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ENGLAND Capital city:LONDON England is the most populous Home Nation of the United Kingdom. It accounts for more than 83% of the total UK population, occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the North Sea, Irish Sea, Atlantic Ocean and English Channel. England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. This is also the origin of its Latin name Anglia. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when the Kingdom of Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity "England and Wales". England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom. Languages: English Largest city: London Area: 130,395 km2
SCOTLAND Capital city:EDINBURGH Scotland (Alba in Gaelic) is a nation in northwestEurope and a constituent country of the United Kingdom. The country occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain, shares a land border to the south with England, and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the south-west. Scotland has over 790 islands. The capital, Edinburgh, is one of Europe's largest financial centres. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oilresources in the European Union. The Kingdom of Scotland was an independentstate until 1 May1707, when the Acts of Union resulted in a political union with the Kingdom of England to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. Scotland continues to constitute a separate state and jurisdiction in Public International Law. Scots law, the Scottish education system and the Church of Scotland have been three cornerstones contributing to the continuation of Scottish culture and Scottish national identity since the Union. Languages: English, Scots Largest city: Glasgow Area: 78,782 km2
WALES Capital city:CARDIFF Wales (Welsh: Cymru; pronounced IPA: approximately "COME-ree") is one of the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom. Wales is located in the south-west of Great Britain and is bordered by the English counties of Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire to the east, the Bristol Channel to the south, St George's Channel to the southwest, and the Irish Sea to the west and north. The term Principality of Wales, in Welsh, Tywysogaeth Cymru, is sometimes used, although the Prince of Wales has no role in the governance of Wales and this term is unpopular among some. Wales has not been politically independent since 1536 when the English Parliament unilaterally declared its Act of Union between the two countries. King Edward I of England set the process in motion when he defeated Welsh monarch Llywelyn II in the Battle of Cilmeri in 1282, although Welsh law was not replaced in all cases by English law until the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542. The capital of Wales since 1955 has been Cardiff, although Caernarfon is the location where the Prince of Wales is invested, and Machynlleth was the home of a parliament called by Owain Glyndŵr during his revolt at the start of the fifteenth century. In 1999, the National Assembly for Wales was formed, which has limited domestic powers, due to be expanded in 2007. Languages: English, Welsh Largest city: Cardiff Area: 20,779 km2
IRELAND Capital city:DUBLIN A ring of coastal mountains surrounds low central plains. The highest peak is Carrauntuohill (Irish: Corrán Tuathail), which is 3,414 feet (1,041 m). The island is bisected by the River Shannon, at 161 miles (259 km) the longest river in Ireland. The island's lush vegetation, a product of its mild climate and frequent but soft rainfall, earns it the sobriquet "Emerald Isle". The island's area is 32,477 square miles (84,079 km²). Ireland is divided into four provinces: Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster. In Irish these are referred to as Cúige's ( Cúige - meaning fifths). Previously there were five provinces - Connacht, Munster, Ulster, Leinster and Meath, comprising the counties of Meath, Westmeath and Longford. These were further divided into 32 counties for administrative purposes. Six of the Ulster counties remain under British sovereignty as Northern Ireland following Ireland's partition in 1922 (the remaining 26 forming present-day Republic of Ireland); since the UK's 1974 reshuffle these county boundaries no longer exist in Northern Ireland for administrative purposes, although Fermanagh District Council is almost identical to the county. Languages: English, Irish Largest city: Dublin Area: 84,079 km2
Northern IRELAND Capital city:BELFAST Northern Irelandis one of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. It is situated on the island of Ireland, consisting of six north-eastern counties and is the only part of the United Kingdom with an external land border (with the Republic of Ireland). It was created by the Government of Ireland Act, 1920. It covers 5,459 mi² (14,139 km²) in the northeast of the island of Ireland, about a sixth of the total area of the island, and has a population of 1,685,000 (April 2001) — between a quarter and a third of the island's total population Languages: English Largest city: Belfast Area: 13,843 km2
ANTRIM COAST ROAD Northern IRELAND
Transport ENGLAND Transport for London plans bus routes, specifies service levels and monitors service quality. The actual bus services are operated by a number of bus operating companies which work under contract to London Buses. Although most of the operating companies are private-sector organisations, one (East Thames Buses) is owned by Transport for London, and managed at arm's length so as to avoid conflicts of interest. Although this originally came about due to the default of a private sector operator, it seems now to be deliberate policy, possibly partly to act as an exemplar for other operators as to how TfL wishes bus services to be run. Transport for London is also directly responsible for the management of bus stations and bus stops and other support services. It provides passenger information in the form of timetables and maps at bus stops, and produces leaflet maps which passengers can obtain at Travel Information Centres, libraries etc.
