LC Geography Results

Well done to the Leaving Cert geography students of Colaiste Pobail Bheanntrai whose examination results out-performed the national average. Overall, 81% of CPB students took Higher Level Geography compared to 78% nationally.

• 9.1% of CPB students achieved an A grade compared to 8.4% nationally
• 34.1% of CPB students achieved a B grade compared to 28.4% nationally
• 41% of CPB students achieved a C grade compared to 37.3% nationally
• 84.1% of CPB students achieved a C grade or higher compared to 74.1% nationally

 

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Plantation of Ulster

In Junior Geography the Plantation of Ulster is studied as an organised migration. Most migration is not organised, instead individuals or families decide to emigrate. However, in the past Colonial powers such as England, Spain, Portugal and France organised new colonies in lands they conquered. For example, at the same time as the English were organising the plantation of Ulster, they were also organising the colonisation of the east coast of North America. The first of these colonies was called Virginia and a later one was christened New York. The Plantation of Ulster was an organised colonisation of Ulster in the same way as new English colonies were set up in North America. Thirteen of these American colonies eventually broke away from Britain and became the United States of America in 1776.

The thirteen Colonies (image courtesy of worldatlas.com)

The plantation of Ulster was carried out to bring this troublesome part of Ireland under control and give land to English and Scottish farmers as England’s population was increasing at the time. Land was taken from the Gaelic Irish lords to punish them for fighting the English government. In addition, the English government wanted to bring the English language and the Protestant religion to Ulster. This plantation was the most successful colonisation of Ireland. Over 400 years later, 6 of the counties colonised in the 1600s are part of the UK known as Northern Ireland. It contains a large number of Protestants, however there is also an important Catholic population in Northern Ireland. As Protestant want to remain part of the UK, they are known as Unionists and as Catholics mostly want to become part of the Republic of Ireland, they are known as Nationalists. In the image below, the green areas are dominated by Catholics or Nationalists and the orange areas are dominated by mainly Protestants or Unionists.

Protestant & Catholic in Ulster 2001. (image courtesy of wikipedia.org)

This divide and the fact that Northern Ireland was biased towards the Protestant population caused a conflict known as “the troubles” that raged from 1969 until 1998. Today, there is peace in Northern Ireland and government is shared between the Catholic and Unionist parties. Unusually, Northern Ireland has two prime-ministers known as the First Minister (Peter Robinson) and Deputy First Minister (Martin McGuinness) – one must be a Nationalist and one must be a Unionist.

Peter Robinson & Martin McGuinness meet the Queen (image courtesy of independent.ie)

 

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The Eurozone Crisis

In concluding our brief study of the EU, the Eurozone crisis cannot be ignored as finding a solution to this crisis is the major challenge for the EU. The Eurozone crisis mainly concerns the economic and budget problems in highly indebted eurozone countries such as Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy. The key questions are:

• Will the other richer eurozone countries be responsible for the debts of the indebted countries?
• Will Eurozone countries give up power and control to an EU finance ministry in Brussels?

I have place slides on this topic in Regional Geography page.

Eurozone Debt Crisis (created by wordle.net)

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TY Homework

I have posted the TY homework on the homework page. To complete the assignment, you will need to look up the slides on the TY Geography page – just scroll down to beach formation. The completion date for this homework assignment is the week beginning 24/9/2012.

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TY Fieldwork

The three TY Geography classes will be undertaking the fieldwork investigation over the next few weeks. Each class will visit the beach on a different day. The main consideration when choosing a day is to factor in the tide times. We have tried to choose mornings when the tide will be out or is going out as this will give us more room to work on the beach. The Transition Year page will also have information on the fieldwork.

UPDATE: TY 3 will now be undertaking their fieldwork on Thursday 11th of October. This is to facilitate a TY trip to Skibbereen on Tuesday.

TY Fieldwork

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Homework

As promised, I have posted homework for Leaving Cert and Junior Cert on the homework page. Links to the blog posts and webpages required are included. No excuses now.

The dog ate my homework (image courtesy of bestclipartblog.com)

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Population Pyramids

Population pyramids are produced by using the census results and are a good way of looking at the population of the country broken down by age and gender. Population pyramids are used by governments to plan for the health and education services as the pyramids give a good indication of how many people will be reaching age 70+ and how many students will be entering primary and secondary schools. The Department of Education and Skills uses local population pyramids to plan the building of new schools in Dublin and other cities.

The population pyramid for Germany in 2010 is posted here. As we discussed in class, Germany’s population is beginning to decline. You can see the the 0-4 and 5-9 age groups are much smaller than the older age groups.

Population Pyramid Germany (image via populationpyramid.net)

I have also posted the population pyramids for Ireland in 2010 and 2050. The 2050 pyramid is based on forecasts, which are based on the current situation in Ireland. The birth rate in Ireland is the highest in the EU so our population is forecast to grow. The main  difference between Ireland in 2010 and 205o is the number of older people in the population. You can click on the pyramids below to enlarge them.

Population Pyramid 2010 (image via populationpyramid.net)

Population Pyramid 2050 (image via populationpyramid.net)

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Who do you think you are?

This is just a simple poll to see whether people consider themselves “Irish” or “European” or some combination of the two. As Ireland is a member of the EU, all Irish people are also EU citizens. Whether they live in New York or Texas, Americans “feel” American, they sing the same national anthem, share the same currency, serve in the same army. What about people in Europe? Is it possible to be “European”?

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Ever Closer Union?

The European Union began life in Rome in March 1957. However, in those days it was known as the European Economic Community (EEC) and had just six member countries – France, West Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. This was mainly a marriage of France and Germany in order to re-build war shattered Europe and prevent further wars.

The EEC was re-christened the European Union in 1992 in the Treaty of Masstricht. However, this name change was not the most important thing about this treaty; the main changes were the agreement to establish a single currency – the euro and to plan for the expansion of the EU into central Europe. The euro came into being as an electronic currency in 1999 and the paper money followed in 2002. The most recent EU treaty was the Lisbon Treaty, which was agreed in 2008 following the expansion of the EU from 15 countries to 27. This treaty aimed to streamline the workings of the EU by limiting the areas in which member countries could use their veto to stop legislation (laws) or changes they did not like. I have put slides on the the main European treaties in the Regional Geography page. Just scroll down.

The EU is run by three main bodies; the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament. What they do is explained in the graphic below. “Ever closer union” are words taken from the Treaty of Rome and used as a slogan by those who think the EU should become a federal state along the lines of the USA.

How the EU is run (B. Cronin)

 

 

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Test on Brazil

As you probably should know by now, Brazil is the sub-continental region we are studying. As promised, tomorrow you have a test on that topic and as it’s quite an extensive body of information, I’ll try to narrow it down. I am going to examine the following topics:

• agriculture in Brazil
• tertiary activity in Brazil
• Culture in Brazil
• An urban centre (city – Sao Paulo)

Ipanema beach in Rio. (Taken by a friend who visited Brazil)

I also promised to put up a sample 30 mark answer on a topic related to Brazil as people can find it difficult to structure the answers. As a general rule, start with the obvious – say very clearly what region / city / activity you are going to discuss and then mention the factors that are relevant to the topic, e.g. climate, soil, relief, drainage, access to large markets, educated workforce, tourist attractions, good transport infrastructure, crime levels and so on. Then get into the “meat” of the answer – how the factors affect agriculture or tourism or whatever topic is being discussed. If you go to the Regional Geography page and scroll down, you’ll find the sample answer on agriculture in Brazil.

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