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New Ireland
*** Shopping-Tip: New Ireland
Image:Papua new guinea new ireland province.png thumb|right|300px|Location of New Ireland Province in Papua New Guinea
'''New Ireland''' is an island in the
Pacific, and the most northeastern
province of
Papua New Guinea.
Physical Geography
The island is part of the
Bismarck Archipelago, and is often described as having the shape of a
musket. The
tropical island of New Ireland is long, narrow and mountainous. For much of its 320 km length, it is less than 10 km across, yet the central mountainous spine is very steep and rugged. The highest peak is Lambel (2,150 metres or 7,054 feet). The island lies between one and five degrees south of the
equator.
Also part of the province are numerous smaller islands, including New Hanover, Saint Matthias Group (Mussau,
Emirau Island Emirau), Tabar Group (Tabar, Tatau, Simberi), Tanga Group (Malendok, Boang), Feni Islands (Ambitle, Babase), Djaul, Lihir and Anir.
The land area of the province is around 9600 square km.
History
There have been at least three waves of
migration (human) migration into New Ireland over the last 40,000 years. The famous
Lapita pottery culture was present around 3,300 years ago.
Chinese and South-East Asian contact appears to have been longstanding, though evidence is thin.
Dutch explorers made the first European contact in
1616.
Missionary activity did not begin until
1877, and New Ireland was colonised by
Germany in
1886, along with the rest of the northern half of present-day
Papua New Guinea.
Human Geography
The current population is 118,350 (
2000 census), the vast majority of whom live in small rural villages. The main town is
Kavieng, the provincial capital, on the northern tip of the main island;
Namatanai is another small town halfway along the island.
Around twenty
languages are spoken in New Ireland, and the number of
dialects and subdialects totals perhaps 45. All are in the
Austronesian language family, except for one
language isolate,
Kuot language Kuot.
Culture
New Ireland, like much of
Papua New Guinea, has a mixture of the old and the new: traditional cultural practices ("custom") are widespread and almost universally respected, yet society is changing as a result of
church activity,
urbanisation, and various aspects of global contemporary culture making their mark.
Probably the most famous cultural system of New Ireland is "
Malagan", a
Nalik word for an ancient and revered set of practices and ceremonies practised throughout much of the main island, though abandoned during World War II because of the difficulty of providing the considerable investment of resources the rites and ceremonies required.
{{Template:Papua New Guinea}}
Category:Islands of Papua New Guinea
Category:Provinces of Papua New Guinea
da:New Ireland
de:New Ireland
et:Uus-Iirimaa saar
it:Nuova Irlanda
nl:Nieuw-Ierland
ja:ニューアイルランド島
fi:Uusi-Irlanti
sv:New Ireland
tpi:New Ireland
*** Shopping-Tip: New Ireland