History Northern IRELAND The area now known as Northern Ireland has had a diverse history. At the beginning of the 17th century, it changed from the bedrock of Irish resistance to the location of the Plantation of Ulster by Scottish and English colonists. Today, Northern Ireland is a diverse patchwork of community rivalries. In some towns and cities, whole communities fly various flags to indicate their allegiences. For example, some unionists and loyalists fly the Union Flag to indicate their wish to remain part of the United Kingdom. Some nationalists or republicans fly the tricolour of the Republic of Ireland to indicate their wish to become part of a United Ireland. In some less affluent areas, even the kerbstones are painted green/white/orange or red/white/blue, depending on whether a community is nationalist/republican or unionist/loyalist. In recent years, Nationalist areas have flown Palestinian flags to show their support Palestine in the disputes with Israel, this has been combatted in some Unionist areas with the flying of Israeli flags. In 1922, Northern Ireland was formed from six of the nine counties of Ulster and, together with Great Britain, forms the present United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This came about through the Government of Ireland Act, 1920 that also granted Home Rule to the rest of Ireland as Southern Ireland. In 1922, the rest of Ireland became independent and became known as the Irish Free State.
Sport WALES Rugby union was an increasingly popular sport for Wales in the 1890s and particularly in the south where its popularity was known to rival that of association football. The Welsh coal miners shared the same working class ethos of the miners from the northern counties of England. The impending schism of 1895 tore apart the English rugby union and in the early 1900s, the shock waves where being felt in Wales, though the Welsh Rugby Union were less strict in their interpretation of the amateur ethos and avoided a schism. Nonetheless, many Welsh players signed for English clubs. The Northern Union's administrators began to ponder the possibilities of international competitions against an English representative side. The first attempt met with a lack of public interest, and the first scheduled Northern Union international, also became the first postponed Northern Union international. It was rescheduled for the 5 April1904. The team opposing England was labelled Other Nationalities and consisted of Welshmen and a few Scots. The Other Nationalities proved too strong, defeating the English 9 - 3. In 1905, England gained back some credibility with a 21 - 11 win. In 1908 a professional "All Blacks" rugby team from New Zealand (nicknamed the All Golds by Australian press) would tour England in what became the first set of international games played under the new NU rules. The All Golds had not played under the Northern Union rules and underwent a week of intensive training. Wales went on to defeat New Zealand 9-8.
Culture IRELAND For an island of relatively small population, Ireland has made a disproportionately large contribution to world literature in all its branches, mainly in English. Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe with the earliest examples dating from the 6th century; Jonathan Swift, still often called the foremost satirist in the English language, was wildly popular in his day (Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, etc.) and remains so in modern times amongst both children and adults. In more recent times, Ireland has produced four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature: George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. Although not a Nobel Prize winner, James Joyce is widely considered one of the most significant writers of the 20th century. His 1922 novel Ulysses is sometimes cited as the greatest English-language novel of the 20th century and his life is celebrated annually on June 16th in Dublin as the Bloomsday celebrations.
Politics SCOTLAND As one of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom, the head of state in Scotland is the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II (since 1952). Executive power is exercised by the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster in London, and the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh. The United Kingdom Parliament retains power over Scotland's taxes, social security system, the military, international relations, broadcasting, and some other areas explicitly specified in the Scotland Act 1998 as Reserved matters. The Scottish Parliament has legislative authority for all other areas relating to Scotland, and has limited power to vary income tax. The Scottish Parliament is not a sovereign authority, and the UK Parliament could, in theory, overrule or even abolish it at any time, although this is in practice inconceivable without the consent of the Scottish people. Jack McConnell, the first minister of Scotland
