To Visitors to Our Blog,
Thank you for visiting us 🙂
We are from Ireland.
Did you know that Ireland is an island?
Our closest neighbour is Great Britain.
Ireland is in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Photo Credit: Erik Daugaard via CompfightÂ
You will see from this map that Ireland
is the third largest island in Europe.
Iceland is the largest island in Europe.
Can you guess what is the second largest island?
(Hint: It is our nearest neighbour.)
Â
Ireland is the twentieth largest island in the world.
Australia is the largest island in the world.
Â
Ireland is divided up into 32 counties
(like states in the USA).
26 of these are in the south of Ireland
and 6 are in the north.
We live in the County of Wicklow.
It’s nickname is ‘The Garden of Ireland’
because it is pretty.
Wicklow is on the east coast of Ireland.
We live 39 kilometres south of Dublin.
Dublin is our capital city.
Carlos Bustamante Restrepo via Compfight
Dublin, is our largest city.
There are 859,976 people living in Dublin.
Â
There are 4.5 million people living in Ireland.
Ireland is 84,421 km squared.
Ireland would fit into the USA
120 times approximately.
 
Photo Credit: Janek Kloss via Compfight
The most northern part of mainland Ireland
is the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal.
It lies at latitude 55.38ºN.
The most southern part is  Mizen Head.
It lies at latitude 51.45ºN
Photo Credit: Dave Brookes via Compfight
The most easterly point is the Ards Peninsula,
County Down at longitude 5.43ºW.
Photo Credit: Andree & Edward via Compfight
The most westerly point is on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry.
It lies at longitude 10.51ºW.
People joke and say that the next stopping point is the USA
(which it is, over the sea!)
Photo Credit: ritesh3 via Compfight
Our highest mountain is Carrantuohill, County Kerry,
which is 1,041 metres above sea level.
Photo Credit: Michael Hanisch via Compfight
The longest river in Ireland is the River Shannon  (386 km)Â
Lough Neagh (396 km²) is our largest lake.
Photo Credit: safahmy via Compfight
We live near Ireland’s tallest waterfall.
Powerscourt Waterfall is in County Wicklow.
The water falls 106 metres.
However there are three places in Ireland
that we think you definitely should see.
One is the Giant’s Causeway.
Photo Credit: Martina (Tina) via Compfight
The Giant’s Causeway  resulted from
the eruption of a volcano in ancient times.
It is a very interesting formation of
40,000 basalt columns that fit together
as if a giant had laid them down.
Lots of tourists visit the Giant’s Causeway.
You can read a legend about how it got its name here.
Then there is the Greystones Bear
and last but not least is Mrs. Mooney’s sweet shop.
Her sweet shop is beside our school.
UPDATE: Happily for Mrs. Mooney, she is now retired. Sadly for us, we have to walk further for our treats 😉Â
Dear Irish Friends,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful post welcoming us to your fine country! We wish we could really visit. Perhaps one day!
Mrs. Yollis visited Ireland about fifteen years ago. She is going to look through her photos and tell you what she saw when she was there. She remembers walking to the edge of the Cliffs of Moher. What a drop!
We think the Giant’s Causeway is spectacular! It has a lot of texture. Is the basalt salty? 🙂 Seriously, is it hard rock or is it soft and erodes easily. Is it difficult to stroll upon? Are there gaps between the basalt stones? We have volcanic rock in Hawaii. It is usually black and and rough.
We were saddened to read about the history of the Greystones Bear. Caroline must have been a wonderful person.
We would LOVE to visit Mrs. Mooney’s Sweet Shop! What are some of the favorite/favourite sweets/candy that your class enjoys?
The class really enjoyed seeing Powerscourt Waterfall. We converted the 106 meters to feet. It is 348 feet.
Thanks again for this wonderful post. We will be thinking about you when we are in Ireland on Monday.
We will do a post telling you about California and the United States after we finish with our Europe project!
If you could choose between the waterfall and the sweet shop, which would you choose and why?
Have any of you ever visited our country?
Warmly,
Mrs. Y♥llis and class
Dear Mrs. Y♥llis and class,
Thank you for your long and interesting comment. We really enjoyed writing about our country for visitors. We think you will find it on a much smaller scale than anything in America. Yes some of us have visited so we know. We also think that you will find it damp and very green. The people however, are very friendly.
