Salt & vinegar

Salt & vinegar is a very popular and common flavouring of potato chips (also known as "crisps" in most British dialects). Made by virtually all manufacturers of chips, this flavour is generally either loved or hated. The saltiness and moderate vinegar tang of this flavour make it an especially good treat with certain drinks and food. This flavouring and style are native to, and common in, British pubs, although it may have been first produced by the Irish company Tayto. Salt & vinegar are also used separately or together as flavouring on the traditional British dish of fish and chips. Category:British cuisine Category:Food ingredients

Potato chips

. The dark color comes from caramelization.]] Potato chips or crisps are a snack food made from potatoes cut into very thin slices, deep fried or baked until crisp, and then served. Commercial varieties are packaged for sale, usually in bags. The simplest chips are simply cooked and salted, but a wide variety of seasonings (mostly made using MSG and herbs or spices). Potato chips are an important part of the snack food market in English-speaking countries. There is little consistency in the English speaking world for names of potato dishes. North American English uses chips for the above mentioned dish, and French fries for the chewier dish. In British English, crisps are used for the crispy dish and chips for the chewy dish (as in "fish and chips"). In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, both forms of potato product are simply known as chips, as are the larger "home-style" potato chips. Sometimes the distinction is made between 'hot chips' and 'packet chips'. Kumara (sweet potato) chips are eaten in New Zealand.

Origins

It is believed that the original potato chip recipe was created by Native American chef George Crum, at the Moon Lake Lodge in Saratoga Springs, New York on August 24, 1853. He was fed up with a customer — by some accounts Cornelius Vanderbilt — who continued to send his fried potatoes back, because they were too thick and soggy. Crum decided to slice the potatoes so thin that they couldn't be eaten with a fork. Against Crum's expectation the guest was ecstatic about the chips. They became a regular item on the lodge's menu under the name "Saratoga Chips". They soon became popular throughout New England. A mass marketed potato chip could not become popular until the 1920s when the mechanical potato peeler was invented. This product was developed by Herman Lay, a traveling salesman in the southern United States. Before the airtight sealed bag was developed, potato chips were stored in barrels or tins. The chips at the bottom were often stale and damp. Then Laura Scudder invented the bag by ironing together two pieces of wax paper, thereby creating an airtight seal and keeping the chips fresh until opened. Today, chips are packaged in plastic bags, with additional dry air blown in prior to sealing to provide protection against crushing.

Seasoned chips

plastic The potato crisp remained unseasoned, which limited its appeal, until an innovation by the owner of an Irish crisp company called Tayto, who developed a technology to add seasoning in the 1950s. Though he had a small company, consisting almost entirely of his immediate family who prepared the chips, the owner had long proved himself an innovator. After some trial and error, he produced the world's first seasoned potato chips, "Cheese and Onion" and "Salt 'n' Vinegar". Chips seasoned with salt had been sold previously, but the salt was supplied in a sealed packet inside the chip bag, to be added when required. His innovation became an overnight sensation in the food industry, with the heads of some of the biggest potato chip companies in the United States heading to the small Tayto company to examine the product and to negotiate the rights to use the new technology. When eventually the Tayto company was sold, it made the owner and the small family group who had changed the face of potato chip manufacture very wealthy. Companies worldwide sought to buy the rights to Tayto's technique. That Tayto Crisps innovation changed the whole nature of the potato chip. Later potato chip manufacturers added natural and artificial seasonings to potato chips, with varying degrees of success. A product that had had a large appeal to a limited market on the basis of one seasoning now had a degree of market penetration through vast numbers of seasonings that would have astonished George Crum. The most popular forms of seasoned potato chips include "sour cream and onion," "barbecue," and cheese-seasoned chips. Various other seasonings of potato chips are sold in different locales, including the original "salt and vinegar," produced by Tayto, which remains by far Ireland's biggest manufacturer of crisps. Some potato chip manufacturers, such as Lay's, produce seasoned chips based on regional interest. Particularly notable in North America are the wide varieties available in parts of Canada, where seasonings include "dill pickle", "ketchup" and even "poutine". On occasion these products will be released for a limited time in the United States.

Similar foods

Canada Another type of potato chip, notably the Pringles brand, is made by extruding or pressing a dough made from ground potatoes into the familiar potato chip shape before frying. This makes chips that are very uniform in size and shape, which allows them to be stacked and packaged in rigid tubes. In America, the de jure term for Pringles is "crisps", but they are rarely referred to as such. Conversely Pringles may be termed "potato chips" in Europe, to distinguish them from traditional "crisps". Some companies have also marketed baked potato chips as an alternative with lower fat content. Additionally, some varieties of fat-free chips have been made using artificial, and indigestible, fat substitutes. These became well-known in the media when an ingredient many contained, Olestra, was linked to abdominal discomfort and other, more embarrassing, "anal leakage". The success of potato chips also gave birth to fried corn chips, with such brands as Fritos, CCs and Doritos dominating the market. "Swamp chips" are similarly made from a variety of root vegetables such as parsnips, rutabagas and carrots. Japanese-style variants include extruded chips, like products made from rice or cassava.

In recipes

In American cuisine, a whole class of recipes exists that use crushed potato chips, often as one would use seasoned bread crumbs. Recipes include those for cookies, pies, breadings for meatloaves and hamburgers, crumb toppings for casseroles, and in sauces or dips, among others. A classic of American "White trash" or "Trailer park trash" cuisine is the "Potato Chip Sandwich" made from a base of two slices of white sandwich bread generously spread with mayonnaise. As many potato chips as possible are heaped on one of the slices, then the second slice is placed on top and pushed down hard until all the potato chips are crushed. In the UK, "Crisp Butties" are consumed, these are just "Potato Chip Sandwiches" but tomato sauce is more commonly used than mayonnaise.

References

- - Origins of potato chips

External links

- [http://www.potato-recipe.com Potato Recipe Collection]
- [http://www.taquitos.net Taquitos.net (reviews of more than 900 potato chips)] Category:Potato dishes Category:Snack foods ja:ポテトチップス

Crisps

Crisps are a potato product popular in the UK and Ireland, referred to in the United States as potato chips. Invented in the United States in 1853, crisps were further developed in Ireland, where the Tayto firm developed the first method of creating flavoured crisps in 1953. Prior to this, the only flavour available was plain, each bag containing a small blue twist of paper with salt inside to sprinkle over the crisps. The introduction of flavoured crisps turned a small, family-run country business into the largest crisps manufacturer in Ireland, and added a new noun to the Hiberno-English language. The brand name "Tayto" is sometimes used as a generic term, as in "buying some Tayto," which can refer to any bagged savoury snack. The Tayto company also licensed their technology to the majority of the world's crisp makers, and this ensured the company's profitability for many years. Whilst crisps are traditionally made from potatoes, the term is often used for what would be better described as corn snacks – products made from corn starch. These are often sold alongside crisps, and are even made by crisp companies, hence the misnaming. The major vendors of crisps are, in the Republic of Ireland, Tayto, King Crisps, and Walkers; and in the United Kingdom, Walkers, KP (United Biscuits), Golden Wonder and Tayto NI (the latter only in Northern Ireland). However, in recent years, the American Pringles brand has taken some of the market share in both countries.

