclaimed in London and Dublin as well as further afield.

The Northern Ireland economy has its problems, partly as a result of the troubles discouraging investment, partly as a result of its peripherality in relation to the UK. Its wealth per head is the lowest of any UK region. Nevertheless living costs are also comparatively low, and a standard of living is possible for those of middle to upper incomes which many Londoners might envy. Industrial companies there include the aircraft manufacturers, Shorts, who build small commuter aircraft, as well as parts for other manufacturers such as Boeing, and the UK's largest shipbuilders, Harland and Woolf.

This chapter will concentrate on the political problems of Northern Ireland, because unfortunately that is what is best known

History

about it, though often not well understood. However, you should remember that it is a place where ordinary life continues, to which the troubles are an addition, rather than the main preoccupation

of everyday life. Apart from the troubles, crime is very low, and even including political violence the murder-rate is much lower than in most American cities. Also the problems are mainly concentrated in particular areas, (where the troubles cannot be ignored for long, and where everyone would know a victim), but away from these places they might almost be forgotten, at least until the evening newspaper is delivered, or an armoured car drives by.