Cool irish facts

Chuchote

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Also you don't hear much about the 3,000 people who died :eek:

But you can see An Cathach, the book that caused their deaths (leaving out the self-entitlement of the nasty little pr1ck of an O'Donnell prince), in the Royal Irish Academy in Dawson Street.

El Tarangu

Balmed Out wrote: »

Irish monks "invented" the space between words. Beforethatsentenceshadnosapacesbutwerelongseriesofletters.

Pretty sure that the Romans came up with that.

clairewithani

El Tarangu wrote: »

Pretty sure that the Romans came up with that.

Wouldn't be as funny then.

The King of Moo

Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist of Schrödinger's Cat fame, was invited to Ireland by Éamon De Valera in 1938, after the Anschluss. He became an Irish citizen in 1948.

maudgonner

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

That's the problem with history taken out of context.

The copyright people don't tell you that the judgement was overturned on appeal. So no we didn't invent copyright law, it wasn't a thing. :cool:

"It is not right that the divine words in that book should perish, or that I or any other should be hindered from writing them or reading them or spreading them among the tribes."



Also you don't hear much about the 3,000 people who died :eek:

The judgement wasn't overturned on appeal - unless by 'appeal' you mean the overthrow of the High King. Columba refused to accept the judgement and instigated a rebellion, backed by the Uí Néill. That resulted in the battle of Cúl Dreimhne and 3,000 casualties. Columba was blamed for the deaths and (possibly voluntarily, possibly not) went into exile.

cdeb

El Tarangu wrote: »

Pretty sure that the Romans came up with that.

The Romans put a dot between words.

Wiki says the Irish monks thing is true

El Tarangu

Sam Kade wrote: »

The dangers that man puts himself through

Both of those scenes are fake - look at the blazing sunshine and azure sky!

Capt'n Midnight

clairewithani wrote: »

Bull. Double-barrelled names among people using public transport in Ireland in 1968??? I think not, sir.

As any true Republican knows , never give them your real name.

El Tarangu

cdeb wrote: »

The Romans put a dot between words.

Wiki says the Irish monks thing is true

Cheerfully.withdrawn

Avatar MIA

El Tarangu wrote: »

Pretty sure that the Romans came up with that.

More like reinvented (Is that a word?)
Use of spaces in Medieval Latin

The interpunct died out in Latin only after the Classic period, sometime around the year 200 CE, as the Greek style of scriptio continua became fashionable. In the 7th century Irish monks started using blank spaces, and introduced their script to France. By the 8th or 9th century spacing was being used fairly consistently across Europe (Knight 1996).

cdeb

The interpunct wasn't a space though.

It.was.a.dot

(Actually, the dot hovered in mid-air like a bullet point, not a full stop, but I can't do that here)

coolbeans

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

no coincidence then that we are the only country in Europe to fluoridate our drinking water supply

Correlation does not equal causation.

Avatar MIA

cdeb wrote: »

The interpunct wasn't a space though.

It.was.a.dot

Lazy.Irish.Monks.

FrKurtFahrt

Hitler's brother, Alois, worked in the Shelbourne hotel in 1909 and married an Irish woman. (I understand this isn't a 'cool' fact, but I thought it interesting).

Capt'n Midnight

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

no coincidence then that we are the only country in Europe to fluoridate our drinking water supply

No coincidence, because we aren't.

cdeb

We are in a way.

It's only done in Ireland (most of the country) and Spain, Serbia and the UK (less than 10%)

ThisRegard

The Irish are very fond of adjusting the true meanings of words to suit themselves. (Citation: see above)

Collie D

cdeb wrote: »

We are in a way.

It's only done in Ireland (most of the country) and Spain, Serbia and the UK (less than 10%)

Why are we told not to drink tap water in Spain so if it's treated? Was recently in Serbia too and wasn't sure what water situation was so raided the minibar. Not saying you're wrong, genuinely curious

cdeb

I just read off wikipedia to be honest. I don't actually know.