External links

- [http://www.potato-recipe.com Potato Recipe Collection]
- [http://www.ilovecrisps.com The best crisp resource] Category:Potato dishes Category:Snack foods

Salt

: This article is about the general chemical term salt. For the everyday meaning, see edible salt or its main ingredient, sodium chloride. For other meanings of the word salt, see salt (disambiguation). In chemistry, salt is a term used for ionic compounds composed of positively charged cations and negatively charged anions, so that the product is neutral and without a net charge. These ions can be inorganic (Cl^-) as well as organic (CH₃-COO^-) and monoatomic (F^-) as well as polyatomic ions (SO₄^2-). Solutions of salts in water are called electrolytes. Electrolytes as well as molten salts conduct electricity. Zwitterions are salts that contain an anionic center and a cationic center in the same molecule, examples are the amino acids, many metabolites, peptides, and proteins. Mixtures of many different ions in solution like in the cytoplasm of cells, in blood, urine, plant saps, and mineral waters usually do not form defined salts after evaporation of the water. Therefore their salt content is given for the respective ions. Impure salt is a name for salt which has lost its saltiness. It can also refer to natron.

Appearance

Consistency

Salts are usually solid crystals with a relatively high melting point. However, there exist salts that are liquid at room temperature, so-called ionic liquids. Inorganic salts usually have a low hardness and a low compressibility, similar to edible salt.

Color

Salts can be clear and transparent (sodium chloride), opaque (titanium dioxide), and even metallic and lustrous (iron disulfide). Salts exist in all different colors, e.g. yellow (sodium chromate), orange (sodium dichromate), red (mercury sulfide), mauve (cobalt dichloride hexahydrate), blue (copper sulfate pentahydrate, ferric hexacyanoferrate), green (nickel oxide), colorless (magnesium sulfate), white (titanium dioxide), and black (manganese dioxide). Most minerals and inorganic pigments as well as many synthetic organic dyes are salts.

Taste

Different salts can elicit all five basic tastes, i.e. salty (sodium chloride), sweet (lead diacetate), sour (potassium bitartrate), bitter (magnesium sulfate), and umami or savory (monosodium glutamate).

Odor

Pure salts are odorless, while impure salts may smell after the acid (e.g. acetates like acetic acid (vinegar), cyanides like hydrogen cyanide (almonds)) or the base (e.g. ammonium salts like ammonia).

Nomenclature

The name of a salt starts with the name of the cation (e.g. sodium or ammonium) followed by the name of the anion (e.g. chloride or acetate). Salts are often referred to only by the name of the cation (e.g. sodium salt or ammonium salt) or by the name of the anion (e.g. chloride or acetate). Common salt-forming cations are:
- ammonium NH₄⁺
- calcium Ca²⁺
- iron Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺
- magnesium Mg²⁺
- potassium K⁺
- pyridinium C₅H₅NH⁺
- quaternary ammonium NR₄⁺
- sodium Na⁺ Common salt-forming anions (and the name of the parent acids in parentheses) are:
- acetate CH₃-COO^- (acetic acid)
- carbonate CO₃^2- (carbonic acid)
- chloride Cl^- (hydrochloric acid)
- citrate HO-C(COO^-)(CH₂-COO^-)₂ (citric acid)
- cyanide C≡N^- (hydrogen cyanide)
- hydroxide OH^- (water)
- nitrate NO₃^- (nitric acid)
- nitrite NO₂^- (nitrous acid)
- oxide O^2- (water)
- phosphate PO₄^3- (phosphoric acid)
- sulfate SO₄^2- (sulfuric acid)

Formation

Salts are formed by a chemical reaction between:
- a base and an acid, e.g. NH₃ + HCl → NH_{4_Cl}
- a metal and an acid, e.g. Mg + H₂SO₄ → MgSO₄ + H₂ Salts can also form if solutions of different salts are mixed, their ions recombine, and the new salt is insoluble and precipitates (see: Solubility equilibrium).

References

- Kurlansky, Mark (2002). Salt: A World History. Walker Publishing Company. ISBN: 0142001619
- silting is the natural deposit of salt from sea water

UÇK

UÇK is an acronym used by two Albanian guerrilla movements from 1992 to 2001:
- The most well known group is Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës (Albanian for the Kosovo Liberation Army - KLA), which operated in Kosovo from 1995 to 1999. (The name was in use from 1992, but the guerrilla did not start its armed uprising before 1995.)
- Not so well known is Ushtria Çlirimtare Kombëtare (Albanian for National Liberation Army), which operated in the Republic of Macedonia in 2000 and 2001. This movement is often confused with the KLA because of its identical (Albanian) acronym, and because many of the NLA soldiers were KLA veterans.

External links

- [http://www.kosovo.com/kla2.html KOSOVO LIBERATION ARMY - Freedom Fighters or...] Truth in facts and testimonies
- [http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=519 Ibrahim Rugova: Victory of the Passive Resistance?] Category:History of Kosovo

