英美文化概論 純正英語(yǔ)版Northern-Ireland

1、A Brief Introduction to the United Kingdom IINorthern IrelandPopulation and physical features of Northern IrelandEconomy of Northern IrelandThe Home Rule BillThe Easter Rising of 1916Religious conflicts between the Irish and the BritishIRAs violence in the 1970sBloody SundayThe Good Friday Agreement

2、 Northern Ireland1)Northern Ireland (often called Ulster, after an ancient Irish kingdom) is the smallest of the four nations, both in area(14 139sqkm) and population(1.642 million). So its smaller than many Chinese cities.2) Its capital, Belfast, is a relatively small town of around 350 000people.3

3、) It is small, but it is significant because of its political troubles, which we will concentrate on in this unit.4) Physically, mostly rural with low hills, a beautiful lake district in the south-west and rugged coastline including its most famous landmark, the “Giants Causeway” (“巨型長(zhǎng)堤”), a rocky p

4、romontory （岬，海角）made up of black hexagonal （六角邊形的）columns formed by cooling lava millions of years ago.Giants CausewayAn amazing golfing countryIrish PubIrish JigThe Irish jig is a popular tune-type within the traditions of Irish dance music. The most common structure of a jig is two eight-bar parts

5、, performing two different steps, each once on the right foot, and one on the left foot. 5）Northern Ireland has an active cultural life with many theaters, restaurants, pubs and museums: one Nobel Prize winner for literature, Seamus Heaney; one famous film-maker Neil Jordan who won an Oscar for his

6、film The Crying Game; an internationally famous pop musician, Brain FrielSeamus Heaney 希尼（1939- ）主要詩(shī)集有Death of a Naturalist (1966) 博物學(xué)家之死Door into the Dark (1969) 引向黑暗之門、North 北方(1975）In 1995 he was awarded Nobel Prize. 尼爾尼爾喬丹喬丹 Neil Jordan 其執(zhí)導(dǎo)的電影有Angel，1982 天使Mona Lisa，1986 蒙娜麗莎Interview with the V

7、ampire，1994 夜訪吸血鬼 1992年，尼爾喬丹執(zhí)導(dǎo)了影片哭泣游戲(The Crying Game。1992)。這是一部以愛爾蘭共和軍為題材的影片。該片以其獨(dú)特的視角和深沉的內(nèi)蘊(yùn)獲得了觀眾和影評(píng)人們的廣泛贊賞，并獲得了93年第65屆奧斯卡的最佳影片等多項(xiàng)提名，尼爾喬丹本人亦獲得了最佳導(dǎo)演和最佳原作劇本等兩項(xiàng)提名，并獲得了最佳原作劇本的金像獎(jiǎng)。 5) Its economy has its problem, partly as a result of the troubles discouraging investment, partly as a result of its compl

8、icated relation to the UK. Its wealth per head is the lowest of any UK region. Nevertheless, living costs are also comparatively low. Industrial companies there include the aircraft manufacturers, Shorts （矮兄弟有限公司 ）, as well as parts for other manufacturers such as Boeing, and the UKs largest shipbui

9、lders, Harland and Woolf.波音Belfast and TitanicIrelands Colonial HistoryThe colonial history The one thing that almost everyone knowsabout Ireland is that the island has been divided by a long and bloody conflict. The history has been a colonial one. From 1169 Normans began to invade Ireland and Engl

10、and gradually dominated the culture and politics in Ireland. There were also many other kingdoms sharing Ireland. England controlled Ireland totally in 1609. From the time of Queen Elizabeth I (from the late 1590s), the new settlers （including many Scottish), loyal to the British crown and Protestan

11、ts in religious belief, were granted land, position and privileges which had been systematically taken away from the indigenous(本土的), Roman Catholic population. Protestants：基督教新教（16世紀(jì)脫離羅馬天主教）Catholic：天主教新教，在中國(guó)常以“基督教”單指新教。該詞原出于德文Protestaten（抗議者）。包括16世紀(jì)歐洲宗教改革運(yùn)動(dòng)中脫離天主教而產(chǎn)生的各大宗派,主要有信義會(huì)（路德派）、圣公會(huì)、長(zhǎng)老會(huì)等。全球約20

