Comments by "Taint ABird" (@taintabird23) on "A Day In History" channel.

  1. That's true. Instead they died of disease: cholera, typhus etc. There were seven Catholic priests died in County Waterford in one year alone from disease they contracted administering to the poor. And it wasn't just Catholic priests, Church of Ireland ministers who did their best for their Catholic neighbours died of disease also.
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  2. You can be proud of both. The Irish Constitution defines the Irish Nation and acknowledges those of Irish extraction like you as being part of that broader Irish nation. Having a multi-layered identity is perfectly acceptable as an Irishman, so if you chose to claim the Irish part of your heritage you don't have to give your English part. With a name like McNamara, I'm guessing your grandma came from County Clare.
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  3. Unfortunately Chris Fogarty was no historian and many of his claims are not supported by actual historians.
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  4. Not always. 'Souperism' as it was called was sporadic, but not widespread.
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  5. Why would they be blaming English people? They weren't around at the time. The Irish blame the English government, which the English people are proud of, because it was the government that was responsible for the famine. Just remember the next time your feel proud of your imperial past that what was good for Britain was often bad for somebody else.
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  6. The ordinary British people were not to blame. It was your upper classes, who were mostly English, though Lloyd George was no friend of Ireland.
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  7.  @vernongoodey5096  The KKK was against Catholics, Jews and Blacks. The only Irish in that were the descendants of Ulster-Scots.
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  8. Actually, that is not the case. They remained within their religious group, with a strong sense of identity. Even when they did marry out or change their religion they never lost their hatred for the English.
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  9. You care enough to comment.
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  10. The English upper classes considered everybody to be inferior.
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  11. Exactly.
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  12. But it continued when Ireland was supposedly part of the UK. The Irish people were considered 'less British' than the English, Scots or Welsh and we know that because of the policies enacted by the British government during the famine, for instance. Back then the Irish considered British rule horrendous. If they didn't, they would have resisted so frequently.
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  13.  @Adaman368  Dev gave his condolences to Hempel and the home of the German representative while offering him and his family political asylum. He did this in response to allied demands that neutral Ireland hand him over to the British. Dev was asserting Ireland's neutrality, but his timing was bad. Nobody at the time thought that de Valera was a Hitler sympathiser, that came later when people who never read a history book in their lives used 'logic'.
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  14.  @billyflanagan9657  That's purely bad management, not laziness you eejit.
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  15. I'm Irish, and I agree with you.
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  16. Getting back to reality, Ireland has not been betrayed by its government and the Irish people have never had it as good as they have it today. It is difficult to see how our culture is being 'desecrated', but your racism is out of control. Ireland voted for its government in an election that is far more democratic than you would get in the UK; and our membership of the EU, aside from being an economic godsend, has resulted in great Irish national confidence and a higher profile for Irish culture on the world stage.
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  17. Ireland imports much of its potatoes now. All potatoes used to make frozen chips are imported from the north of England. In the 1800s Ireland had a subsistence economy that depended on the potato. Ireland is no longer a subsistence economy.
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  18. Oh, I'm sure they teach that... Bet it doesn't say that the Irish government at the time ensured that collaboration never amounted to anything.
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  19. You don't get it. Why no just admit that?
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  20. Have you seen yourselves abroad?
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  21.  @michaelhiggs8657  who mentioned football?
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  22. The Irish don't moan about the Vikings either, which should tell you something about the effects of 800 years of English colonisation. The Irish people are looking forward because they know their best years are ahead. The English, on the other hand, they are the ones pining for old glories.
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  23. There is no evidence to support that claim, I'm afraid.
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  24. The RC church was incredibly generous, but is what was needed was a change in government policy, but it was not forthcoming.
