Geography & Flags of the UK

The United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland commonly known as The United Kingdom or UK.

Geography.
The UK is located in the Atlantic Ocean with the North Sea in the East, the English Channel in the South
and the Irish Sea in the West. It is located Northwest of The Netherlands. The country includes England,
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and many smaller islands such as e.g. The Isle of Man, Orkney and
The Channel Islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK to share a land border with another
country: The Republic of Ireland. The UK is about 13 x bigger than The Netherlands, and has about 64
million inhabitants.

Figure 1

Please use Figure 1 for the following exercise.

Exercise 1:
a. Colour the UK red and The Republic of Ireland green.
b. Draw in the North Sea, the Channel, the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean following the description
of the locations above.

Capitals.
As mentioned before the United Kingdom consists of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland. They each have their own capital cities:
England - London,
Scotland - Edinburgh,
Wales - Cardiff and
Northern Ireland Belfast.
Wales became part of the Kingdom of England in 1536.
In 1707 the kingdoms of Scotland and England were united and became the Kingdom of Great Britain
and in 1922, the North of Ireland was added to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland.

Figure 2

Please use Figure 2 for the following exercise.

Exercise 2:
a. Colour
England red, Scotland blue, Wales green and Northern Ireland yellow.
b. Draw in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.
Flags.
The national flag of the UK is called the Union flag or Union Jack.
It consists out of three crosses: The Cross of Saint Andrew (patron saint of Scotland), the Cross of Saint
Patrick (patron saint of Ireland) and the Cross of Saint George (patron saint of England). (Figure 3)

Figure 3

The English and Scottish flag are as shown in figure 3. The flag of Northern Ireland looks different to
Saint Patricks cross. (Figure 4) The separation of Northern Ireland from The republic of Ireland is still a
very sensitive issue.

Figure 4
The flag of Wales, however, looks completely different. (Figure 5) and consists out of a red dragon on a
green and white field. The Welsh dragon does not appear on the flag because when the first Union Flag
was created in 1606, Wales was already united with England from the 13th century.

Figure 5

Please use Figure 3, 4 and 5 for the following exercise.

Exercise 3:
a. Colour in the Union Jack, Welsh flag and flag of Northern Ireland.

The Republic of Ireland.

As said before Ireland is not part of the UK. Its capital is Dublin and is located in the Eastern part of the
island. The national flag of Ireland, also called the Irish tricolour, is a vertical tricolour of green, white, and
orange.

Figure 6

Ireland, like Scotland, has two languages: English and Gaelic. Gaelic is an old Celtic language and sounds
completely different. All signs in Ireland are written in both languages. The three most famous symbols of
Ireland are the green shamrock, the harp, and the Celtic cross. The shamrock symbolises luck and the holy
trinity. (Father, Son, Holy Spirit.) The importance of the harp comes from one sad moment in Irish
history were invaders made it illegal to own an Irish harp and set out to burn every harp in Ireland in an
attempt to kill the "Irish spirit". The Celtic Cross symbolises sacrifice and eternity.

Figure 7

Please use Figure 6 for exercise 4a.

Exercise 4:
a. Colour in the Irish flag.
b. Open a new word-doc. Give it the title: Gaelic Language. Look up three pictures on the internet
that show both English and Gaelic in them and copy-paste them onto your word doc.
c. Find the translations of the following words/phrases in Gaelic: *Good morning *Thank you
*Home *Good Luck *Ireland
d. Find pictures of 3 places you would like to visit in the UK and 3 of places you would like to visit in
Ireland.