not saying we should honour spaniards or germans but just suggesting that we might recognise all irish people that were involved on either side of these conflicts. we tend to forget that our history was not all clearcut as we have been led to believe. we could just recognise that thes people did what they did and perhaps move on with clear hindsight. 3000 southern irish people died with the british forces in WW2, yet its only now that they are being openly recognised. similarly irish fought on both sides in the american civil war yet we tend to imagine that they all were on the union side.

dhorse (Laois) - Posts: 11374 - 12/06/2009 22:22:23    309964

dhorse
County: Laois
Posts: 2199
Where did i hear that before time to move on,I agree with you on this thread if thats any help

tomaoo7 (Dublin) - Posts: 5896 - 12/06/2009 22:32:20    309976

There is no honour in fighting for the German Nazis.
There is no honour in fighting for Franco's fascists.
There is no honour in fighting with ODuffys Blueshirts.

No honour what so ever.

I cant put it any clearer than that.

Horse (Laois) - Posts: 1146 - 12/06/2009 22:38:57    309987

the entire population was awarded with the George Cross which is the highest award for civilian gallantry in the British Commonwealth.

Im sure they were thrilled at this. Beyond all doubt through those longs nights they suffered and children they buried, the thought that one day, one day they might be awarded the George Cross surely kept them going.

Little did they know that in under 60 years next to no-one would be aware of their suffering and pain as a small island. Also little did they know that whilst the british continue to self-congradulate themselves for winning the second world war, and remind us all of the sacrifices they made to spare the world of the nazi's horrors ,the maltese sacrifices would be met with a wave of indifference.

Im sure Churchill, heralded as one of the greatest brits ever to have lived, did not endure anywhere near the wartime suffering of thousands of Maltese people.

trileacman (Tyrone) - Posts: 759 - 13/06/2009 03:35:23    310115

trileacman
County: Tyrone
Posts: 551

310115 the entire population was awarded with the George Cross which is the highest award for civilian gallantry in the British Commonwealth.

Im sure they were thrilled at this. Beyond all doubt through those longs nights they suffered and children they buried, the thought that one day, one day they might be awarded the George Cross surely kept them going.

Little did they know that in under 60 years next to no-one would be aware of their suffering and pain as a small island. Also little did they know that whilst the british continue to self-congradulate themselves for winning the second world war, and remind us all of the sacrifices they made to spare the world of the nazi's horrors ,the maltese sacrifices would be met with a wave of indifference.

Im sure Churchill, heralded as one of the greatest brits ever to have lived, did not endure anywhere near the wartime suffering of thousands of Maltese people


Is your point that they should have went over to the german side?

dhorse (Laois) - Posts: 11374 - 13/06/2009 18:20:00    310378

Horse
County: Laois
Posts: 340

309987 There is no honour in fighting for the German Nazis.
There is no honour in fighting for Franco's fascists.
There is no honour in fighting with ODuffys Blueshirts.

No honour what so ever.

I cant put it any clearer than that.

i merely asked the Question. How about the irish that fought with the confederates? The irish that fought with the US invading vietnam. who decides what is worth honouring anyway, even if we dont like it can we just decide to forget that it happened as we do with a lot of stuff that happened at home.

dhorse (Laois) - Posts: 11374 - 13/06/2009 18:24:47    310383

tomaoo7
County: Dublin
Posts: 3254

309976 dhorse
County: Laois
Posts: 2199
Where did i hear that before time to move on,I agree with you on this thread if thats any help

no bodder boss, its always the perpetrators that seem to want to move on from things though

dhorse (Laois) - Posts: 11374 - 13/06/2009 18:26:26    310384

MesAmis,

Welcome to HS lad and Im glad you love the thread! Its had its fair share of people knock it but my mission in life is to educate the great unwashed of this web page on Irish history and extended Irish history about the world!

MesAmis and dhorse, keep it Irish lads or we will end up talking about the history of Indo-China if we go off on tangents!

Like the posts and debate lads, well done!