Pub

:For uses of the acronym PUB, see PUB (disambiguation). PUB (disambiguation) of England)]] England]] A public house, usually known as a pub, is a drinking establishment found mainly in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries influenced by British culture. A pub which offers lodging may be called an inn or hostelry. In Australia, pubs often bear the name of "Hotel", even though most no longer offer lodging (confusingly, those that do are generally called "Private Hotels").
Overview
In the 1930s the Anglo-French writer Hilaire Belloc penned the following cautionary warning: :When you have lost your inns drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England! Public houses are culturally and socially different from other places found elsewhere in the world such as cafés, bars, bierkellers and brewpubs. There are approximately 60,000 public houses in the United Kingdom (UK). In many places, especially in villages, a pub can be the focal point of the community, playing a similar role to the local church in this respect. Pubs are social places for the sale and consumption of mainly alcoholic beverages, and most public houses offer a wide range of beers, wines, spirits and alcopops. Beer served in a pub can range from pressurised "keg" beer, to "cask-conditioned" real ale beer brewed in the time-honoured fashion. The beer lends most pubs a pleasant, memorable aroma. Often the windows of the pub are of smoked or frosted glass so that the clientele are obscured from the street. window] The owner or manager (licensee) of a public house is known as the publican, and may be referred to as "guv" (short for guv'nor, or governor) in some parts of the country. Each pub generally has a crowd of regulars, people who drink there regularly. The pub people visit most often is called their local. In many cases, this will be the pub nearest to their home, but some people choose their local for other reasons: proximity to work, a traditional venue for their friends, the availability of real ale, or maybe just a pool table. Colloquialisms for the public house include boozer, the local, watering hole and rub-a-dub-dub (see Cockney Rhyming Slang).
History
The inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland have been drinking ale since the Bronze Age, but it was with the arrival of the Romans and the establishment of the Roman road network that the first inns, in which the weary traveller could obtain refreshment, began to appear. By the time the Romans left, the beginnings of the modern pub had been established. They became so commonplace that in 965 King Edgar decreed that there should be no more than one alehouse per village. A traveller in the early Middle Ages could obtain overnight accommodation in monasteries, but later a demand for hostelries grew with the popularity of pilgrimages and travel. The Hostellers of London were granted guild status in 1446 and in 1514 the guild became the Worshipful Company of Innholders. Traditional English ale was made solely from fermented malt. The practice of adding hops to produce beer was introduced from the Netherlands in the early 15th century. Alehouses would brew their own distinctive ale, but independent breweries began to appear in the late 17th century. By the end of the century almost all beer was brewed by commercial breweries. 17th century (right)]] The 18th century saw a huge growth in the number of drinking establishments, primarily due to the introduction of gin. Gin was brought to England by the Dutch after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and started to become very popular after the government created a market for grain that was unfit to be used in brewing by allowing unlicensed gin production, whilst imposing a heavy duty on all imported spirits. As thousands of gin-shops sprang up all over England, brewers fought back by increasing the number of alehouses. By 1740 the production of gin had increased to six times that of beer and because of its cheapness it became popular with the poor. Of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London over half were gin-shops. Beer maintained a healthy reputation as it was often safer to drink ale than water, but the drunkenness and resultant lawlessness created by gin was seen to lead to ruination and degradation of the working classes. The distinction was illustrated by William Hogarth in his engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane. The Gin Act (1736) imposed high taxes on retailers but led to riots in the streets. The prohibitive duty was gradually reduced and finally abolished in 1742. The 1751 Gin Act however was more successful. It forced distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and brought gin-shops under the jurisdiction of local magistrates.
Opening hours
Main article: Licensing laws of the United Kingdom From the middle of the 19th century restrictions began to be placed on the opening hours of licensed premises. These culminated in the Defence of the Realm Act of August 1914, which along with the introduction of rationing, and the censorship of the press also restricted the opening hours of public houses to 12noon–2.30pm and 6.30pm–9.30pm. In recent times the licensing laws have become more relaxed, with pubs allowed to open from 11am (12noon on Sundays) through to 11pm (10.30pm on Sundays). The Licensing Act 2003, which came into force on November 24, 2005, allows for pubs to apply to the local authority for opening hours of their choice. This has proved controversial, with supporters arguing that it will end the concentration of violence around half past 11, when people must leave the pub, making policing easier. Critics have claimed that these laws will lead to '24-hour Drinking'. By the day before the law came into force, 60 326 establishments had applied for longer hours, and 1 121 had applied for a licence to sell alcohol 24 hours a day [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4461888.stm]. However, many argue that few of these establishments will be constantly open. There is some evidence for this in that since 2000, pubs have been able to open for 36 hours straight, from 11am on New Year's Eve, but few if any do. Even before the new Act comes into force, several English cities have already allowed some pubs to extend opening hours to midnight or 1am. Licensing laws differ in Scotland, and pubs there generally have more flexible opening hours.
Pub games and sports
Scotland Numerous traditional games are played in pubs, ranging from the well-known darts and billiards to the more obscure Nine Men's Morris and Ringing the bull. In recent years the game of pool (both the British and American versions) has increased in popularity. For more details on traditional pub games, see Pub games. Increasingly, more modern games such as video games and slot machines are provided. Many pubs also hold special events, from tournaments of the aforementioned games to karaoke nights to pub quizzes. Some play pop music, or show football on big screen televisions. Despite the wide range of distractions now available in pubs, doing nothing (other than drinking of course) remains perfectly acceptable.
Pub food
Traditionally pubs in Britain were drinking establishments and little emphasis was placed on the serving of food. The usual fare consisted of specialised English snack food such as pork scratchings, pickled eggs, along with crisps and peanuts. If a pub served meals they were usually basic dishes such as a ploughman's lunch. Food has now become much more important as part of a pub's trade and today most pubs serve lunches and dinners (colloquially this is known as pub grub, or in Australia, counter meal or simply countery) in addition to snacks consumed at the bar. Many pubs serve excellent meals which rival the best restaurants and going for a 'pub lunch' can be a real treat. Certain pubs with a focus on quality food have come to be known as gastropubs.
Pub signs
gastropub]] In 1393 King Richard II compelled landlords to erect signs outside their premises. The legislation stated "Whosoever shall brew ale in the town with intention of selling it must hang out a sign, otherwise he shall forfeit his ale". In the past, pictures were more useful than the words for identifying the pub, as many of the patrons were illiterate. Many British pubs still have highly decorated signs hanging over their doors. These signs bear the name of the pub, in words and in pictorial representation. If the pub's name refers to real objects or animals, then the picture will usually be a straightforward one; if the pub is named after a person of nobility, then the sign will often bear that person's coat of arms. Some pub signs are in the form of a pictorial pun or rebus. Many of the traditional pub names were chosen in order to provide a memorable pub sign.
Pub names
Pubs often have traditional names. Here is a list of categories:
- reflecting local trades: The Mason's Arms, The Foresters
- local sporting activities: The Cricketers, The Fox and Hounds
- a noted individual: The Marquis of Granby, The Lord Nelson
- an historic event: The Trafalgar, The Royal Oak
- alluding amusingly to everyday phrases: The Nowhere Inn Particular, The Dewdrop Inn
- with a royal or aristocratic association: The King's Arms, The King's Head, The Queen Victoria, The Duke of Cambridge
- with the names of two objects which may or may not be complementary: The George and Dragon, The Goat and Compasses, The Rose and Crown
- with names of tools or products of trades: The Harrow, The Propeller, The Wheatsheaf
- with names of items, particularly animals, that may be part of a coat of arms (heraldic charges): The Red Lion, The Unicorn, The White Bear
- with reference to history of the local area The Strugglers in Lincoln , refers to how people being publicly executed by hanging would struggle for air. Lincoln John Manners, Marquess of Granby (son of John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland) was a general in the 18th century. He showed a great concern for the welfare of his men upon their retirement and provided funds for many to establish taverns, which were subsequently named after him. Many names for pubs that appear nonsensical may have come from corruptions of older names or phrases, often producing a visual image to signify the pub. For example, the name The Goat and Compasses is apparently a corrupted version of the phrase "God encompasseth us". These images had particular importance for identifying a pub on signs and other media before literacy became widespread. Another example of a mistaken Pub name is the Oyster Reach pub in Ipswich, England. This pub spent several decades being called the Ostrich, before historians informed the owners of the original name. More possible but uncorroborated corruptions include "The Bag o'nails" (Bacchanals), "Elephant and Castle", (Infanta de Castile) and "The Bull and Mouth", which purportedly celebrates the victory of Henry VIII at "Boulougne Mouth" or Harbour. While these corruptions are amusing there are usually more substantiated explanations available.
Pub chains
In recent years a number of pub chains have sprung up which use semi-traditional sounding names (The Rat and Parrot, The Slug and Lettuce, The ... and Firkin) for all of the pubs in the chain. Newly acquired pubs are renamed and many people resent the loss of traditional names. These pubs are often owned by brewing companies and their beer selection is mainly limited to beers from that particular company. However; by law, pubs owned by breweries must allow their landlords the choice of offering at least one alternative beer (known as a guest beer) from another brewery and that beer must be a cask conditioned or bottle-conditioned real-ale.
Campaign for Real Ale
A society with a particular interest in the traditional British beers and the preservation of the 'integrity' of the public house is CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale. CAMRA were instrumental in lobbying for the 'guest beer law'. In 1998 there were 60,000 pubs in the United Kingdom (53,200 in England and Wales, 5,200 in Scotland and 1,600 in Northern Ireland). Perhaps more significant is the overall trend reflected in two other statistics: while the number of licences is up from around 75,000 in the mid-1970s to over 85,000 in 2002 (this included licences for other types of establishment such as restaurants), the number of barrels of beer sold at pubs (and bars) has dropped from over 36 million to less than 24 million during the same period. These statistics reflect the trend in the UK away from drinking at the local pub. (Source: [http://www.beerandpub.com/ BBPA Statistical Handbook]).
Notable British public houses