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  25. During the famine it was easy to define the Irish. Those most effected by the famine, were illiterate, Gaelic speaking, rural and Catholic. Those Irish who were least effected by mainly English speaking, rural and also Catholic. For the English, anyone born in Ireland was Irish. This included the Anglo-Irish aristocracy who controlled the economy, administered the law and were landowners who the other two groups never considered Irish, put the English in Ireland. Indeed, the Irish people were the only people in Europe to be ruled by a minority who spoke a different language, practiced a different religion, customs, culture and had sole access to the law, its administration and enforcement. it was a colonial experience. Today's definition of 'Irish' is enshrined in the Irish constitution. Central to it is the concept of multi-layered identity, so you can be Irish and British, Irish and English, Irish and Protestant, Irish and Black and so on. In your case, as part of the Irish diaspora, your sense of Irishness is personal to you. You cannot put a 'rule' on it. With a name like Kelly, the second most common Irish family name, you may well feel conscious of your Irish heritage. That too is acknowledged in the definition of 'The Nation' in the Irish Constitution.
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  26.  @MasonJackson-yz9db  The English have little time for the Scots, and the Scots will assure you the feeling is mutual.
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  27.  @MasonJackson-yz9db  The Scots aren't ruling themselves yet, but it will happen eventually.
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  28. The ruling class are responsible, not the ordinary people of England.
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  29. Don't be an idiot. Responsibility lies with your ruling class, whose descendants are shafting you today.
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  30. Who mentioned retrospective guilt? I think the Irish would settle for the English learning some of their own history.
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  31.  @bristoled93  Wtf are talking about?
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  32.  @bristoled93  You want the Irish to learn a biased version of their own experience. Why? The Irish know all about the history of these islands and how the Irish were treated differently to the English, Scottish and Welsh.
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  33. That's because the English don't deserve thanks. The Irish had already broken the political influence of the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, and by the time the Anglo-Normans arrived may well be described as Hiberno-Norse as they were in the process of integrating into Irish Gaelic society.
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  34. The government was English, based in London - that is who is to blame, not the ordinary English, Welsh or Scots. The Irish in the cities were more ambivalent, but they were much more anglicised, which explains it. This is not an uncomfortable fact. Its just a fact. Unlike the UK, Ireland does have a reputation for compassion and has none of the imperial baggage of the UK. It is one of the characteristics of British imperialism, particularly during the 'second empire' (after they lost the American colonies) to recruit the colonised in their own oppression, and up to half of the rank and file of the British Army and navy were the sons of Irish farmers who for economic reasons found the promise of three square meals a day rather appealing. Sometimes they came home and found that their own people were being treated the way they were told to treat foreigners. It resulted in a mutiny among the Connacht Rangers in India in 1920. Today the apologist for the empire tell themselves that 'the others were worse'. It means they don't have to deal with their history. Ireland remains the only country in Europe to have been ruled by an minority who spoke a different language, practiced a different religion and customs, and had a different culture to the majority on the island. Don't expect the Irish to have been happy about it.
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  35.  @pokeitwithastick1424  All the main characters were English; the government governed in English in Ireland, a language most people in Ireland did not speak and could not read. There were no Irish in the London government of that time. British rule in Ireland was characteristically English, in terms of language, laws, customs and culture. None of it was Welsh or Scottish. I'm not distorting anything. The government was British only because it ruled Britain (and Ireland).
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  36. Huh?
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  37. Yes, but as an Englishman you live in one of the few European countries that have had not foreign boots on their soil over the last couple of hundred years. What grudges could you possibly have??
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  38. Rambling nonsense.
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  39. Not government soup kitchens.
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  40. How are the Irish lazy?
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  41.  @billyflanagan9657  Its just that Irish workers are more productive than British workers, so I was wondering how they could be lazy.
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  42. Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan are in the republic. What are you going to do about it?
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  43.  @fyrdman2185  Matters to whom?
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  44. Of course you find it laughable - you're thick. Traumatized people are often capable are great insensitivity and cruelty. And the Irish are not backward. They are forward thinking, but know their history. This knowledge of English perfidy was not forgotten during the Brexit negotiations in either Dublin or Washington, making this ancient axe perfectly relevant today.
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