12、億基督徒。 天主教與基督教的區(qū)別在于：（1）天主教以羅馬教廷為自己的組織中心，承認(rèn)教皇為最高領(lǐng)導(dǎo) ，具有濃厚的“普世”以及“一統(tǒng)”的色彩；天主教強(qiáng)調(diào)神職人員的中介作用，從而使神職人員享有一個(gè)較崇高的地位?；浇虅t反之，不接受教皇的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)權(quán)威，認(rèn)為教皇制是歷史的、人為的產(chǎn)物。因此，基督教沒(méi)有自己的權(quán)力中心，教派之間的聯(lián)系松散。 （2）在讀經(jīng)態(tài)度上亦有不同，基督教強(qiáng)調(diào)個(gè)人的發(fā)揮，天主教講究集體的注釋。（3）天主教對(duì)耶穌之母瑪利亞特別恭敬，尊其為天主之母，而基督教則沒(méi)有此一禮拜。 （4）天主教神職人員，按照教會(huì)傳統(tǒng)過(guò)獨(dú)身生活，不忌煙酒；而基督教的牧師則可以結(jié)婚，但一般忌煙酒。新教里沒(méi)有修士、修女。 （

13、5）天主教的圣經(jīng)共有七十三卷，而新教的圣經(jīng)只有六十六卷，在舊約中有七卷被馬丁路德刪除了，因?yàn)檫@七卷書是用希臘文寫成的，而馬丁路德只承認(rèn)用希伯來(lái)文寫成的三十九卷舊約圣經(jīng)。 天主教堂中，除中間有耶穌基督的十字架苦像外，兩邊有時(shí)還會(huì)有圣母瑪利亞、大圣若瑟等圣人圣女們的圣像，四壁還有耶穌基督走過(guò)的十四處苦路像。而基督教堂里一般只有一個(gè)紅十字架，內(nèi)部設(shè)施比較簡(jiǎn)單。 天主教堂前堂中央都有一個(gè)祭臺(tái)，為舉行彌撒禮儀而用，而基督教堂前面只一個(gè)小小的講道臺(tái)，從不舉行彌撒。 天主教基督徒進(jìn)教堂或祈禱前后都在額上、胸上劃十字，以表明自己是基督徒，而新教基督徒卻沒(méi)有這個(gè)習(xí)慣。 天主教基督徒在教堂祈禱都是念統(tǒng)一的祈禱文，

14、同心合意地按一定的曲調(diào)而頌?zāi)??；浇掏降钠矶\則較為隨便，各說(shuō)各的。 Most Irish people remained Catholics, while most British people had become Protestants. There had been a history of massacre, exile, systematic repression and deprivation by the British colonial administration over hundreds of years. As a result, there has been a sy

15、stematic and ingrained resentment of the British which is almost endemic(特有的) in the native Irish culture which is evident even today. In the 17th century, the English government, trying to increase its control of Ireland, encouraged people from Scotland and Northern England to emigrate to the troub

16、lesome north of Ireland. As a result, the northeastern part of Ireland gained a population more than the native Irish, who saw themselves differently from the rest of the Irish people. They thought of themselves as British, and wished to remain a part of the British state. Also, they were Protestant

17、s. Risings for independence Yet after 700 years of British rule, the situation is changing dramatically. Since 1801 till 1921 the full name of the UK was “ The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”, not only “Northern Ireland”, because the whole island of Ireland was politically integrated wi

18、th Great Britain. But Irish desires for an independent Irish state were never lost. They launched the political campaign for “home-rule” Irish political control of Irish affairs in late 19th century. The Easter Rising (復(fù)活節(jié)起義) of 1916 was the most spectacular event, in which the rebels took over Dubl

19、ins Post Office, forcing the British to retake it by military means. The leaders of the rebellion were executed. In 1919 a group calling itself the IRA (Irish Republican Army 愛爾蘭共和軍) expanded the fighting. In the end the conflict became too great to ignore, and as Sinn Fein (“Ourselves Alone” ) part

20、y （新芬黨）, a legal political party, who were supporters of the Irish terrorists (or freedom-fighters, depending on your point of view ), gained most of the Irish seats in the British parliament, Irish independence became inevitable. Faced with conflicting demands the British government chose a comprom

21、ise and organized a partition of Ireland. About a third of the Northern Irish population was Roman Catholic, many of whom resented the Norths separation from the South and identical with the nationalist cause. But the Protestants, being the majority, would like to remain a part of the UK. In 1921, t