- The Olde Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street, London (formerly a favourite haunt of journalists)
- Dirty Dick's in Bishopsgate, London (an historic London pub)
- The Llandoger Trow in Bristol
- The Nutshell in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (Britain's smallest pub, according to the Guinness Book of Records)
- The Royal Standard of England, Beaconsfield, Bucks. (dating from 1066, claims to be the oldest free house in England. King Charles hid here during the English Civil War, and the pub is named for his flag.)
- The Eagle and Child in Oxford (frequented by The Inklings, a writing circle that included J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis)
- Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem in Nottingham (incorporates a cave and claims to be the oldest pub in the UK)
- Ye Olde White Harte in Kingston upon Hull, the home of 'The Plotting Parlour' where it was decided not to allow King Charles I into the city, supposedly starting the English Civil War in 1642.
- The King's Head, Aylesbury, the oldest pub with a coaching yard in the south of England and the only pub in England run by the National Trust
- The Eagle in Cambridge, the pub in which Francis Crick and James Watson announced that they had "discovered the secret of life" (the structure of DNA). Was also frequented by Alan Turing and friends.
- The Tan Hill Inn in Yorkshire is the highest inn in England (1732ft above sea level). Tan Hill is a high point on the Pennine Way.
- The Drayton Court in Ealing, converted into a pub from a hotel in the 19th Century, has the largest 'beer garden' in London and indeed any city pub in the UK.
- The Crown Liquor Saloon, one of the only pubs in the UK to be owned by the National Trust.
- Canterbury Arms, Large Pub in Ashton Under Lyne, famouse for its large beer garden and hauntings.
Pubs in British popular culture
All the major soap operas on British television feature a pub, with their 'pub' becoming a household name. The Rovers Return is the pub on Coronation Street, the top British 'soap' broadcast on ITV. The Queen Vic (short for the Queen Victoria) is the pub on EastEnders, the major 'soap' on BBC1, while The Bull in The Archers and the Woolpack on Emmerdale are also central meeting points. The sets of each of the three major television soap operas have been visited by royalty, including Queen Elizabeth II. The centrepiece of each visit was a trip into the Rovers, the Vic or the Woolpack to be offered a drink. British comedian Al Murray's best-known character is a comic bigot: The Pub Landlord US president George W. Bush fulfilled his ambition of visiting a 'genuine English pub' during his November 2003 State Visit to the UK when he shared lunch and a pint of non-alcoholic lager with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the Dun Cow pub in Sedgefield, County Durham.
Pub music
While many pubs now play piped pop music, the Pub has historically been a popular venue for live song. See:
- Oom-pah
- Pub rock
- Pub songs
- Folk music The pub has also been celebrated in popular music. Examples are "Hurry Up Harry" by the 1970s punk rock act Sham 69, the chorus of which was the chant "We're going down the pub" repeated several times. Another such song is "Two Pints Of Lager and a Packet of Crisps Please!" by UK punk band Splodgenessabounds. As a reaction against piped music, the Quiet Pub Guide was written, telling its readers where to go to avoid piped music.
Theme pubs
Pubs that to cater for a niche audience, such as sports fans or Star Trek fans or people of certain nationalities are known as theme pubs. Examples of theme pubs include sports bars, rock pubs, biker pubs and Irish pubs (see below).
Irish public houses
Irish]] Superficially there is little difference between an Irish pub and its English counterpart. However, closer scrutiny will reveal some differences. There is more live music in an Irish pub, and a customer is more likely to entertain the assembly with a song. The atmosphere in such places is called "craic" or "crack" (a word for fun). In Ireland pubs usually bear the name of the current or a previous owner, e.g. Murphy's or O'Connor's Pub. Famous pubs in Dublin include O'Donoghue's, an Irish music pub in Merrion Row frequented by American tourists, Doheny & Nesbitt, where politicians, journalists and writers drink together, the Horse Shoe Bar in the Shelbourne Hotel, where journalists like Eamon Dunphy are regular drinkers, and The George, Dublin's largest gay pub. Individual pubs are also associated with famous Irish writers and poets such as Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Behan and James Joyce. 'Irish Pubs' have been opened throughout the world, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, from New York to Frankfurt, Johannesburg to Beijing. Main drinks consumed in Irish pubs include stout or ales like Guinness, Smithwicks and Kilkenny, lagers such as Budweiser, Heineken, Carlsberg and Harp and other spirits like whiskey and Baileys. Alcopops are also becoming popular with the youth market, many of whom no longer drink beverages such as Guinness. Cider is also a drink which is consumed much in the pubs in Ireland with Bulmers (sold as "Magners" outside of the Republic of Ireland to distinguish it from the internationally recognized Hereford cider-makers, H.P. Bulmer and Company, with which it shares a common heritage) being the leading brand. Non-alcoholic drinks are also available. The smoking ban in the Republic has noticeably changed the Irish pub experience; many pubs now offer enclosed and often heated outdoor smoking areas.
Compare with

- Bar
- Biergarten (aka Beer garden)
- Cafe
- Coffeehouse
- Inn
- Izakaya
- Kopi tiam, coffee shop
- Restaurant
- Tavern
- Tied house and Free house
See also

- Alcoholism
- Beer hall (Bierstube), a German pub
- Church in a pub
- Celtic pub
- Drunkenness
- Evening Standard Pub of the Year, an annual award in London
- Firkin Brewery
- Hangover
- Pub crawl
- UK topics
References

- Beer and Britannia: An Inebriated History of Britain by Peter Haydon (2001, Sutton)
- Beer: The Story of the Pint by Martyn Cornell (2003, Headline)
- Man Walks into a Pub by Pete Brown (2003, MacMillan)
- The English Pub by Michael Jackson (1976, Harper & Row).
External links

- [http://www.wikipubs.org Wikipubs.org] — A wiki of pubs and clubs from around the globe. Note: we are looking for contributors.
- [http://ukcider.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Cider_Pub_Guide UKcider wiki] — A wiki guide to over 420 UK pubs that serve real cider.
- [http://www.britishpubguide.com Britishpubguide.com] — Free UK pub guide working on the same basis as Wikipedia: add your own information on any pub you like
- [http://pubs.com/ pubs.com] — Traditional and Historic London pubs
- [http://www.pubutopia.com/ PubUtopia.com] — A community driven UK pubs guide, with ratings and reviews by real customers
- [http://www.beerintheevening.com/ BeerInTheEvening.com] — A UK pub listings site featuring maps, pub search, pub ratings, and reviews
- [http://www.barcrawl.co.uk/ BarCrawl.co.uk] — Another UK pub listing site with a pub crawl generator
- [http://www.beermad.org.uk/cgi-bin/pubs.cgi List of pub websites]
- [http://www.manwalksintoapub.com Man walks into a Pub] — A social history of beer drinking
- [http://www.sirc.org/publik/pub.html Passport to the Pub] — a guide to British pub etiquette.
- [http://www.thepublandlord.com/ The Pub Landlord] (official website for comedian Al Murray) Category:Beer
- Category:Types of restaurants ja:パブ