The link is here.

I should point out that in each of Spain, Serbia and the UK, less than 10% of the water supply is fluoridated (not just the UK, as my post might have read), so maybe that's the reason.

Widdershins

pablo128 wrote: »

True. The feckers cleaned us out before we got rid of them. Plenty of Irish oak in a lot of British stately homes.

Westminister Abbey's roofed with Irish Oak.

Widdershins

The Code Duello is Irish. It's the rules for duelling.

Widdershins

El Tarangu wrote: »

Both of those scenes are fake - look at the blazing sunshine and azure sky!

It's usually like that in West Clare whenever I visit.

Head Wreck

Chuchote wrote:

It rains more in Amsterdam than in Dublin, but the Irish talk about the weather 80% more than any other nationality, God bless the mark.

More rainfall maybe, but its raining more days in Dublin than Amsterdam. Amsterdam sees much more and much warmer sunshine than Dublin.

gramar

Best fans in the world.

darlett

Collie D wrote: »

Why are we told not to drink tap water in Spain so if it's treated? Was recently in Serbia too and wasn't sure what water situation was so raided the minibar. Not saying you're wrong, genuinely curious

Firstly the clarification about the 10% will mean its odds on your water in Spain wont have fluoridation. But Fluoridation if that's the only treatment won't help with bacteria problems.

Perhaps for the locals they are resistant to bacteria in their water so there's no need to have the chlorination process. I spent a lot of time(months) in Indonesia getting a dose from a particular food stall. It was particularly tricky to pin down the source of these illnesses as we ate all round the place and none of the locals I was staying with were affected by it; but as soon as I cut it out I've been grand since-touch wood.

If in doubt, raid the mini-bar. Those truly are words to live by!

quickbeam

tomwaterford wrote: »

Emm....they didn't give the results

Presumably because it was a class of teenagers and the abuse that would follow???

We done a rake of other aptitude tests to see what kind of work would suit you etc

Dunno was this just in my school or a national programme....was during the boom

We had our IQs checked in 6th year, I think (didn't do Transition, so it was definitely 5th or 6th year). That was in the early 90s. We also didn't get our results. I never understood the point of us doing them, and not giving us our results!!! Mad!!

Four Phucs Ache

Ireland was the first country in the world to tax plastic shopping bags yet I still forget I have 157 of them at home and go pay for another.

Every time.

Avatar MIA

Four Phucs Ache wrote: »

Ireland was the first country in the world to tax plastic shopping bags yet I still forget I have 157 of them at home and go pay for another.

Every time.

One piece of cool information, the rest is pretty much a sad indictment of an individual :pac: :P

cdeb

I remember paying for plastic bags in Wales long before that came in here?

We were also the first - or was it second, behind NZ? - to bring in the smoking ban in pubs. Go to countries now that don't have this ban and you realise how great it is.

Edit - bloody heck, wikipedia is great. Don't know why we had to pay in Wales all the way then - might have been as early as the late 80s - but apparently Bangladesh beat us to the honour of first to ban/tax plastic bags, though not by long.

Sleeper12

Dr Crayfish wrote:

We are the least forested country in Europe, farming and the spread of bog being the main reasons for the decline of trees

Don't forget all the Irish Oak the British cut down & brought to the UK

Pro Hoc Vice

cdeb wrote: »

I remember paying for plastic bags in Wales long before that came in here?

We were also the first - or was it second, behind NZ? - to bring in the smoking ban in pubs. Go to countries now that don't have this ban and you realise how great it is.

Edit - bloody heck, wikipedia is great. Don't know why we had to pay in Wales all the way then - might have been as early as the late 80s - but apparently Bangladesh beat us to the honour of first to ban/tax plastic bags, though not by long.

