English History by Petra Nagyová and Linda Ristemiová

Irish Culture by Dominika Salajová and Quyen Ngo Le To (Jackie)

TV Chanel by Adam Trtík (IV.KB)

Irish Sports by Paulina Ricová and Natália Paulenová (IV.KA)

Equestrian activities, particularly show jumping and horse racing, are another key sport. Ireland has the best grass on the planet, and consequently some of the best horse flesh on the globe. Every town has its equestrian centers, and a goodly percentage of farms house a few horses as well as the more mundane cows and sheep.

Betting shops, called bookmakers, are all over the place. Traditional fox hunts are still commonplace and in the depths of winter when the major tracks shut down, a circuit of point-to-point races travels from town to town. Irish horse racing, like British, involves lots of jumps and miles of running. A typical race might last 10 or more minutes. Get out on a freezing January day and watch the horses splash through the slop and you'll know what it feels like to be a real Irish person: wet, cold, fortified with drink and lots of companionable talk, and surprisingly happy. There's a nice commercial site with links to everything concerning Irish horses. 

Golf. There are over 300 golf courses scattered everywhere in Ireland. Each attracts a membership of many hundreds, and visitors are usually welcome to play a few rounds during the warmer months. The standard of greens and fairway maintenance is extremely high and most of the courses earn the coveted "Championship" designation. The major Irish tournament on the international circuit is the Murphy's Irish Open, which attracts thousands of enthusiasts to watch the pros do their thing. There are dozens of individual golf courses on line. Golfing Ireland is a site that covers the whole of the Irish golf scene.

Rugby. Ireland enthusiastically supports amateur rugby, and international play with the other great rugby superpowers - notably South Africa and New Zealand - is followed by large numbers of Irish people. There is again a system of amateur clubs, but these are centered on a few counties such as Kerry and Dublin. For the most part, Rugby is a telly sport, but an exciting and bone crunching one.

Motor rally, hillwalking, and cycling are the other common sports. Every town in Ireland has local clubs involved in these sports. In early July 1998, the Tour De France, the second largest sporting event in the world after the Olympics, began in Ireland. In three dIn sum, there's plenty for the sports minded to enjoy in Ireland. And Satellite TV and the Web make it possible to keep tabs on some favorite overseas team.

Gaelic Football. It would be safe to say that Gaelic Football is the most popular sport in Ireland, with Hurling not far behind. It’s a traditional game in Ireland and could be described as being a cross between soccer and rugby with similarities to Australian Rules. 

Boxing . Irish people are known as the Fighting Irish and many of men became world champion boxers and became a house hold name. Boxing clubs in Ireland have always been popular for many years and still is producing some great talented boxers who go onto compete around the globe. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Gaelic football is the most popular sport in Ireland in terms of match attendance and community involvement, and represents 34% of total sports attendances at events in Ireland and abroad, followed by hurling at 23%, soccer at 16% and rugby at 8%, and Initiative's ViewerTrack study measuring 2005 sports audiences showed the sport's highest-profile match, the All-Ireland Football Final, to be the most watched event of the nation's sporting year. Swimming, golf, aerobics, soccer, cycling, 

Gaelic football and billiards/snooker are the sporting activities with the highest levels of playing participation. 

Many other sports are also played and followed, particularly rugby league, horse racing but also show jumping, greyhound,racing, boxing, baseball, basketball,cricket, fishing, handball, motorsport, tennis, kendo, and hockey. In Ireland many sports, such as boxing, hockey, rowing, cricket, rugby union, Gaelic football and hurling, are organised in an all-island basis, with a single team representing Ireland in international competitions. Other sports, such as Association Football, have separate organising bodies in Northern Ireland and theRepublic of Ireland. At the Olympics, a person from Northern Ireland can choose to represent either Ireland or Britain.

TV Chanel by Samuel Sorad IV.KB

Zombie TV by Tomáš Novák (IV.KB)

Irish language by Gabika Martincová a Hanka Srnková (IV.KA)

Irish (Gaeilge) is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language only by a small minority of the Irish population, and as a second language by a larger minority. However, it is widely considered to be an important part of the island's culture and heritage. It enjoys constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland. It is also an official language of the European Union and an officially recognised minority language in Northern Ireland.

Irish was the predominant language of the Irish people for most of their recorded history, and they brought their Gaelic speech with them to other countries, notably Scotland and the Isle of Man where it gave rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx. It has the oldest vernacular literature in Western Europe. However, it began to decline under British rule after the seventeenth century. The nineteenth century saw a dramatic fall in the number of speakers partly due to the Great Famine of 1845–1852 (where Ireland lost half its population either to emigration or death) and partly due to government language policies. Irish speaking areas were especially hit hard. By its end, while the language never died out, it was spoken by less than 15% of the national population. Since then, Irish speakers have been a minority except in some areas known as Gaeltachtaí (singular: Gaeltacht), and efforts have been made to preserve and promote the language.