Ireland

:This page is about the island of Ireland. For the state also called Ireland, see Republic of Ireland. :For an explanation of terms like Ulster, Northern Ireland, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology) . British Isles (terminology)] Ireland (Irish: Éire) is the third-largest island in Europe. It lies in the Atlantic Ocean and it is composed of the Republic of Ireland (officially, Ireland), which covers five sixths of the island (south, east, west and north-west), and Northern Ireland; part of the United Kingdom, which covers the northeastern sixth of the island. The population of the island is approximately 5.8 million people; 4.1 million in the Republic of Ireland (1.6 million in Greater Dublin) and 1.7 million in Northern Ireland (0.6 million in Greater Belfast). Belfast 2003. Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales are visible to the east]]
Geography
Wales with more details).]] A ring of coastal mountains surrounds low central plains. The highest peak is Carrauntuohill (Irish: Corrán Tuathail), which is 1041 m (3414 feet). The island is bisected by the River Shannon, at 259 km (161 mi) the longest river in Ireland or Britain. The island's lush vegetation, a product of its mild climate and frequent but soft rainfall, earns it the sobriquet "Emerald Isle". The island's area is 84,079 km² (32,477 mile²). Ireland is divided into four provinces: Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster. In Irish these are referred to as Cúige's ( Cúige - meaning fifths). Previously there were five provinces - Connacht, Munster, Ulster, Leinster and Meath, comprising the counties of Meath, Westmeath and Longford. These were further divided into 32 counties for administrative purposes. Six of the Ulster counties remain under British sovereignty as Northern Ireland following Ireland's partition in 1922 (the remaining 26 forming present-day Republic of Ireland); since the UK's 1974 reshuffle these county boundaries no longer exist in Northern Ireland for administrative purposes, although Fermanagh District Council is almost identical to the county. In the Republic, the county boundaries are still adhered to for local government, albeit with Tipperary and Dublin subdivided (some cities also have their own administrative regions). For election constituencies, some counties are merged or divided, but constitutionally the boundaries have to be observed. Across Ireland, the 32 counties are still used in sports and in some other cultural areas and retain a strong sense of local identity. Ireland's least arable land lies in the south-western and western counties. These areas are largely spectacularly mountainous and rocky, with beautiful green vistas.

Politics
Dublin Politically, Ireland is divided into:
- The Republic of Ireland, with its capital in Dublin. This state is often simply referred to internally and internationally as "Ireland" in English or "Éire" in Irish. Technically Ireland and Éire are the official names of the state while the "Republic of Ireland" is its official description.
- Northern Ireland is unofficially known as 'the North', and 'Ulster' (the province of Ulster also includes Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan which are in the Republic). Northern Ireland is a region of the United Kingdom. Prior to the Government of Ireland Act 1920 the island had been a unified political entity within the United Kingdom (see United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) from 1801. From 1541 the Kingdom of Ireland was established by the King of England, though this realm did not cover the whole island till the early 17th century. Up to then, Ireland had been politically divided into a number of different Irish kingdoms (Leinster, Munster, Connacht, Mide, Ulster, and others). Contrary to some assertions, at no time did a national kingdom headed by an Ard Ri exist. In a number of respects, the island operates officially as a single entity, for example, in most kinds of sports. The major religions, the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, are organised on an all-island basis. Some 92% of the population of the Republic of Ireland and about 44% of Northern Ireland is Roman Catholic. Some trade unions are also organised on an all-Irish basis and associated with the Irish Congress of Trades Unions (ICTU) in Dublin, while others in Northern Ireland are affiliated with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the United Kingdom - though such unions may organise in both parts of the island as well as in Britain. The island also has a shared culture across the divide in many other ways. Traditional Irish music, for example, though showing some variance in all geographical areas, is, broadly speaking, the same on both sides of the border. Irish and Scottish traditional music have many similarities. The Ireland Funds, an international fund-raising organisation, tries to help people on both sides find peace and reconciliation through community development, education, arts and culture. The island is often referred to as being part of the British Isles. However, some people, especially in Ireland, take exception to this name, which seems to suggest that both islands belong to Britain. For this reason, "Britain and Ireland" is commonly used as a more neutral alternative. Another suggestion, although much less used, is the Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA).
Flag of Ireland
There is no universally agreed flag that represents the island of Ireland. Historically a number of flags were used, including St. Patrick's cross, the flag sometimes used for the Kingdom of Ireland and which represented Ireland on the Union Jack after the Act of Union, a green flag with a harp (used by some radical nationalists in the 19th century and which is also the flag of Leinster), a blue flag with a harp used from the 18th century onwards by many nationalists (now the standard of the President of Ireland), and the Irish tricolour. However as the tricolour is the flag of the Republic of Ireland it is not used to represent the island of Ireland, given that the island also includes Northern Ireland. The Royal Standard also shows a version of an ancient Irish flag in one of its four quadrants. St Patrick's Saltire is used to represent the island of Ireland by the all-island Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). In contrast the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) uses the tricolour to represent the whole island.
History
Gaelic Athletic Association]] Ireland was mostly ice-covered and joined by land to Britain and Europe during the last ice age, has been inhabited for about 9,000 years. Stone age inhabitants arrived sometime after 8000 BC, with the culture progressing from Mesolithic to high Neolithic over the course of three or four millennia. The Bronze Age, which began around 2500 BC, saw the production of elaborate gold and bronze ornaments and weapons. The Iron Age in Ireland is associated with people now known as Celts. They are traditionally thought to have colonised Ireland in a series of waves between the 8th and 1st centuries BC, with the Gael, the last wave of Celts, conquering the island and dividing it into five or more kingdoms. Many scholars, however, now favour a view that emphasises cultural diffusion from overseas over significant colonisation.The Romans referred to Ireland as Hibernia. Ptolemy in AD 100 records Ireland's geography and tribes. Native accounts are confined to Irish poetry, myth, and archaeology. The exact relationship between Rome and the tribes of Hibernia is unclear; the only references are a few Roman writings. Tradition maintains that in AD 432, St. Patrick arrived on the island and, in the years that followed, worked to convert the Irish to Christianity. The druid tradition collapsed in the face of the spread of the new faith. Irish Christian scholars excelled in the study of Latin learning and Christian theology in the monasteries that flourished, preserving Latin learning during the Early Middle Ages. The arts of manuscript illumination, metalworking, and sculpture flourished and produced such treasures as the Book of Kells, ornate jewellery, and the many carved stone crosses that dot the island. This era was interrupted in the 9th century by 200 years of intermittent warfare with waves of Viking raiders who plundered monasteries and towns. Eventually they settled in Ireland, and established many towns, including the modern day cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford. In 1172, King Henry II of England gained Irish lands by the granting of the 1155 Bull Laudibiliter to him by then English Pope Adrian IV, and from the 13th century, English law began to be introduced. English rule was largely limited to the area around Dublin, known as the Pale, and Waterford, but this began to expand in the 16th century with the final collapse of the Gaelic social and political superstructure at the end of the 17th century, as a result of the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland and English and Scottish Protestant colonisation in the Plantations of Ireland, which established English control over the whole island. After the the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Irish Catholics were barred from voting or attending the Irish Parliament. The new English Protestant ruling class was known as the Protestant Ascendancy In 1800 the Irish Parliament passed the Act of Union which, in 1801, merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The whole island of Ireland would remain within the United Kingdom, ruled directly by the UK Parliament in London. The 19th century saw the Great Famine of the 1840s in which at least 1 million Irish people died and over a million were forced to emigrate. The late 19th and early 20th century saw a vigorous but unsuccessful campaign for Irish home rule, followed by the eclipse of moderate nationalism by militant separatism. In 1922, following the Anglo-Irish War, twenty-six counties of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom as the Irish Free State. The remaining six, in the north-east, remained within the Union as Northern Ireland. Secession for the rest of Ireland led directly to the Civil War, as militant nationalists split into two factions and turned against one another.
History since partition

