Stories, Legends and Myths

The Irish are great story-tellers. They will tell you that the places where the little people, or fairies, are said to go, are Lurigethan Mountain and Teveragh Hill. These little people are mischievous and take terrible revenge on anyone who cuts down a fairy thorn tree. Today many farmers throughout Ireland are so superstitious that they will not cut down a thorn tree, even if it is in the middle of their field!

Story-telling has always been a part of the Irish way of life – stories of gods and people who lived in a land of adventure, warfare and romance, stories told by the fire side.

Monks living in the late Middle Ages preserved many of these stories in the beautifully decorated manuscripts of the Book of Leinster. But it is the strong oral tradition of the Irish people which has made it possible for so many folk tales to survive. Over the centuries, story-telling was an important tradition, but nowadays such people would be hard to find. Perhaps the last storyteller was Peig Sayers who died in 1958. It was said that she had 375 stories to tell!

The Giant's Causeway may be the eighth wonder of the world. The Causeway is a mass of stone columns standing very near together. The tops of the columns form stepping stones leading from the cliff foot and disappearing under the sea. Over the whole Causeway there are 40,000 of these stone columns. The tallest are about 42 feet (13 m) high.

Visitors in modern times have been told that the Causeway is a strange geological feature – the result of volcanic action. The ancient Irish knew differently, however. Clearly, this was giants' work and, in particular, the work of the giant Finn McCool, the Ulster soldier and commander of the armies of the King of All Ireland. Finn was extremely strong. On one occasion, during a fight with a Scottish giant, he picked up a huge piece of earth and threw it at him. The earth fell into the Irish Sea and became the Isle of Man. The hole it left filled with water and became the great inland sea of Lough Neagh. People said that Finn lived on the North coast and that he fell in love with a lady giant. She lived on an island in the Scottish Hebrides, and so he began to build this wide causeway to bring her across to Ulster.

Gaelic Names

Years ago, all Irish people spoke Gaelic, and this language is still spoken in some parts of Ireland (it is the first official language in the Republic of Ireland), although today all Irish people speak English too. Evidence of Gaelic is still found in place names, for example "bally" – town, "slieve" – mountain, "glen" – valley.

The influence of Irish Gaelic is also found in the names of people. Here are some typical Gaelic first names:

Sean [∫Ro:n], same as John

Seamus [∫eFməs], same as James

Liam [lFəm], same as William

Seanna [∫R:nə], same as Joanna

Brid [brFX], same as Bridget

Paddy (short of Patric) and Micky (short for Michael) are not Gaelic names but they are found so often in Ireland that these two names are sometimes used jokingly to mean "an Irishman".

Many Irish surnames begin:

O'... meaning from the family of (eg O'Brien, O'Neil)

Fitz... meaning son of (eg Fitzwillian, Fizgerald)

Mac... meaning son of (eg MacMahon, MacHugh)

Kil... meaning son of (eg Kilmartin)

Gil... meaning son of (eg Gilmurrey).

Belfast

Belfast is one of the youngest capital cities in the world and it has grown incredibly fast. Today the city has a population of 400,000, nearly a third of the entire population of Northern Ireland, but in the 17th century it was only a village. Then, during the 19th century, the development of industries like linen, rope-making, engineering, tobacco and the sea-trade doubled the town's size every ten years. The city is well-known for shipbuilding – it was here that the "Titanic" was built and sent out on her fatal maiden voyage.

Some of the Belfast streets have often been the scenes of violence – street names such as the Falls Road and Shankill Road are well known throughout Britian because they have been heard so often on the news – but people still live in Belfast, and they can and do go out and enjoy themselves. In spite of the years of trouble, there are many cultural and leisure facilities.

Tourists can visit an Art Gallery, step into Belfast Cathedral, or go souvenir hunting for the Irish linen, pottery and hand-cut glass in Belfast's covered arcades. If the sun is shining they can drive out to Stormont, the former Par-