"WHAT WE'RE REALLY LIKE"

Northern Ireland

St Peter's School Derry, Northern Ireland Dia Daoibh, A Chairde, At last here are our pupils' responses to your impressions of Ireland. The boys enjoyed what you had written and were very amused at some of the comments. FARMING - YES you are right. There are a lot of sheep, cows, horses and goats. SOIL - YES you are right about the soil too. When it is raining the soil is always wet and soggy. Yes in summer the soil will be dry and hard and clayey because of the hot weather, if we get any that lasts for more than a day or two at a time! Gary Ramsey, Brendan Young, Gavin Bonner Dia Daoibh, Kylie, Maree and Sophie, Your impressions of Ireland and Irish people are mostly right. Most of the Irish people have red or blonde hair but there are a good lot of people with black hair as well. In Ireland people are very strict about religion. We are Catholics in St. Peter's and most of the people living in Derry are of the same religion (70%). Ireland has many churches and even though we might be thought of as church-going, we aren't too religious. Brian Dia daoibh, KELLY, ROMA AND LUKE. CLIMATE - The things you wrote were almost right. In winter it is around 0oC, but the snow is not up to our knees. In winter it's not even up to our ankles, except on very rare occasions. In summer it is not 25 degrees and up. If we had 25oC, we would think that the weather was brilliant! As you can guess, this doesn't happen too often! our names are: MICHAEL, MARK, PETER Recreation - We are writing to say that we do not play croquet or polo in Ireland. Apart from that you got everything right. Much drinking in pubs, especially at the weekends. No hunting with hounds but plenty of duck and pheasant shooting. Also a lot of fishing is done in Ireland. The river Foyle, which flows through Derry is famous for its salmon. We know that Ireland is more popular than any other country for hunting, shooting and soccer and we have the most popular football teams. Slán libh {Goodbye!} From MICHAEL, MICHAEL AND JAMES Dia daoibh Jed, Jarrod and Vivienne, You were perfectly right when you guessed about what we do in Ireland for recreation. Most adults like to go to pubs and nightclubs, but most Irish people love sports. We do like a good laugh, or as we say in Ireland good 'craic' (crack) - but not the drug 'crack'!!! Young people of our age love to play soccer and Gaelic (Irish) football. Gaelic football is like a cross between soccer and rugby. In fact Australian Rules Football is probably the closest sport to it. There is some hunting and shooting in Ireland, but you must have a special licence to play this sport. Many people here are against killing animals for sport. Slán agus beannacht, Liam Campbell Dui daoibh, Kylie, Maree and Sophie, Your impressions of Ireland and Irish people are mostly right. Most of the Irish people have red or blonde hair but there is a good lot of us running around with black hair. In Ireland people are very strict about religion. All the boys in my class are Catholic, well all the boys in my school are Catholic. There are not very many Protestants in the town of Derry (30%) but there is a good lot scattered around Ireland. You have probably heard all the stories about the troubles in N. Ireland but they aren't so bad now. There still might be the odd riot but nothing serious. Irish people love to go night clubbing. You said you saw a lot of Irish films and you think we are very musical people, well, we are. But you obviously haven't seen films such as 'In the name of the father' and 'Michael Collins'. We tell a lot of jokes but they are not all Irish jokes. There are a good lot of jokes about the 'Three Paddys'. We will tell you some sometime. Slán Kevin, Mark and Brian DIA DUIT Your impression of Ireland is almost right. There are lots of hills & trees and our lakes have lots of big brown trout & rainbow trout, but we also get lots of huge salmon in the main rivers. Ireland has lots of castles and historical sights . The closest historical sight to Derry are the city walls. Derry is one of the few cities in Europe which still has its city walls intact. On top of these walls are old cannons which were used to protect the city against attack many centuries ago. Derry is a hilly city and the old city is the part which is surrounded by walls (6 metres high). We do not have many swamps. Mark Doherty, Brian Lynch & Kevin McCool