Irish Independence: The Irish Free State, Éire, Ireland
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was narrowly ratified by the Dáil in December 1921 but was rejected by a large minority, resulting in the Irish Civil War which lasted until 1923. In 1922, in the middle of this civil war, the Irish Free State came into being. For its first years the new state was governed by the victors of the Civil War. However in the 1930s Fianna Fáil, the party of the opponents of the treaty, were elected into government. The party introduced a new constitution in 1937 which renamed the state to simply "Éire or in the English language, Ireland" (preface to the Constitution). The state was neutral during World War II but offered some assistance to the Allies. In 1949 the state declared itself to be a republic and that henceforth it should be described as the Republic of Ireland. The state was plagued by poverty and emigration until the 1990s. That decade saw the beginning of unprecedented economic success, in a phenomenon known as the "Celtic Tiger". By the early 2000s, it had become one of the richest countries (in terms of GDP per capita) in the European Union, moving from being a net recipient to a net contributor and from a population with net emigration to one with net immigration.
Northern Ireland
From its creation in 1921 until 1972 Northern Ireland enjoyed limited self-government within the United Kingdom, with its own parliament and prime minister. However the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland each voted almost entirely along sectarian lines, meaning that the government of Northern Ireland (elected by "first past the post") was always controlled by the Ulster Unionist Party. Consequently, Catholics could not participate in the government, which at times openly encouraged discrimination in housing and employment. Nationalist grievances at unionist discrimination within the state eventually led to large civil rights protests in 1960s, which the government suppressed heavy-handedly, most notably on "Bloody Sunday". It was during this period of civil unrest that the paramilitary Provisional IRA, who favoured the creation of a united Ireland, began its campaign against Unionist rule. Other groups, legal and illegal on the unionist side, and illegal on the nationalist side, began to participate in the violence and the period known as the "Troubles" began. Owing to the civil unrest the British government suspended home rule in 1972 and imposed direct rule. In 1998, following a Provisional IRA cease-fire, the Good Friday Agreement was concluded and attempts began to be made to restore self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of power sharing between the two communities. Violence has greatly decreased since the signing of the accord. In 2001 the armed police force in the north (which operated much like an army with armoured cars etc.), The Royal Ulster Constabulary (or RUC for short), was removed in place of the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) as a result of easing tensions. On July 28 2005, the Provisional IRA (PIRA) announced the end of its armed campaign and on September 25 2005 international weapons inspectors supervised the full disarmament of the PIRA.
Sport
Gaelic football and hurling are the most popular sports in Ireland. Along with Camogie, Ladies' Gaelic football, handball and rounders, they make up the national sports of Ireland, collectively known as Gaelic Games. All Gaelic games are governed by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), with the exception of Ladies' Gaelic Football, which is governed by a separate organisation. The GAA is organised on an all-Ireland basis with all 32 counties competing; traditionally, counties first compete within their province, in the provincial championships, and the winners then compete in the All-Ireland senior hurling or football championships. The headquarters of the GAA (and the main stadium) is located at the 83,000 capacity Croke Park in north Dublin. All major GAA games are played here, including the semi-finals and finals of the All-Ireland championships. All GAA players, even at the highest level, are amateurs and receive no wages. The Irish rugby team includes players from north and south, and the Irish Rugby Football Union governs the sport on both sides of the border. Consequently in international rugby, the Ireland team represents the whole island. The same is true of cricket. However, when Ireland was partitioned, organisation of football (soccer) in the Republic was transferred from the Belfast-based Irish Football Association (IFA) to the new Football Association of Ireland (FAI). The IFA remained in charge of the game in the six counties. (Consequently in International Association Football, the island has two teams: the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland.) Northern Ireland qualified for the World Cup Soccer finals in 1958 (where they made it to the quarter finals), 1982 and 1986. The Republic of Ireland made it to the World Cup in 1990 (where they made it to the quarter finals), 1994 and 2002. Greyhound racing and horse racing are both popular in Ireland: greyhound stadiums are well attended and there are frequent horse race meetings. The Republic is noted for the breeding and training of race horses and is also a large exporter of racing dogs. The horse racing sector is largely concentrated in the central east of the Republic. Boxing is also an all-island sport governed by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association. Golf is an extremely popular sport in Ireland and Golfing Tourism is a major industry. The 2006 Ryder Cup will be held in the K Club in Co. Kildare, which is just outside Dublin. Prominent Irish sporting stars are: Sean Kelly (cycling), Stephen Roche (cycling), Brian O'Driscoll (rugby), Roy Keane (soccer), Damien Duff (soccer), D.J. Carey (hurling), Peter Canavan (GAA), Aidan O'Brien (racehorse trainer), Kieren Fallon (jockey), Eddie Jordan (F1), Padraig Harrington (golf), Sonia O'Sullivan (athlethics), Steve Collins (boxing) and Ken Doherty (snooker).
Culture

