Projects about people, in history.
We are doing projects about people with links to Greystones.
Photo Credit: LEOL30 via Compfight
Our first project was about Isambard Kingdom Brunel
who was born in 1806.
He was an engineer who designed steamships, bridges and tunnels.
He engineered the railway line between Bray and Greystones.
This was a challenging job
as tunneling through rock was needed.
The arrival of the railway in Greystones
has made our town what it is today.
Photo Credit: Nagesh Kamath via Compfight
Next we are going to learn about Elizabeth Whitshed.
On Friday we learned about her husband Colonel Frederick Burnaby.
Lots of places in our local area are called after Colonel Burnaby.
Colonel Frederick Burnaby was a Victorian celebrity:
a soldier, adventurer, and writer.
He and his new wife Elizabeth Whitshed travelled
to North Africa on honeymoon,
but due to delicate health,
Elizabeth returned to Greystones.
She then moved to Switzerland for health reasons.
Colonel Burnaby was killed in action
(near Khartoum in Sudan) in 1885.
Hi my name is Kane im 12 and I go to Mellvile Intermedite School. I love playing rugby
here are five questions
1. Is haggis Scottish or Irish?
2.How many people live in Ireland?
3.How long has st Patricks day been going for?
4. Do your police carry guns?
5. What is the capital of Ireland?
Hi my name is Nathan and I am 13 and I go to Melville Intermediate school I like playing soccer I have 5 questions for you.
1.What is the most common food in Ireland?
2. Is the steering wheel on the left or the right of your car?
3. What do you harvest on farms?
4. What games appaear in the highland games?
5.Is there a sport that involves snow?
Great questions lads, looking forward to asking my students in school today.
With every good wish
Merry Beau (Class Teacher)
Hi there Kane, The boys in 2nd Class Room 6 love rugby too and they have great admiration for the New Zealand Rugby Team.
Here are the answers to your questions:
1. Is haggis Scottish or Irish?
Haggis is Scottish.
Traditional Irish food includes ‘Colcannon’ which would be a potatoes and cabbage dish. Some people like to add onion and even bacon/corned beef.
Traditionally a few small coins were added. If one ended up on your plate the superstition was that you were going to be rich. For health and safety reasons (fear of choking) very few cooks would add coins now.
.
2.How many people live in Ireland?
In 2012, there were 6 million approximately.
4 and a half million in the Republic of Ireland
and the rest in Northern Ireland.
There was 6.5 million people in Ireland before the The Great Famine 1845-1852
Deaths from starvation and emigration caused the population to four million by 1871,
and by 1926 had reduced further to three million. It is only since the 1970s that population has grown steadily, but population still hasn’t reached the numbers in pre Famine times.
3.How long has St Patrick’s Day been going for?
We thought St. Patrick’s Day was an American tradition, where the people who emigrated there remembered their home land and then we checked on Wikipedia and we saw that as a Christian feastday it has been celebrated for centuries (
4. Do your police carry guns?
Generally they don’t unless they work in specialized areas.Carrying a gun is Very Rare. We are proud that they don’t. But sadly the fact that they don’t doesn’t always work out well for them. Though there is relatively little crime in Ireland (compared to the USA perhaps) criminals are becoming more and more ruthless and they put little value on human life or the life of a police man.This was proved by a recent incident where a police man escorting money to a Credit Union was shot and sadly killed (We call the Police, Gardai Siochana (in Gaelic/Irish) which means Guardians of the Peace in English)
5. What is the capital of Ireland?
Dublin is the capital of Ireland.
Hi Nathan, The boys in 2nd Class Room 6 also love soccer.
1.What is the most common food in Ireland?
This is a complicated question and the answer is far from straightforward but we will do our best 🙂 When Teacher was our age (over forty years ago) dinner was usually meat, potatoes and root vegetables like carrots or turnips.
Now there are many influences on our choice of food: Visitors from other countries e.g. the Italians brought us pasta and pizza. Advertising and franchises like McDonalds bring us burgers and chips. Potatoes are still very popular but now instead of just being boiled we eat them as chips and french fries, waffles etc. Convenience foods are very popular: ones that you prepare very quickly.
2. Is the steering wheel on the left or the right of your car?
Our steering wheels are on the right.
3. What do you harvest on farms?
Grains: oats, wheat, corn and vegetables for human consumption.
4. What games appear in the Highland Games?
The Highland Games are Scottish.
Our traditional games are hurling (reputed to be the fastest sport on earth!)
Here is a link about hurling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurling
It is a very exciting game 😀
The girls play a similar game called camogie.
Also Gaelic Football
We also have an annual ploughing competition 🙂
5.Is there a sport that involves snow?
There is never enough snow in Ireland really to enable people to play a sport that involves snow. So skiers train on artificial ski slopes or abroad.
We enjoyed answering your questions. Thanks for the interest you show in our home country of Ireland 😀