¶ … history Mercy International Centre Dublin Catherine McAuley . ( http://www.mercyinternational. ) A history significance Jonathan Swift St. Patricks Cathedral Dublin ( http://www.stpatrickscathedral. ) A synopsis Kilmainham Jail, years functioning description peat bogs Ireland, (significance) The Famine Memorial Dublin ~ established built? Connemara marble churches Ireland? A explanation current political system Ireland . The Mercy International Centre in Dublin is the hallmark of the mercy mission and its background is essential in providing people with a better understanding of the principles that help build this type of ideology. The building's architecture is not necessarily special, but it compensates through its history and through the intense feelings that numerous people coming here experienced. While being acquainted with its history a person is very probable to look at it very different from how he or she would have been inclined to perceive it in the beginning.

The building came to function as a mission aimed at helping underprivileged individuals and at assisting distressed women in particular. It was designed to fit educational programs and to provide a series of benefits for people who were in need. The general purpose of the establishment was to encourage women in need to look for help and it eventually hoped to help them recover.

Catherine McAuley is largely responsible for the fact that this mission exists in the contemporary society. By using the resources she inherited as finances to build both the building and the thinking behind the movement, McAuley managed to inspire people from around the world in standing up for others and in getting actively involved in assisting others experience progress. Numerous people were influenced to play a role in helping persons in need and "they soon became involved in teaching the poor children and nursing and the sick and dying in their own homes and hospitals during the cholera and other epidemics." (Learn about our History)

Question 2.

While Jonathan Swift is generally remembered for his writings, few people are familiar with his ecclesiastical background. Swift wrote works such as "Gulliver's Travels" and "A Modest Proposal" -- both of these texts making it possible for readers to get a more complex understanding of his imagination as well as his interest in shaping people's political views. His interest in politics can be considered in parallel to his interest in religion, taking into account that he wanted to use these two mediums with the purpose of raising public awareness and making people acknowledge that they need to change many of the values that made them ignorant toward others.

One of the most imposing buildings in Dublin, St. Patrick's Cathedral, is strongly connected to Swift's involvement in religious life. While the building was built in the thirteenth century and has had a tumultuous history even before Swift came to work in its establishment, it is intriguing to consider his life in connection to how the church developed. In contrast to other religious figures influential at the time, Swift brought a philosophical factor to religion and managed to have people perceive their role in the world through different eyes.

In 1713 Swift was appointed as Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral and this was largely owed to his allegiance to the monarchy. "During the final years his mind began to fail, but not before he had composed the epitah under which he lies buried in Saint Patrick's Cathedral: Ubi saeva indignation ulterius cor lacerare nequit ("He has gone where savage indignation can tear his heart no more")" (Cunnigham & Reich 414)

Question 3.

While it was once a place where people suffered greatly, Kilmainham Jail is currently a place of great wonder, taking into account that people can practically visit the old prison and learn about its history. Actually being inside of the present-day museum can send chills down anyone's spine. Even though it is currently a place where one can improve his or her history understanding of Ireland, the building still feels like a place designed to keep people from being normal.

The correctional centre was opened in 1796 and functioned until 1924, destroying the lives of numerous individuals during the time it was active. While it would be controversial to discuss with regard to all criminals there and the degree to which they were responsible for the actions they were incarcerated for, it is certainly interesting to consider rebels who rose against their oppressors and were eventually sent to Kilmainham Jail. "Such names as Robert Emmet, Charles Stewart Parnell, leaders of the 1916 Rising and DeValera are...

Although it has been almost a century since it's no longer functioned as a correctional establishment, the stories forever engraved onto its walls demonstrate the degree to which human nature can destroy the world. Surely, one would have to be a hypocrite to say that society could function without such institutions, but it is still impossible to ignore the persons who died in this prison as a consequence of their determination to be free.
Question 4.

Peat bogs are one of Ireland's traditional resources, with many Irish buildings having been heater over centuries with the material. Peat is formed as the remains of dead plants accumulate on top of each-other over several years. While the material has been used in Ireland for over one millennium, it was not until the 17th century that people actually started to express interest toward seriously exploiting it. People started to see these areas as being especially useful for agriculture and considered they needed a great deal of change in order to fit their needs. Many saw them as wastelands and went through great efforts in order to transform them.

During the 19th and 20th century peat started to be recognized for its ability to be used as a fuel and people actually started to develop peatlands. A series of methods appeared with the purpose of making peat more efficient as a fuel. "World War II saw major projects to encourage turf production and following the war, programmes were introduced for a substantial increase in mechanical peat production and the use of peat in the generation of electricity." (Clarke)

Although Ireland is currently getting most of its energy from other sources, peat continues to be an important fuel. Millions of tons of peat are burned every year and a series of businesses directed their attention toward producing peat and selling it to institutions acknowledging it as a relatively cheap and efficient fuel.

Question 5.

The Famine Memorial sculptures in Dublin are likely to make most tourists stop and consider the significance that the Irish famines have had in shaping people's thinking and the country's history. The Great Irish Famine (1845 -- 1849) is certainly one of the most catastrophic events in the country's history and this makes it possible for someone to understand why the Irish are never going to forget such an occurrence.

Although it presents an episode (probably a very common one during the period) in the famine, the artwork is meant to address one event in particular. Many people in Ireland considered that emigrating was the only option to survive and as a consequence a great deal of Irishmen and women left Ireland for the U.S. In the second half of the nineteenth century and during the Great Famine.

The Great Famine is usually associated with the potato blight -- a disease that affected potato crops across the country and thus destroyed much of the country's food resources. Even with the fact that the plant's disease was a major factor in the famine, the authorities also played an important role in keeping resource away from the population. "Although blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the impact and human cost in Ireland, where one third of the population was entirely dependent on the potato for food, was exacerbated by a host of political, social and economic factors which remain the subject of historical debate." (Famine Memorial) Many Irish people in the present thus believe that the English are just as responsible as the blight as a consequence of the suffering that swept Ireland during the event.

Question 6.

Connemara marble is probably unique in the world and, along with the numerous other concepts that make Ireland a special place, it manages to amaze individuals everywhere. Stone is one of the principal elements in Ireland, taking into account that the Ireland is a rocky place in general. Individuals who inhabited the land through the years focused on exploiting rock and on using it for a series of purposes. While numerous Irishmen work with rock in general, a few have directed their attention toward Connemara marble in particular. "The craftsmen at Connemara continue a long trade in polished stone that began when the first man-made exports from Ireland were decorative stone axes of Connemarble." (Irish Connemara Marble)

Connemara marble dates back approximately 750 million years in the Pre-Cambrian period. While the green marble is among the most sought-after materials, this marble comes in a wide…