United Kingdom

Are United Kingdom and Great Britain the same ?

No, they are different. United Kingdom consists of Great Britain and the Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy consisting of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
• The capital city of England is London.
• The capital city of Northern Ireland is Belfast
• The capital city of Scotland is Edinburgh .
• The capital city of Wales is Cardiff.

What is county ?

County is a land area of local government in a country. A county may have cities and towns. United Kingdom is divided into a lot of number of counties.



What is Union Jack ?



Union Jack is the national flag of the United Kingdom. It is called Union Jack because it consists of three emblems of three countries which are united under one Kingdom. Union Jack consist of three flags; St. George from England, St. Andrews from Scotland, and St. Patrick from Northern Ireland. Wales’s flag doesn’t give any contribution because Wales has united with England a few years ago before United Kingdom created.
The name of Union Jack comes from Queen Anne ( 1702 – 1714 ), but from where the name is taken still uncertain. Many opinions about where Jack is taken. Maybe it is from ‘jack-et’ which take from the name of the English or Scottish soldiers; or from the name of James I which was the King of the United Kingdom in 1603, James, either in Latin or French is from Jacobus or Jacques; or ‘Jack’ which meant small, the name may be derived from a royal proclamation issued by Charles II that the Union Flag should be flown only by ship of The Royal Navy as a jack ( a small flag at the bow spirit ).
Each of the flags which are united become Union Jack has their own meaning and story.

 St. George


In 1194, Richard I of England introduced the Cross of St. George, a red cross on a white ground, as the National Flag of England.
Actually, St. George was a brave Roman soldier who protested against the Romans' torture of Christians and died for his beliefs. The popularity of St. George in England stems from the time of the early Crusades when it is said that the Normans saw him in a vision and were victorious.
One of the best-known stories about St. George is his fight with a dragon. But it is highly unlikely that he ever fought a dragon, and even more unlikely that he ever actually visited England. Despite this, St. George is known throughout the world as the dragon-slaying patron saint of England.
St. George is always depicted as a knight carrying a shield with a red cross (or a banner with a red cross), generally sits upon a horse and always kills a dragon.


 St. Andrew


Saint Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland. The flag of Scotland is the Cross of St. Andrew, and this is widely displayed as a symbol of national identity.
The "Order of Saint Andrew" or the "Most Ancient Order of the Thistle" is an order of Knighthood which is restricted to the King or Queen and sixteen others. It was established by James VII of Scotland in 1687.
Just a few things are known about St. Andrew. He was thought as a fisherman in Galilee (now part of Israel), along with his elder brother Simon Peter (Saint Peter). Both of them became followers of Jesus Christ, founder of the Christian religion.
St. Andrew is said to have been responsible for spreading the tenets of the Christian religion though Asia Minor and Greece. Tradition suggests that St. Andrew was killed by the Romans in Patras, Southern Greece by being pinned to a cross (crucified). The diagonal shape of this cross is said to be the basis for the Cross of St. Andrew which appears on the Scottish Flag.


 St. Patrick

Saint Patrick was known as a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland.
When he was 16 years old, he was caught by Irish riders and taken as a slave in Ireland. But he tried to escape, and turned back to his family. After he entered into the church, he came back to Ireland as an ordained bishop in the north and west of the island, but not all of the people knew about the places where he worked and there is no contemporary evidence for any link between Patrick and any known church building.
By the eighth century he had come to be revered as the patron saint of Ireland.




Republic Of Ireland

Kingdom of Ireland (1541—1801) merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801 under the terms of the Act of Union, under which the kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain merged under a government and parliament based in London, under King Henry Grattan. In the early 20th century, Unionists led by Sir Edward Carson opposed the introduction of Home Rule in Ireland. Until in 1921, Ireland was partitioned , with the unionist -dominated north-east becoming Northern Ireland , while later, in 1922, the remainder of Ireland left the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to form the Irish Free State .