I lived in Wales in 2002 when the charge came in in Ireland I never paid for a plastic bag in Wales http://gov.wales/topics/environmentcountryside/epq/waste_recycling/substance/carrierbags/?lang=en

According to that link it came in to effect in wales in 2011.

Sciprio

The worlds first Duty-Free shop was opened in Shannon Airport.

Joe prim

The King of Moo wrote: »

Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist of Schrödinger's Cat fame, was invited to Ireland by Éamon De Valera in 1938, after the Anschluss. He became an Irish citizen in 1948.

Notable because , as a refugee, he wasn't allowed to bring his cat....the subsequent lengthy series of trials and appeals against this decision led to the cat becoming famous , and the introduction of a free legal system for cats and dogs.

D Trent

gramar wrote: »

Best fans in the world.

+1

We have f****ing mighty extractor fans alright

BabyE

An Irish man was the first European to discover the ancient Mayan city(name forgets me) deep in the colombian jungle, can only imagine how extraordinary thag must have been to come across alone in the vastness of south america. He is also the only non Mayan buried in the city.

xabi

cdeb wrote: »

I remember paying for plastic bags in Wales long before that came in here?

We were also the first - or was it second, behind NZ? - to bring in the smoking ban in pubs. Go to countries now that don't have this ban and you realise how great it is.

Edit - bloody heck, wikipedia is great. Don't know why we had to pay in Wales all the way then - might have been as early as the late 80s - but apparently Bangladesh beat us to the honour of first to ban/tax plastic bags, though not by long.

Saw you coming

Avatar MIA

BabyE wrote: »

An Irish man was the first European to discover the ancient Mayan city(name forgets me) deep in the colombian jungle, can only imagine how extraordinary thag must have been to come across alone in the vastness of south america. He is also the only non Mayan buried in the city.

Coolest fact so far. Hope it's true.

Chuchote

Irish people routinely invoke the gods to protect anything they care about from dark forces:

"Grand day, thanks be to God."
"It is indeed, bless it. Is that your little boy? Hasn't he lovely blue eyes, God bless them."

flas

Red Kev wrote: »

There are no traffic lights in County Roscommon or Country Leitrim.

There are pedestrian lights, lights at level crossings and lights at the raised bridge in Tarmonbarry, but none at road junctions.

Well this is just a complete lie,there are traffic lights in Carrick-on-Shannon years at this stage and there is in Roscommon town and definitely on the Roscommon side of Athlone...

mahoganygas

You can't drive from North Leitrim to South Leitrim without passing through another county.

cdeb

And you can't drive through Shannon and on to anywhere else, because Shannon is a dead-end.

Avatar MIA

cdeb wrote: »

And you can't drive through Shannon and on to anywhere else, because Shannon is a dead-end.

"Where we're going we don't need roads"

Lucky they built a airport there then



Interesting fact about Foynes and trans altantic flight goes here...

Chuchote

Two Olympic cyclists fought in the 1916 Rising. This is one of them: http://www.historyireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Cycling-spokes-and-political-strokes-1.jpg

darlett

mahoganygas wrote: »

You can't drive from North Leitrim to South Leitrim without passing through another county.

Did you know you can not drive from The East of Meath to Westmeath without passing over a county border.*


*Its ok. I'm totally lame I know. But an Irish man invented milk chocolate.

The history of South America is full of cool Irish facts about how the diaspora helped shape their modern countries.

The commander of the Argentine Navy and armed forces was Admiral William Brown, who emigrated from County Wexford MAYO ( ) over 200 years ago. He played a pivotal role in Argentinas fight from the rule of Spain, which eventually lead to the freedom of colonial rule. Chile, Modern Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia all were helped by his efforts. He is considered a national hero to the people of Argentina.
Bernardo O'Higgins, is considered one of the founding Fathers of Chile. His father Ambrose O’Higgins had scrambled up the social ladder from humble beginning as a tenant farmer’s son in Ballynary, Co Sligo, to become the Viceroy of Peru, the most powerful Spanish governor in South America.