Literature and the arts
For a comparatively small country, Ireland has made a disproportionately large contribution to world literature in all its branches, mainly in English. Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe with the earliest examples dating from the 6th century; Jonathan Swift, still often called the foremost satirist in the English language, was wildly popular in his day (Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, etc.) and remains so in modern times amongst both children and adults. In more recent times, Ireland has produced four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature: George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. Although not a Nobel Prize winner, James Joyce is widely considered one of the most significant writers of the 20th century. His 1922 novel Ulysses is sometimes cited as the greatest English-language novel of the 20th century and his life is celebrated annually on June 16th in Dublin as the Bloomsday celebrations. The early history of Irish visual art is generally considered to begin with early carvings found at sites such as Newgrange and is traced through Bronze age artifacts, particularly ornamental gold objects, and the religious carvings and illuminated manuscripts of the mediæval period. During the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, a strong indigenous tradition of painting emerged, including such figures as John Butler Yeats, William Orpen, Jack Yeats and Louis le Brocquy.
Music and dance
The Irish tradition of folk music and dance is also widely known. In the middle years of the 20th century, as Irish society was attempting to modernise, traditional music tended to fall out of favour, especially in urban areas. During the 1960s, and inspired by the American folk music movement, there was a revival of interest in the Irish tradition. This revival was led by such groups as The Dubliners, The Chieftains, the Clancy Brothers and Sweeney's Men and individuals like Sean Ó Riada and Danny O'Flaherty. Irish and Scottish traditional music are similar. Before long, groups and musicians including Horslips, Van Morrison and even Thin Lizzy were incorporating elements of traditional music into a rock idiom to form a unique new sound. During the 1970s and 1980s, the distinction between traditional and rock musicians became blurred, with many individuals regularly crossing over between these styles of playing as a matter of course. This trend can be seen more recently in the work of bands and individuals like U2, Clannad, The Cranberries, Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher, and The Pogues. Nevertheless, Irish music has shown an immense inflation of popularity with many attempting to return to their roots. There are also contemporary music groups that stick closer to a "traditional" sound, including Altan, Gaelic Storm, Lúnasa, and Solas. Others incorporate multiple cultures in a fusion of style, such as Afro Celt Sound System and Canadian Loreena McKennitt. Ireland has done well in the Eurovision Song Contest, being the most successful country in the competition with seven wins. This achievement evokes mixed feelings in many Irish people.
Demographics
Ireland has been inhabited for at least 9000 years, although little is known about the neolithic inhabitants of the island. Early historical and genealogical records note the existance of dozens of different peoples (Attacotti, Conmaicne, Éoganacht, Érainn, Soghain, to name but a few). Over the last 1000 years, there have been influences by the Vikings, who founded several ports, including Dublin, and Normans, with significant admixture to the gene pool. However the greater part of the Irish population descends from the original inhabitants of the island who came after the end of the Ice Age. Although for many years the Irish were believed to be of Celtic origin, recent genetic evidence shows that both the Irish and the Welsh (and to a lesser degree England and Scotland) have many genetic traits in common with the people of the Basque region. Some theorize that although Basque is certainly not a Celtic language, there may have been a Celto-Basque link while others postulate that the pre-Celtic population of the island may have had Basque origins. Both positions are difficult to prove, as the information is relatively new. Culturally however, Ireland is undeniably Celtic. Mingling of native Irish inhabitants with the latinate peoples of Spain, France and Rome during the height of the Roman Empire (and later following the expulsion of many Protestants from the predominantly Catholic Southern France, many of whom subsequently migrated to Ireland) gave rise to what some refer to as Franco-celts or Latin-celts. These people are charecterised particularly by very dark, black hair color, a trait that does not occur in "pure" Anglo-Saxon, and other significant genetic similarities to Southern Europeans. Franco-celts (or Latin-celts) are responsible in part, but not wholey, for the moderately high occurrence of black hair and other Southern European characteristics amongst the Irish population. Ireland's largest religious denomination is Roman Catholicism (about 70%), and most of the rest of the population adhere to one of the various Protestant denominations. The largest is the Church of Ireland. The Irish Muslim community is growing, mostly through increased immigration (see Islam in Ireland). The island also has a small Jewish community (See History of the Jews in Ireland), although this has declined somewhat in recent years. Since joining the EU in 2004, Polish people have been the largest source of immigrants from Eastern Europe, followed by other migrants from Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Latvia. Ireland has also had large numbers of Romanians entering the country since the 1990s. A high standard of living, high wages and EU citizenship attract many of the migrants from the newest of the European Union countries. Nigerians, Chinese and people from other African countries also make up a large proportion of migrants to Ireland.
Infrastructure

Transport

Air
Africa The three most important international airports in the Republic are Dublin Airport, Cork Airport and Shannon Airport. All provide extensive services to the UK, continental Europe and North America. The Irish national airline Aer Lingus and low-cost operator Ryanair are based at Dublin. Shannon is an important stopover on trans-Atlantic route for refuelling operations. There are several smaller regional airports in the Republic (Galway Airport, Kerry Airport, Knock International Airport, Sligo Airport, Waterford Airport) that mostly limit their services to Ireland and the United Kingdom. In Northern Ireland there are three main airports. Belfast International (Aldergrove) provides routes to Ireland and Great Britain, as well as many international services to Europe and recently Belfast-New York (Newark). Belfast City and City of Derry Airport mainly provide flights to Great Britain.
Rail
Great Britain The rail network in Ireland was developed by various private companies with the help of British Government funding throughout the late 19th century, reaching its greatest extent around the 1920s. The broad gauge of 1600 mm (5 ft 3 in) was eventually settled upon throughout the island, although there were narrow gauge (3 ft) railways also. Ireland also has one of the largest freight railways in Europe, operated by Bord na Móna. This company has a narrow gauge railway of 1200 miles. In Dublin a new Light Rail System, named Luas opened in 2004. Two lines serve the south and west suburbs as well as the north city centre. More lines are planned as well as an eventual upgrade to Metro. The scheme is being run by the RPA.
Road
RPA] As with Britain, motorists must drive on the left in Ireland, unfortunately tourists driving on the wrong side of the road cause serious [http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1145.html accidents] every year. The island of Ireland has an extensive road network, despite the low quality of many of these until recently. Northern Ireland has historically had better main roads, while the Republic of Ireland has an increasing motorway network, focused on Dublin and the east coast. Historically land owners developed most roads and later Turnpike Trusts collecting tolls so that as early as 1800 Ireland had a 10,000 mile [http://www.cie.ie/about_us/schools_and_enthusiasts.asp road network]. 1815 marked the inauguration of the first horsecar service from Clonmel to Thurles and Limerick. Nowadays the main bus companies are Bus Éireann in the South and Ulsterbus in the North, with Dublin Bus serving the needs of greater Dublin.
Energy
Dublin Bus For much of their existence electricity networks in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland were entirely separate. Both networks were designed and constructed independently, but are now connected with three interlinks and also connected by Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) through Great Britain to mainland Europe. The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) in the Republic drove a rural electrification programme in the 1940s until the 1970s. The natural gas network is also now all-island, with a connection from Antrim to Scotland. Most of Ireland's gas comes from the Kinsale field. The Corrib Gas Field in Mayo has yet to come online, and is facing some localised opposition over the controversial decision to refine the gas onshore. Ireland, north and south has faced difficulties in providing continuous power at peak load. The situation in Northern Ireland is complicated by the issue of private companies not supplying NIE with enough power, while in the Republic, the ESB has failed to modernise its power stations. In the latter case, availability of power plants has averaged 66% recently, one of the worst such figures in Western Europe. There have been recent efforts in Ireland to use renewable energy such as wind energy with large wind farms being constructed in coastal counties such as Donegal, Mayo and Antrim. Recently what will be the world's largest offshore wind farm is being developed at Arklow Bank off the coast of Wicklow. It is estimated to generate 10% of Irelands energy needs when it is complete. These constructions have in some cases been delayed by opposition from locals, most recently on Achill Island, some of whom consider the wind turbines to be unsightly. Another issue in the Republic of Ireland is the failure of the ageing network to cope with the varying availability of power from such installations. Turlough Hill is the only energy storage mechanism in Ireland.
See also

- List of Ireland-related topics
- Republic of Ireland
- Northern Ireland
- Kingdom of Ireland
- The Ireland Funds
- Irish people
External links

- [http://wikitravel.org/en/Republic_of_Ireland Wikitravel guide to the Republic of Ireland]
- [http://wikitravel.org/en/Northern_Ireland Wikitravel guide to Northern Ireland]
- [http://www.ireland-map.co.uk/ Map of Ireland]
- [http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/heaven/dnairish.pdf.pdf#search='Ychromosome%20variation%20and%20Irish%20origins' Y-chromosome variation and Irish origin]
- [http://pdphoto.org/PictureHome.php?cid=23&mat=pdef&md=cid Public domain photos of Ireland] Category:Islands in the British Isles Category:Ireland ko:아일랜드 섬 ja:アイルランド島 simple:Ireland th:ไอร์แลนด์

