Welcome to my weekly blog,  SATURDAY SESSIONS!   (I know it's Wednesday today, but the exception proves the rule!)      

In this blog, for the perusal of all our students, past, present and future, I include an extract from our interactive presentation Course, Ireland and its Culture. We explore and discover  Ireland and its Culture - so that's why I call them 'Logs', as in a ship's logbook!  

Each Saturday, I hope to post an extract from each of the Logs.

Below each extract, we have an extract from the Mining The Text section which focuses on the use of English involved in creating the paragraph.

In our Course, participants sit back and listen first to a recording of the reading, then we read it together, look at how it was created and discuss the content involved! In the afternoons and evenings, we go out, explore and discover!

If you wish to ask me any question about the text, by the way, just send me an e-mail at greg@bluefeather.ie

LOG 1, (Extract)  IRELAND IN A NUTSHELL        

The first millennium (7) in Ireland is what we might describe as the happy millennium and the second millennium as the sad millennium in Irish history. 

Now, in our third millennium, we are members of the EU, recovering from the economic crash of 2008.

Although (8) the Republic of Ireland is a small country (population c. 4.5 million), it has a wide (9) variety of fascinating landscapes. The coasts of Ireland are full of hills and small mountains and the centre is flat by comparison, like a plate, so some of the most beautiful sights are along the coast. We call Wicklow, for example, the Garden of Ireland.

By contrast, the west of Ireland is wild, rough (10) and rocky but also very beautiful. Some people say that the real Ireland is the Ireland west of the Shannon - the longest river in Ireland and Britain - which flows down through the centre of Ireland.

7.       Millennium = a thousand years.  Century = a hundred years;  Decade = ten years.

8.       Although/Though/Even though  the Republic of Ireland.....

          Though  is also seen at the end of the sentence in everyday conversation, e.g. 'It's a very long           film but it's very interesting, though!'

9.       'Wide variety'  = a collocation, two words that usually go together. (We don't normally say 'a           big variety', although it's not wrong!)  wide ≠ narrow; deep ≠ shallow; (The deep and the           shallow end of a swimming pool; a person can also be deep or shallow!)

10.     rough ≠ smooth; 'In a friendship, you have to take the rough with the smooth!'  Tough means           difficult or hard. 'She's a tough customer' = she's difficult to manage!  'When the going gets           tough, the tough get going!'  (The 'going'  - from horse-racing - means the conditions; when           the conditions are difficult, people who are tough don't mind the difficulties. To get going = to       make progress.)