Extract from 'The Extraordinary Adventures of Foundling Mick' by Jules Verne

Ireland, which has an area of 31,759 square miles, or 20,326,209 acres, formerly formed part of the insular tract of land now called the United Kingdom.

This we learn from the geologists; but it is history and fact that the islands are now two, and more widely divided by moral discord than by physical barriers. The Irish, who are friends of France, are, as they always have been, enemies of England.

A fair country for tourists is Ireland, but a sad one for the dwellers in it. They cannot fertilise it, and it cannot feed them, especially in some of the northern districts. But although the mother-land has no flowing breast to give to her children, she is passionately loved by them. They call her by the sweetest of names; she is "Green Erin" - and indeed her verdure is unequalled; "The Land of Song"; "The Island of Saints"; "The Emerald Gem of the Western World"; "First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea". Poor Ireland! She ought to be called "The Isle of Poverty", for that name has befitted her for many centuries.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times