Indeed there would be dozens of cardinals who would not be in Rome by virtue of age.If the 80 age cap was removed and the Cardinals were fit to travel then you have a conclave and a short term stopgap pope.
The in pectore Cardinals may not know they are in pectore... Has Benedict appointed any...
I must admit that the thought of The Dev bloodline made me want to inject bleach into my brain and my my mum and dad haven't lived in Ireland since 1948 and 1941 respectively!
One would hoe that the Anarcho Syndicalist Lan-Ger ideology of Cork would lead to a thriving People's Republic...
I have a mental picture of a new ideology peculiar to Ireland: Ju O Shea
And the eternal leader Ea Mon Dev
who passed on power to his son Viv Yon Dev
and Finally 0n to his great nephew Ea Mon Cuiv
That is technically true but the BFC never made it to platoon strength (30) at any time inits eistence. Adrian Weale the author of "Renegades: Hitler's Englishen" counts 59 (I need to find my copy to confirm this number) British and Commonwealth citizen who were members of the BFC.
The problem...
The idea of a tunnel to Ireland is a wonderful idea but there's absolutely no chance of of building a business case for it. I shudder to think how much any one of the tunnels would cost and how on earth would the builders recoup on their investment? There's not nearly enough freight passage to...
Indeed. I wonder if it would playout somethnig like Collins replaces Cosgrave in the 20s and becomes Taoiseach staying in power until well into the 30s during which time he avoids the Trade War. He is replaced by a Sean Lemass not FF in the late 30s. Collins goes on to be the second president...
A cynic might say that Collins did not live long enough to disappoint. A Collins who survived the Civil War and played a major art in the early development of the Irish Free State is interesting. I couldn't even gues at how the country would progress. Would he be an internationalist? I simply...
Very different perhaps. I am not sure about social liberalisation. Even without the special place for the church in the constitution it wielded enormous power and influence..Perhaps a Lemass government would reach out to Northern Ireland earlier. Not sure if this could help avert the Troubles...
Lemass as Taoiseach earlier? Now that would have some major benefits for a de Valera-less Ireland. I'm not thinking of a much earlier celtic tiger but perhaps soe of the economic storms that Ireland faced over the years would e weathered better... unless the similar mistakes where made earlier.