An Irishman helped death by hanging become more humane by realising that a longer drop helped to break the hanged's neck and allow them die quickly, rather than suffocating slowly at the end of a rope. Nice guy him.

Dr Crayfish

Irish language has no word for Yes or No

maudgonner

darlett wrote: »

The commander of the Argentine Navy and armed forces was Admiral William Brown, who emigrated from County Wexford over 200 years ago.

I'm pretty sure he was a Mayo man. Foxford certainly claims him

MonkieSocks

Remember seeing this on TV a few years ago, interesting

While many would say it rains quite a lot in Ireland now, new evidence has found that the Emerald Isle had to endure 20 years of non-stop rain back in 2345 BC - just around the time of Noah's Biblical flood.

RTE One's documentary 'Secret's of the Irish Landscape' revealed that this period of continual rainfall makes it possible that the biblical story of the great flood really did happen.

"According to the ancient Annals of the Four Masters, the whole of Ireland had to be evacuated at this time,” says Professor Mike Baillie from Queen's University in Belfast.

"We believe this global event was caused by a big explosive volcanic eruption which loaded the atmosphere with dust to reflect the sunlight away and cause widespread cooling at the earth’s surface."

Baillie discovered that freak weather events such as the great flood tend to occur about every thousand years.

The last freak weather event occurred in Ireland in 540 AD, when it rained for 10 years straight.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/discovery-of-20-year-long-rainfall-in-ireland-in-2345-bc-revealed-206179261-237788411

Rum Ham!

darlett wrote: »

The commander of the Argentine Navy and armed forces was Admiral William Brown, who emigrated from County Wexford over 200 years ago. He played a pivotal role in Argentinas fight from the rule of Spain, which eventually lead to the freedom of colonial rule. Chile, Modern Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia all were helped by his efforts. He is considered a national hero to the people of Argentina.

I was in Lisbon earlier this year and was on a tour with a guy from Buenos Aires. He told me about Admiral Brown and how he was the hero of their nation. He went on to tell me about the Irish community in Argentina, he was delighted to be speaking with an Irish born person. He was almost thanking me for Admiral Brown haha. Really nice to see Irish people to be thought in such high regard in different countries

BabyE

darlett wrote: »

Did you know you can not drive from The East of Meath to Westmeath without passing over a county border.*


*Its ok. I'm totally lame I know. But an Irish man invented milk chocolate.

The history of South America is full of cool Irish facts about how the diaspora helped shape their modern countries.

The commander of the Argentine Navy and armed forces was Admiral William Brown, who emigrated from County Wexford over 200 years ago. He played a pivotal role in Argentinas fight from the rule of Spain, which eventually lead to the freedom of colonial rule. Chile, Modern Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia all were helped by his efforts. He is considered a national hero to the people of Argentina.
Bernardo O'Higgins, is considered one of the founding Fathers of Chile. His father Ambrose O’Higgins had scrambled up the social ladder from humble beginning as a tenant farmer’s son in Ballynary, Co Sligo, to become the Viceroy of Peru, the most powerful Spanish governor in South America.

An Irishman helped death by hanging become more humane by realising that a longer drop helped to break the hanged's neck and allow them die quickly, rather than suffocating slowly at the end of a rope. Nice guy him.

The forgotten Irish in a way, like the 25 percent of Montreal who claim Irish descent and Irish who left the shores for mainland Europe(Charles de Gauls great grandmother for example)
Understandable though given the mystique and power of the USA and the Irish good emigration timing which allowed for the preservation of Irish culture in the new world. If the Irish had moved to Idaho and Iowa to work the land instead of New York and Chicago, they probably would have just become part of the established Anglo Saxon class and thus lost their Irishness

BorneTobyWilde

gramar wrote: »

Best fans in the world.

Yea and it's not even a hot country.
You would think some where like Indian would have the best fans.