22、he Agreement of Britain and Ireland was reached. According to that, the southern 26 counties would form an independent “free state”, while the 6 northeastern counties would remain a part of the UK. This brought to an end of 700 years of British rule in southern Ireland. Forming an independent “free

23、state”分割，劃分 Unlike the other nations in the UK, Northern Ireland was given its own Parliament to deal with Northern Irish internal affairs. To worsen the situation, the Protestants, being the majority, controlled the local democratically-elected parliament, and used the power to support their own ec

24、onomic and social dominance in the province. Catholics found it harder to get jobs, or to benefit from social programs such as public housing. Schools and sporting events were segregated. Understandably, resentment grew, and the armed conflict known as the “troubles” developed. The TroublesConflicts

25、 between the Protestants and the Catholics With appearance of television in the early 1970s, people in the North were able to witness the tactics of the new pacifist(和平主義者) civil-rights movement in America, as they organized public marches, sit-ins and so on. Those Roman Catholics felt that they had

26、 been treated in much the same way as American blacks, and they also campaigned for civil rights by means of marches, speeches and sit-ins in the same way. Groups of Protestants began to organize counter-demonstrations (反游行), and rioting(暴亂) broke out. Protestant mobs attacked Catholic areas. There

27、are many conflicts between the Protestants and the Catholics. The police had no way to deal with that, and the Northern Irish Prime Minister asked London for soldiers to help restore order. In 1969, the first British soldiers seen on Northern Irish streets to help restore order. They have been there

28、 ever since. In the early 1970s the IRA carried out a campaign of bombing and shooting, usually targeting the security forces, but often bombing city centers. As a result, the Protestant formed their own illegal “paramilitary” groups and took revenge on Catholics, often murdering individuals at rand

29、om. Catholics in mainly Protestant areas and Protestants in mainly Catholic areas were threatened, and sometimes their houses burned down, causing each to flee. The result is that now Northern Irish cities are divided into exclusively Protestant and exclusively Catholic areas. As their children also

30、 attend separate schools the two communities hardly mix at all. In the following year 1972, 468 people were killed in Northern Ireland, the worst year of the troubles. This included 13 Catholics who had been taking part in a peaceful (though banned) civil rights march. They were shot dead by British

31、 soldiers. This was a key event in strengthening Catholic opposition to British presence. This day has now been mythologized as “ Bloody Sunday”, an important symbol of British oppression. Trying for solutions to troubles To look for political solution to troubles, in 1973, an agreement was reached,

32、 which led to a new form for the Irish Parliament, with a power-sharing mechanism to allow the minority Catholic population political influence. But this outraged the Protestant majority, and eventually leading to the collapse of the power-sharing group. At this point the British government decided

33、that the Northern Irish parliament could not govern the province effectively, and suspended it, replacing it with “direct rule” from London. The conflict didnt get worse, but neither could anyone see an end to it. In 1985, the Anglo-Irish agreement was signed, and it guaranteed the Irish their right

34、 to decide their future in Northern Irelandeither to join in the South, as part of all-island nation, or to remain as they were, in the separate political entity that is Northern Ireland. Despite this provision (條款), the loyalist politicians once again rejected this agreement. On 10 April,1998, the

35、Good Friday agreement , known as the Belfast Agreement, emerged. This assures the loyalist community that Northern Ireland “remains part of the UK and shall not cease to be so without the consent of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland.” Thus Northern Ireland today must be the only country

36、 in the world which is recognized as an independent entity（獨(dú)立實(shí)體） but which is governed, in effect, by three separate jurisdictions(司法權(quán)，管轄權(quán)): that of the Republic of Ireland, that of Great Britain, and that of its own elected executive（執(zhí)行的） government of ten ministers.Conclusion The North still has f

37、ar to go. The economy remains stagnant and unemployment high. Most young people leave for England and never return; their parents do not see a future for them up North. The Northern people are known as warm, generous, and energetic-as long as they are among their own. But with the history behind the

38、m, a Northerner would not be comfortable with someone not of his own traditions. This, too, will change, but probably only with the next generation. Meanwhile, the present generation, so battle-weary, are happy that the new civil peace at last enables them to get on with building their own lives. Central Belfast Belfast landmark St Marys Belfast Castle St. Jamess GateSinn Fein Albert Memorial Clock City Hall Belfast Peace Wall, BelfastThe Peace Lines are a series of separation barriers ranging in length from a few hundred yards to over