Everything Ireland thread

[Trollheart]

Originally from Santry, then Glasnevin, then Blackrock.

Just down the Oscar Traynor from there, in Darndale.

Looks like the election on Friday isn't generating much interest.

https://www.politico.eu/article/irelands-election-fail-fine-gael-sinn-fein-fianna-fail/

Yeah I suppose I'll vote but if those two fuckers refuse to work with Sinn Fein again, you  got to wonder what's the point? They're just sharing out power between themselves, and to hell with what we think.

[Buck_Mulligan]

Just down the Oscar Traynor from there, in Darndale.

Yeah I suppose I'll vote but if those two fuckers refuse to work with Sinn Fein again, you  got to wonder what's the point? They're just sharing out power between themselves, and to hell with what we think.

Lived on Lorcan Grove, often walked to Northside SC. I thought both had already said they would not work with SF. I just looked at the make-up of the last Dail. There are 10 parties/groups in it. That's too many. Better if they cut it to five. SF would have a better chance of leading a left block.

[Trollheart]

That's just totally mad. A friend of mine I used to work with lived either on Lorcan Grove or Avenue. Small world, contrary to what physicists would have us think.

Yeah I know they both said they wouldn't work with the Shinners. Fucking amazing arrogance from Martin as he grinned at the debate and said "I'm amazed you're asking that question." Cunt. And his schoolboy cousin too. Fuck them both. If there was a cat on the ballot I'd vote for that. What a fucking country!

[Buck_Mulligan]

Hope you voted, when you don't you forfeit your right to critisize, and you never want to do that.

[Trollheart]

Yeah course I did. Dragged meself out in the rain and used a pencil to exercise my right to make absolutely no difference to how this country is run.

[Buck_Mulligan]

I've started working my way through your Four Green Fields Journal. That's an impressive body of work you've created here.

[Trollheart]

Hey thanks, nice of you to say. I'm doing the English one as well, just so I can't be said to be biased.

That's a lie: I just enjoy writing histories and that of England is so interesting.

Let me know what you think of it, and hopefully you'll enjoy it.

[Saulaac]

So you might be a Culchie, or semi-Culchie. I had a favorite uncle from Galway, unfortunately I don't know from where exactly, but his last name "Coyne" is associated with Galway.

I'm not familiar with the name Coyne, myself. They were Costello on my grandad's side and Duffy on my grandma's side. But I don't know any further back than that.

And yes, Trollheart's historic ramblings are very interesting for anyone with a large screen  . I recall learning about an anglo-french invasion (they teamed up for once) in the 12th Century and I'm sure I caught that off one of TH's posts.

[Trollheart]

Large screen? 
And this is news to me: so far as I know the French and the English have always been at each other's throats, or just waiting to be. I don't remember reading about, much less writing about any time they collaborated. Could be wrong I guess, but it don't ring no bells.

[Saulaac]

Large screen? 
And this is news to me: so far as I know the French and the English have always been at each other's throats, or just waiting to be. I don't remember reading about, much less writing about any time they collaborated. Could be wrong I guess, but it don't ring no bells.

I've tried reading one of your history lessons on a small screen once but it wasn't easy. A4 print outs are good though.   


While I was looking at Irish surnames I stumbled on an anglo-norman invasion of Ireland around 1169-1171. "Richard fitz Godbert de Roche" had something to do with it, as well as Henry II? (And while we're at it, perhaps Ben Doon and Phil McCracken were involved too).

[Trollheart]

Ok let's sort this out.
Norman isn't, or wasn't back then anyway, the same as French. Normandy was a separate kingdom, ruled by the Duke (the most famous of course being the man who ended the Wessex line, William the Conqueror, who battled Harold Godwinson just after 11am, or 1066). The invasion of Ireland was launched from England, yes, but after the Norman Conquest, when England was, to paraphrase myself, under the French heel. Most English (Anglo-Saxons) would not have been involved in any decision there; it would have been made by the English king, who was a Norman, and his nobles and council. Some Anglo-Saxons swore fealty to the Norman throne, but many did not, and were therefore dispossessed of their lands and titles. So technically, yes, you could say it was a rare, even unique case of the French and English teaming up, but really, no. The French king was back in France doing whatever French kings do (warring on other states probably, most likely including Normandy - while the cat's away etc) and leaving the Normans to it. It's extremely doubtful that the king of France would have supported any such invasion of Ireland, as, first and foremost, we were and always have been a Catholic country, but also, he would not have wanted the Norman English king, probably still holding lands in Normandy, to get too powerful for him and to challenge him.

Also bear in mind, the invasion was facilitated by, as it has been so often in our history, a disgrunted Irishman, Diarmuid Mac Something, who was miffed at not being made High King, or possibly because his cooked cabbage was the wrong colour maybe. The invasion was also sanctioned by the Pope, so they say, so technically you could almost call it a mini-crusade to bring the "heathen Irish" into line.

But yes, in the broadest possible sense, it does seem to have been the one and only time that, if you will, people from France joined up with English forces, however at that time the English forces didn't have much of a choice: they were living under their own occupation, as you will see from any of the better Robin Hood movies or series. England was as much occupied by the Normans as we ended up being, though we got the more raw of the deals.

[Trollheart]

Following the results in the General Election as they come in...

[Trollheart]

Looks like people voted for more of the same, please. Idiots.
Election 24 at a glance
Fianna Fail with the most seats, then Fine Gael and Sinn Fein. Shock! Another five years of the circus.

[Buck_Mulligan]

Hardly a surprise, since the Irish PR STV (ranked choice) electoral system rewards centrist parties over more left or right.

[Trollheart]

We don't have any real right-wing parties though. I mean, the Irish Freedom Party? Gimme a break. Irish politicans regularly have to remove the splinters from their arses from too much sitting on the fence. We're an irrelevance. If Putin wanted to take us over and use us as a base, we'd have to run crying to NATO.