Estimates of fully native speakers range from 40,000 to 80,000 people. In the republic, there are just over 72,000 people who use Irish as a daily language outside education, as well as a larger minority of the population who are fluent but do not use it on a daily basis. (While census figures indicate 1.66 million people in the republic with some knowledge  a significant percentage of these know only a little Irish). Smaller numbers of Irish speakers exist in Britain, the United States of America and other countries.

TASK 3

Practice

1. Choose the correct relative pronoun.

1. This is the man who/which built our house.
2. There is the bridge who/which we have to cross.
3. The girl who/which lives next door is very nice.
4. The bus who/which takes you to the station should be here any minute.
5. This is the dog who/which barks every night.

2. Complete the sentences with relative clauses. Use who or which.

1. A Dutch is a person (live in the Netherlands) 
2. A giant is someone (be very tall) 
3. An alarm clock is a clock (wake you up in the morning) 
4. A ladybird is a red beetle (have black spots on its back) 
5. A waitress is a woman (serve food and drinks in a restaurant) 

3. Combine the sentences using a relative clauses without a relative pronouns (Contact Clauses).

1. I watched a film last night. The film was interesting.
   The film 
2. Carly helps a man. The man is my teacher.
   The man 
3. We ate chicken at the restaurant. It was delicious.
   The chicken 
4. The boy is very nice. I know him from school.
   The boy 
5. The shoes are too big. My grandma bought them for me.
   The shoes 

Relative Pronouns

relative pronoun	use	example
who	subject or object pronoun for people	I told you about the woman who lives next door.
which	subject or object pronoun for animals and things	Do you see the cat which is lying on the roof?
which	referring to a whole sentence	He couldn’t read which surprised me.
whose	possession for people animals and things	Do you know the boy whose mother is a nurse?
whom	object pronoun for people, especially in non-defining relative clauses (in defining relative clauses we colloquially prefer who)	I was invited by the professor whom I met at the conference.
that	subject or object pronoun for people, animals and things in defining relative clauses (who or which are also possible)	I don’t like the table that stands in the kitchen.

TASK 2

1. For each question, write in the box either 'in', 'at', 'on' or "X" if there is no preposition is needed.

1. I'll see you next week. 2. He was born 1991. 3. Did you see her today.

4. It starts tomorrow. 5. It was sunny my birthday. 6. It will be ready eight months. 7. What's on the TV midnight. 8. The factory closed June. 9. the winter, it usually snows. 10. Friday, she spoke to me. 11. What are you doing the weekend. 12. I'll see you a moment. 13. The anniversary is May 10th. 14. Where did you go last summer. 15. The movie starts 20 minutes. 16. the moment, I'm busy. 17. They were very popular the 1980s. 18. My appointment is  Thursday morning. 19. We had the meeting last week. 20. Are you staying at home Christmas Day. 21. I have to speak to the boss lunchtime. 22. 8 o'clock, I must leave.

2. Read the following article about Mary, the Queen of Scots and choose the correct forms.

        Mary was/were five when she first met the four-year-old Dauphin, her husband. They was/were close and affectionate with one another even as children. They travelled at/from one royal palace of/to another.

Mary was also educated in/at/on the traditional manner of French princesses; she spoke French/France and learned Latin, Italy/Italian, Spanish/Spain and a little Greece/Greek. She learned to dance, sing, play the lute as well as converse in/on/at religious matters. Her religious tutor was the prior of Inchmahome, a Scottish priest.

       When she was seven, her mother came to French/France to visit she/her; when Mary of Guise returned to Scotland, neither realized that they would never see each other again.In/on/at 1555, Mary sent back letters to her mother in/on/at Scotland to be used for administrative purposes and it is from these that we first see her royal signature ´MARIE R´.

       In 1558, she married the Dauphin in/on/at an incredible celebration in/on/at Notre-Dame Cathedral in/on/at Paris.

       She had an oval face, shapely chin, and small mouth which were set off by her golden-red hair, her large forehead, and hazel eyes. Many considered Mary to be the most beautiful princess in/on/at Europe. She was not always in the best of health but, unlike her husband, there were no immediate concerns for her life. 

3. Write 3-3 sentences expressing wishes for the present and past (as practised on the lesson).

Wish Clauses

Wishes about the present

I wish + past simple or continuous

I haven´t got any money. (now) I wish I had some money. (now)
We´re all living in a small flat. I wish we weren´t living in a small flat. I wish we were living in a big flat.

Wishes about the past = Regrets

I wish + past perfect

Now we have missed the train. I wish we hadn´t missed the train.

I have broken my leg during the football match. I wish I hadn´t broken it.