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LINGUA E Crumlin College (IRL) and KTA Brugge (BEL)

Ireland
   Introduction
   Land and Resources
   Economy
   Population
   Goverment
   History
   Things to see
   Ireland in Europe

Dublin
   Short History
   Important People
   A guided tour

Lifestyle
   Art
   Music
   Sports Heroes
   Nightlife
   Fashion

Education
   General Information
   To school in Ireland

Crumlin College
   Introduction
   Departments
   Meet the students
   Meet the teachers

Lingua E
   The J.E.P.
   Diary of a visit to
   Belgium


History
The Irish government became independent of the United Kingdom in 1921. The Republic of Ireland's first government was formend in 1922. There are two houses of government. The upper is Seanaid Eireann and the house of representives is Dail Eireann. Both meet in Leinster House. The head of state is the president. Our current president is Mary McAleese.

Leinster House

Our Present Day
Our current Prime minister or Taoiseach is Bertie Ahern. He leads a coalition of the Fianna Fail party and the Progressive Democrates Parties of opposition include:

Democratic Left
Labour Party
Fine Gael
Communist Party of Ireland
Sinn Fein
Independents

Departments of the Government:
There are 14 ministers who each look after a government department.

Enterprise Trade and Employment
Marine and natural resources
Foreign Affairs
Public Enterprise
Defence
Agriculture and Food
Finance
Health and Children
The Environment and Local government
Social, Community and Family Affairs
Arts , Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands
Justice, Equality and Law Reform
Tourism, Sport and Recreation
Education and Science

The people of Ireland would have the choice to vote the government parties into parliament. Our voting age is 18.

Past Presidents:

Douglas Hyde was our first president 1938
Eamon De Valera 1959
Mary Robinson 1990 are just few of are past presidents.

Mary Robinson
Mary Robinson
Was born in 1944 in county Mayo. She became a barrister and professor of Criminal law when she was 25. In 1988, she founded the Irish Centre of European Law. She was a member of Seanad Eirean from 1969 to 1989. She was a member of many parliamentary parties such as the Dublin City Council.

On December 3rd 1990, she was elected the seventh president of Ireland. She was the first ever-female president. Mary served till 12th of September 1997. She was then appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Aras An Uachtarain

Mary McAleese
Mary McAleese
Was born in 1951. She is our current President. She studied mainly Criminal and Family law. In 1979 she joined RTE (our National Television and Radio company) as a journalist and presenter. She returned back to her studies in 1981. She held appointments with many companies such as channel 4 and was Director of Royal Group of Hospitals Trust. On the 11th of November 1997 Mary McAleese was elected our eight presidents. She now lives in the Aras an Uachtarain, the house for the president. It is situated in the Phoenix park.