Yes some of us have been to America. We went shopping with our Mums, Aunties, Grannies and Sisters in New York. Some other children have been to Disneyland in Florida. Others have gone to visit relatives in Boston and Pittsburg.
We are going to do some research about basalt, so we can answer your questions about it. But first we wanted to reply to your comment and thank you for it.
We were very excited to read it.
We don’t have to do any new research on Mrs. Mooney’s shop as we are experts on this subject. We love jellies and bon bons and some of the boys like the fizzy sherbert.
Many of us go to Powercourt in the Summer. On a really hot day (and in Ireland 20 degrees is considered really hot) we like to paddle in the stream that comes down out of the waterfall.
We would love to hear about California and the United States too.
We have talked at length about choosing between the waterfall and the sweet shop and in the end the sweet shop won … but not by much.
We will research basalt for homework. Do you get homework? In school 2nd grade gets 20 minutes homework; 3rd grade gets 30; 4th grade gets 40 and so on. Mostly homework is Maths and English, though we do learn how to speak Irish too.
Slán leat anois (Bye for now)
Merry’s Class
Dear Irish Friends,
I am from Mrs.Yollis’ classroom. We are so astonished that you have a 900 year old castle right next to your classroom! I love this post about Ireland. My favorite ones are Mrs.Mooney’s sweet shop, Powerscourt Waterfall, and the Giants Causeway. I know we already asked what your favorite candy is but, what does everyone like best? Can you share some facts about the castle? I am so curious. How big is the castle and how wide is it? Is it the biggest building in Ireland? Thank you for the post!
Mrs.Yollis’ student,
Aryana
Dear Aryana, Thank you for your kind comment. We are glad that you like Mrs. Mooney’s shop. We certainly do. We have all been to Powerscourt Waterfall but only a few of us have seen the Giant’s Causeway.
As well as candy we are big sports fans and love rugby, tennis, football and swimming.
We have some castle ruins in our neighbourhood but not as close as next door. Killincarrig Castle is in ruins and was built about 1620. That would make it 400 years old. It is actually in someone’s back garden! Old muskets, pistol balls, gunpowder measures and other such equipment which were found there.
What history do you know about your home place Aryana?
With every good wish
Merry’s Class
Dear Mrs. Y♥llis and class
You asked us about basalt and we said we would do some research and get back to you:
The most interesting we thought about basalt, it that there is a lot more of it than you would think. We thought it was a fairly rare rock and then we read that it is found in many places on Earth and is the main volcanic rock of the oceans. Basalt is found throughout the world. Most of the lavas that pour out of volcanoes that make up oceanic islands are basaltic. Like you said in your comment there is basalt that came from a volcano in Hawaii.
Basalt is a igneous rock formed by the cooling of of volcanic lava. The lava cools and then hardens into basalt rock. Basalt is hard. Because of this, it is often used for making roads and buildings. Basalt forms columns at the Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim in Ireland. Did you know similar colums formations are found in the USA and includes the Devils Postpile near Yosemite National Park in …… California?
That is something then our two home places have in common!
With every good wish
Merry’s class
Dear Merry Beau,
Thanks for commenting! If you can’t find the right picture on Compflight then maybe you can use some of sites like Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/). I like how you explained all of the things in Ireland. I wonder what ind of sweets they have in the sweet shop. I wish that you added how many miles are 39 kilometers. Please come back and visit my blog again at http://blog.elanco.org/davison503/. Thanks!
Thanks Maggie,
We must take a look at Pixabay. We just like how handy Compfight is, as on Edublogs it is on our dashboard.
39 kilometers is a little over 24 miles.
We are glad you asked about the kind of sweets Mrs. Mooney had. It is a lovely trip down memory lane for us. We miss Mrs. Mooney and her shop.
There were the old fashioned sweets that our Mums and Dads used like to eat like apple bon bons, clove cubes and cola cubes, cough drops, bull eyes, jelly babies, Sherbet Dib Dabs and Jaw Breaker gobstoppers. Though Mrs. Mooney’s shop was old fashioned, it was modern is other ways. Mrs. Mooney kept up with new sweets and playground crazes. We loved her Traffic Light Lollipops and Marshmallow Men. She sold Pop Rock that pops in your mouth and cool pops that turn your mouth blue. There was Candy Floss and Toxic Waste, both sold in tubs; one was very sweet and the other was very sour.
We try to eat more healthier now 😉 What is your favourite food?
With every good wish
Merry Beau and Class