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.