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Global Village
Ireland: Land of Beauty
By Cymoni, age 15, Ireland
Hello everyone, my name is Cymoni, I am 15 years old and I live in the countryside in Southern Ireland with my parents and my younger brother. I have an older brother of 32 but he lives in England with his wife and two children.
Cymoni, far right, hangs out with her friends
Southern Ireland is made up of 3 provinces; Connaught, Leinster, and Munster and the provinces are made up of 26 counties. I live in Kerry, part of Munster, which is commonly known as the ‘Kingdom’ because it is one of the most beautiful places in Ireland. We get a lot of rain in Ireland and as a result we get a lot of plant growth which gives the landscape a rugged look. But Kerry is particularly known for its mountain feature which is called the ‘Ring of Kerry’ and wherever you are in Kerry if you look up you will see the mountains that surround it. The county town of Kerry is called Tralee and this is where I like to go to shop. Because I live in the country, when I go into town it is like entering a different world. Tralee has all the best shops and they allow us teenagers to keep up with all the latest fashions. There are a lot of well known big stores but there are also a lot of little designer shops that sell fabulous dresses.
Cymoni, shopping in Kerry, Ireland!
I am in year 3 at Tarbert Comprehensive School. There are no grammar schools in Ireland and Tarbert is the main school for the whole of our area, which is mostly made up of countryside and little villages. It has a good reputation and as a result we even have a pupil who travels all the way from Cork every day to attend our school. Cork is another county about 70 miles away. At the moment I am in what is called Junior Certificate year which means I will be taking exams at the end of this year. My best subjects are Science and English and I am working on the others (if you know what I mean). I have a couple more years before I go into my final year which will be Leaving Certificate and then I will have the really important exams.
Although we all speak English here we do have an Irish language and in Tralee there is a school that does everything in Irish. While Irish is a compulsory subject for all children, those who are very good at Irish in primary school will probably get a place in the Irish school where they even learn French in Irish. We also have a television station which is entirely in Irish.
Most of the houses in the countryside are detached houses that come with at least half an acre of land but often they have a lot more land than that. To me this means that I can play my music loud without disturbing my neighbours. To my brother it means that he can have two dogs, two cats and three ducks which he spends hours and hours roaming around with. In the summer a friend of ours brings two ponies over to eat the grass in our field and my brother rides them everywhere.
Two of Thern’s ducks he hatched himself!
Life around here is very laid back but that doesn’t mean that we miss out on anything. But it does mean that my mother can park her car in the village any which way she wants without anybody getting upset. There are many other things for children to enjoy, such as weekly discos, athletics, great concerts with really famous stars like Beyonce and at the end of the school year there is always the senior leaving prom which we are all allowed to gatecrash and which gives us a great opportunity to glam up.
Thern, his ponies, and a friend, roam Ireland on a beautiful day!
Probably one of the best things about life here is that it is very safe. Everyone knows everyone else and if anyone is in any trouble, there are always people willing to help. The teenagers around here do hang about on the village streets in their hoodies, but it is quite comical because when anyone approaches them they always move out of the way and apologize for being in the way. The older generation rules around here and the ‘gang’ would be gone with one whip of an old person’s tongue. I think this is a different situation from in the big cities like Limerick which is about 40 miles from where I live, where there is a lot more crime than in Kerry.
Ireland is a very religious country and there are holy shrines all over the place, even on the main roads which would be equivalent roads to motorways in other European countries. The religion is predominantly Roman Catholic and the churches are always full. However, in big towns and cities the shops open on Sundays a lot more now than they used to, so for those people who work on Sunday, the church hold a service on Saturday evening and some people go to both the Saturday and Sunday service.
The church is central to most things around here and most of the primary schools are attached to a church so that the school and the church can work together to organize Holy Communion and Confirmation, which are ceremonies that introduce and establish children in the Catholic faith. If someone dies around here the whole community will attend the funeral home to pay their respects and then go to the funeral.
Next to the church in Ireland in importance is the sporting heroes. They are revered here. Even those playing for local villages are written about and talked about on the radio. When there is a Kerry football match, nearly the whole of Kerry put out there flags and decorate their cars in support. My brother has just started playing for a local football team but Irish football is different from the normal football, it is a mix of football and rugby as far as I can make out.
Today, most people’s diet is the same as everywhere else, with all the usual culprits such as pasta, pizza, chicken and chips or for the older generation meat and three veg. However, we do have a national dish which is boiled bacon and cabbage; I don’t like it personally but it is always on the menu wherever you go. I also think that there are an enormous amount of places that sell hot food, even little village shops cook meals and sell them every day and there may be two or three shops in one village doing this.
Finally, I had better mention something about the cost of living. People say that food is expensive in Ireland but I think that there are a lot of things that compensate for this extra cost. For example, we do not pay water rates or council tax and this is a great relief to many families. Most people in the countryside have their own well which feeds into their household taps but even those who are on mains water do not have to pay. I think that some big cities are charging people for water but in the small towns and villages there is no charge. Every house in Ireland still uses open fires and with all the peat around here this is still an economic way of heating the house. We also have central heating which is mainly oil based because Irish winters can be very cold, wet and windy.
All in all, I think that Ireland is a wonderful place to live and that the people are warm and friendly.
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