Regards,

Snufalufagus....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 17/06/2009 17:36:30    315043

Yer right,Dr.Shephard
County: Leitrim
Posts: 390

314715 Sinn Fein leadership must continue to try and please the hardliners who although they have very little to do with the party are at least still in support of the peace process. Some of these hardliners could quite easily drift towards the dissidents and embark on a military campaign.
Gerry Adams has said that he condemns all murders which shou;ld be good enough for people. He cannot specifically condemn certain murders as it could be to the detrement of the peace process as these so called hardliners would give their allegiance to RSF (CIRA) thus increasing the risk of an escalation of violence.
He would rather suffer in elections than risk a return to the troubles and I think that he should be commended for these unselfish actions.

dhorse (Laois) - Posts: 11374 - 17/06/2009 18:46:13    315119

Ok Boss

North Vietnam's wartime leader Ho Chi Minh was familiar with - and in part inspired by - the long Irish independence struggle. In 1914, while employed as an assistant pastry chef in London's Carlton Hotel, Ho had Irish nationalists as co-workers. He is reported to have shown great interest in the Easter Rising, and later to have read Tom Barry's IRA memoir, Guerrilla Days in Ireland.

dhorse (Laois) - Posts: 11374 - 17/06/2009 18:47:23    315120

This is true dHorse,

Indeed when I was in Vietnam I read a book called 'Peoples Army, Peoples War' and was deffo inspired by Guerilla Days in Ireland!

Regards,

Snufalufagus.....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 25/06/2009 16:25:50    323014

They American plans for D-Day were landed at the flying boat station at Foynes Co. Limerick!

Similarly, the weather report that gave the allies the warning of a 6 hour window of opportunity break in the weather coming in over the atlantic was sent from the wireless station at Valentia!

Thank you Ireland for saving the World!!!

Regards,

Snufalufagus.....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 14/07/2009 16:11:04    345591

Ireland is the only country in the world with a musical instrument as its national emblem!....The harp!

The Guinness harp faces the opposite direction to the Government one and is known as 'The O'Neill Harp'!

Regards,

Snufalufagus....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 21/07/2009 17:09:33    355620

Guinness actually own the brand of the 'harp' as such ......... which is why the State has to use it in reverse!

Dubinmeath (Dublin) - Posts: 1123 - 21/07/2009 17:19:00    355644

Different Government Depts have different numbers of strings on their harps, the strings of which stand for different things particular to that Dept. Hope I have this right cos trying to remember but the actual Govt Seal had 12 strings (12 for apostles, inch in a foot, months in a year, etc) to denote a sense of unity although after the Civil War this was changed to 13 strings (denotes Judas, disharmony, unlucky, etc).

Will firm up on other depts once I can remember them correctly!

Regards,

Snufalufagus....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 29/07/2009 15:52:58    368446

jack b yeats who was a painter and also the brother of william b yeats was living in merrion square in dublin in the early 1900s.at this time the british had a law that once sunlight shone in to your house window,you had to pay a tax.jack boarded up his windows so he would not have to pay this tax.this is how the phase-DAYLIGHT ROBBERY came about.

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 29/07/2009 18:13:53    368696

The Wellington 'Testimonial' in the Phoenix Park at 205 foot tall is the second tallest obelesk in the world after the Washington monument!
It is wrongly refered to as the Wellington monument but it was built while the man was still alive and hence it is a testimonial and not a monument!

The bronze reliefs on each side were made of smelted down and recast captured French cannon from Wellingtons defeat over Napoleon at Waterloo!

Wellington was born in Dublin and his peers in London used to tease him about being an Irishman to which he once retorted: "Just because one is born in a stable doesnt mean one is a horse!"

Meath men will say he was born in Trim cos there is another 'monument' to him there! He was born in Dublin but Meath can have him if they want!!

Regards,

Snufalufagus....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 04/08/2009 17:09:43    377365

Thomas John Barnardo was born in Dublin in 1845!

He moved to London later and set up the world famous 'Barnardos' organisation caring for poor children which still thrives to this day!

Regards,

Snufalufagus.....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 11/08/2009 16:41:34    388123

Duels,

These used to be fought in Dublin amongst the gentry as a way of settling 'matters of honour'!

They were originally fought using rapiers but that fell out of favour and was replaced by pistols.

Dublin was home to many well known gunsmiths and most famous of all was 'Rigby'.

The two men in the duel would get their 'seconds' (helpers) to load their pistols and inspect their opponents pistols in turn.
They would stand back to back then walk 10 paces and turn about.
It was not a matter of being quickest to fire because each man would get his turn to fire regardless.

If you fired first and missed then tough luck, you had to just stand there while your opponent fired his shot.

A man coward would stand with his body sideways to his opponent thus giving him less of a target to aquire whereas a man would get a full body to his opponent!

I have no way of knowing but I would suspect that this might be where the phrase "fair and square" came from!!

A highly illegal practice, the law soon got on top of it and it 'died out' so to speak!!

Regards,

Snufalufagus....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 21/08/2009 15:47:38    399284

Excellent stuff Snuff , keep it coming.

gaelantrim (Antrim) - Posts: 1616 - 21/08/2009 16:01:03    399312