Fish and chips

Fish and chips or fish'n'chips, a popular take-away food, consists of deep-fried fish in batter with deep-fried potatoes. Fish and chips have great popularity in the United Kingdom , Australia, and New Zealand, considerable popularity in Canada, Ireland, South Africa, some coastal towns of the Netherlands and Norway, and increasing popularity in the United States and elsewhere. Fish and chips also have great popularity in Denmark, where it appears as "fish fillets" (Danish, fiskefiletter) - always accompanied by deep-fried potatoes (french fries). For decades fish and chips dominated the take-away food sector in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. British and international usage refers to the fried potatoes as chips; and while American English calls them "french fries" the combination still has the name "fish and chips". American-style french fries typically have a slimmer shape than their English counterparts "chips"; marketers sometimes market thicker fries as "steak fries"). (The American term "potato chips" refers to a different potato-derived food - one roughly equivalent to crisps in the United Kingdom.) Traditional frying uses dripping (beef fat), and the north of England and Scotland tends to retain this practice. In the south of Britain vegetable oil predominates. This does impart a different flavour to the dish and makes the chips acceptable to vegetarians. Some maintain that 'Lincolnshire Whites' or 'Maris Piper' potatoes produce the best chips. The pronunciation of fish and chips serves as a traditional method of distinguishing Australians and New Zealanders (a Shibboleth; see also New Zealand English). In England, "Fish and Chips" sometimes appears as the spoonerism "Chish and Fips".

History

Deep-fried fish and deep-fried chips have appeared separately on menus for many years – though potatoes did not reach Europe until the 17th century. The originally Sephardi dish Pescado frito, or deep-fried fish, came to the Netherlands and England with the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. The dish became popular in wider circles in London and the south-east in the middle of the 19th century (Charles Dickens mentions a "fried fish warehouse" in Oliver Twist - first published in 1838) whilst in the north of England a trade in deep-fried "chipped" potatoes developed. It remains unclear when and where these two trades combined to become the fish and chip shop industry we know today. Joseph Malin opened the first recorded combined fish and chip shop in London in 1860. During World War II, fish and chips remained one of the few foods in the UK not subject to rationing.

Folkways

The long-standing Christian tradition of not eating meat on Fridays (and of substituting fish for meat on that day) continues to influence habits even in semi-secular and in secular societies. Thus Friday night remains a traditional occasion for patronising fish-and-chip shops, and many cafeterias and similar establishments, while varying their menus on other days of the week, habitually offer fish and chips every Friday. Regional differences exist in the UK for preparing the fish before battering. Some outlets (mainly southern) leave the skin on one or both sides of the fish, while others (mainly in the North of England and in Scotland) produce a product containing no skin at all.

Choice of fish

In England, cod appears most commonly as the fish used for fish and chips, but many kinds of fish can substitute, especially other white fish, such as pollock or haddock; plaice, skate; and rock salmon (dogfish). In northern England and Scotland haddock predominates. Australians preferred cod (though of a different variety than that used in the UK) or flake, a type of shark meat in their fish and chips. Increasing demand and the decline of shark stocks due to overfishing has seen flake become more expensive and, as in the UK, other white fish, such as barramundi, will often substitute. New Zealanders prefer snapper because of its superior taste, but hoki offers an inexpensive alternative. In South Africa hake (Merluccius capensis) is the most commonly used fish for fish and chips. Snoek (Thyrsites atun) is also popular in Cape coastal areas. Kingklip (Xiphiurus capensis, known as cuskeel internationally) offers a less common and generally more expensive alternative. In Denmark, deep-fried, breaded plaice fish fillets served with french fries (Danish, pomfritter) probably outsells other cooked fish - just about every restaurant in the country serves this dish. Traditionally, it has an accompaniment of remoulade sauce and lemon wedges.

Accompaniments

remoulade In the UK, fish and chips usually have an accompaniment of free salt and vinegar ("salt & vinegar"). Suppliers may use malt vinegar or onion vinegar (the vinegar used for storing pickled onions). Often something called "non-brewed condiment" (actually a solution of acetic acid in water with caramel added for colour) substitutes for genuine malt vinegar. In the US, malt vinegar (or, in some establishments, red-wine or cider vinegar) often comes with fish and chips as well. A common Canadian preference involves white vinegar on the chips and squeezed lemon on the fish. Scots also tend to prefer white vinegar to malt vinegar. In Australia the use of chicken-flavoured salt (known as chicken salt) on chips has become quite widespread; so much so that even fast-food chains like KFC no longer carry regular salt and use chicken salt by default. Fish and chip suppliers usually include scraps of batter that fall into the fat and cook (also known as "batter", scrumps or bits) free on request. Other popular dressings, usually at an extra charge, include:
- Barbecue sauce
- Brown sauce
- Burger Sauce
- Curry sauce
- Gravy
- Ketchup
- Mayonnaise (in Europe)
- Mushy peas
- Pickled onions, pickled eggs and/or gherkins.
- Tartare sauce
- Baked beans Around Central Scotland and specifically Edinburgh a combination of spirit vinegar and brown sauce, known either simply as "sauce", or more specifically "chippie sauce" has great popularity. Many Scottish comedians have made light of the difference in condiment choice between Glasgow and Edinburgh, with Glaswegians generally preferring salt and vinegar, and Edinburghers preferring salt and sauce. In Holyhead in North Wales, all of the six current chip shops serve 'Peas Water' free of charge - water strained from the mushy peas. This practice allegedly occurs only in Holyhead. Around North America's Great Lakes (for example, in Buffalo, New York), the popular tradition of Catholics eating fish on Fridays (especially during Lent) has resulted in a codifying of a particular sort of "Fish Fry", which includes a piece of whitefish (often haddock), a plentiful amount of french fries (generally thicker-cut "steak" fries), potato salad and/or macaroni salad, and coleslaw. This is so ubiquitous that some supermarkets in the area sell it from their seafood departments, and many local bars serve fish fries every week. In Ontario, Canada, a popular variant consists of freshwater perch or pickerel (walleye) - typically sold at lakeside resort towns.

Fish and chip shops

walleye In the UK and Australia, fish and chips are usually sold by independent restaurants and take-aways, colloquially known as chippies or chip shops in the UK¹, or fish and chips shops in Australia and New Zealand. Occasionally, in these two countries, the term "Fish and Chippery" is used by stores, and outlets likewise range from small affairs to the likes of the famed Doyles at Watson's bay in Sydney. Roughly 25% of all the white fish consumed in the UK, and 10% of all potatoes, are sold through fish and chip outlets. Fish and chip shops themselves vary enormously in the UK, from little back-street affairs to posh "Fish Restaurants" with seating and waitresses. The North of England has one well-known chain called Harry Ramsden's, which originated in Guiseley near Leeds, but chains do not occur commonly in the UK. UK fish-and-chip shops sometimes sell other takeaway food products, such as burgers, Chinese food and pizzas. In fishing towns fish-and-chip shops also commonly sell uncooked