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The island of Ireland is situated in the extreme north-west of Europe between 51.5 and 55.5 degrees north latitude and between 5.5 and 10.5 degrees west longitude. The Irish Sea to the east, which separates Ireland from Britain, is from 17.6 to 192 km (11 to 120 miles) wide and has a maximum depth of about 200 metres (650 feet). Around the other coasts the shallow waters of the Continental Shelf are rather narrow and depths increase rapidly into the Atlantic Ocean. The Republic of Ireland covers 70,282 sq. km (27,136 sq.mi.) and consists of Munster, Leinster, Connacht and three counties of Ulster, making a total of 26 counties governed by The Republic.

Ale and arty
Irish-themed bars threaten world domination so, to taste the real thing, In Belfast down a cobbled lane by Victoria Square, I discovered the Kitchen Bar; where old men waxed philosophical over whiskey and Guinness while girl students treated each other to real ale and crisps. Above the gentle hubbub, musicians played jigs, reels and poignant love songs. "The band are friends who play on Friday nights," said Kathryn, the landlord’s 18-year-old daughter "It’s a shame dad’s not working tonight. He likes to join in." The following lunchtime, I navigated my way through a formidable wedge of pizza with mounds of champ, an Irish dish of mashed potato with flecks of spring onion, created by Kathryn’s grandmother; Eileen. Dark, warm and womb~like, the Kitchen Bar has been refueling Belfast people since 1859. With the Baileys Historical Pub Tour of Belfast come potent reminders that no one does Irish pubs like the Irish and that the city has spent nearly 400 years getting it right. With Helen, one of the city’s Blue Badge guides, I stopped at Bittles Bar; a curious triangular building decorated with gilded shanu’ocks and dated 1861. Under owner John Bittles, the pub pays homage to Ireland’s literary heritage. Customer Joe O’Kane has covered the walls of the lounge with his own oil paintings of Behan, Beckett, Joyce, Shaw, Yeats and Wilde. In one, the six geniuses are propping lip the bar together.

Down Pottingers Entry buried in a warren of alleyways, the Morning Star has been restored to the etched glass and green and gold splendour of Regency times. Bartenders bustled through a steamy turmoif 6f fres~hlYwashed glasses while Corinne M~ister who runs the pub with husband Seamus, prepared food that combined the local with the exotic. Her "trio of kangaroo, ostrich and crocodile" is the signature dish. No surprise, as she’s Australian.

A mural of 17th-century urchins, traders and buxom wenches set the scene in Whites Thvern, the city’s oldest hostelry. As early as 1630, the pub would hnve hosted seafarers. tobacco tradersand weavers. Now couples canoodled beneath the same black oak beams and, wielding whiskeys, a pipe band in full tartans stood on the same flagstones by the same roaring fireplace.

In contrast, in the spartan, white labyrinth of Kelly’s Cellars in Bank Street, a pub that saw its first dinkers in 1720, an overweight collie shuffled among lads with Budweisers and baseball caps and glowering older men who probably had silver earrings long before such things became fashionable.
When Italian craftsmen decorated the banks, churches and stately.bulldings of 19th-century Belfast, they moonlighted to apply finishing touches to the Crown Liquor Saloon on Great Victoria Street. Their legacy is a shimmering gin palace of gaslights, brass, tiles, marble and mosaic, windows of handpainted glass and a long, glass~hilaid bar that demands to be propped up. Bill Clinton sank a pint here in 1995.1 wondered whether he had entered one of the oaken seating enclaves, where the convention is to "budge up" to welcome new arrivals and, in theory at least, barmen can be summoned by bell-push in a practice dating back to the days when gentlemen preferred to drink discreetly I was sorely tempted. Perhaps after a few more Guinnesses... onGETTING THERE: McCausiand Hotel, 34-38 Victoria Street (028 9022 0200/ www.mccauslandhoteLco~n) c~ffers B&B from £4Opp per night (two sharing); British Regional Airlines (0845 77 333 77/www.ba.com) offers return flights from Card ff from £1 21 pp; Go (0845 605 4321/www. go-fly. com) offers return fli ghts from London Stansteel from £38pp; Baileys pub tour (028 9268 3665) covers 11 pubs and runs twice a week from May to September for £5pp (erd drinks); Thurism Ireland: 0800 039 7000/ www.irelanoholidays.co.uk

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