Ireland Challenge (semi-serious)
- Thread starter Thande
- Start date
It's a matter of how you grow up. My dad's English (Canterbury) and my mother's Irish (Mayo), but being born in Ontario (which is in self-denial about just how English it is) and growing up there and Oxfordshire, I always felt more English. That said, I've got several hundred times more Irish relatives (how is that not surprising?), about half of which live in England. So, I guess I'm about as Irish as the Republic...
As for the real point of this thread, the answer is simple: get England Catholic. Say, some way, some how, random act of mass political stupidity, Bonnie Prince Charles wins England. He purges the government, and brings in a whole ton of Irish loyalists. With continuing Protestant threats, this evolves into a perpetual Irish governing class. Simultaneously, the Catholic Kings create a powerful Irish nobility, granting them estates in England and Scotland. (Basically the reverse of OTL) Eventually, the "British" Empire effectively becomes the Irish Empire...
Simon
As for the real point of this thread, the answer is simple: get England Catholic. Say, some way, some how, random act of mass political stupidity, Bonnie Prince Charles wins England. He purges the government, and brings in a whole ton of Irish loyalists. With continuing Protestant threats, this evolves into a perpetual Irish governing class. Simultaneously, the Catholic Kings create a powerful Irish nobility, granting them estates in England and Scotland. (Basically the reverse of OTL) Eventually, the "British" Empire effectively becomes the Irish Empire...
Simon
I don't have an ounce of Irish blood in my body, but I'm from Boston, which means that every once in a while I get sudden bursts of completely unreasonable "Irish" pride. Then, I wake up in some pub in Southie, singing along to some dreadful Dropkick Murphys song, doing a jig. I yell, "my God, what have I done!!!" in a dramatic voice, and tear off the green "Fuck You, I'm Irish!" shirt I suddenly realize I am wearing (the apostrophe in "I'm" is in the shape of a shamrock) and hightail it away from the handgun-wielding Irish mobsters I learned about in "The Departed," ducking to avoid the bullets.
:shudders:
That was an awful night.
:shudders:
That was an awful night.
I don't have much to contribute to this fascinating discussion of Irishness , except for this...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_White_(author)
" 'The Silent Stars Go By' is an excellent example of alternative history. A Gaelic visitor to Alexandria, Egypt, realizes the industrial potential of a primitive steam engine constructed by Hero. The resulting society launches a starship in the year 1492."
The result is an Irish empire just like Thande wanted.
, except for this...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_White_(author)
" 'The Silent Stars Go By' is an excellent example of alternative history. A Gaelic visitor to Alexandria, Egypt, realizes the industrial potential of a primitive steam engine constructed by Hero. The resulting society launches a starship in the year 1492."
The result is an Irish empire just like Thande wanted.
I seem to be the actual only "Irish" person here, is it ok if I say I have no problem with the Brits?, nice people, have to beat them in Football/rugby though...BTW we also have a certain...distaste for plastic paddies/barstool republican types you often get in the US/Canada/Oz ect...still have to win at football though with our English/Scotish players
with the whole EU citizen thing ect it doesn't seem to be such a huge obstacle anymore plus our increasing wealth and economic success, alot of the inferiority complex that drove anti British feeling is melting way...we feel more able to look bigger countries in the eye as equals, as strange as that sounds, and the UK has often worked with us in the EU, frankly they are probably our closest friends now.
with the whole EU citizen thing ect it doesn't seem to be such a huge obstacle anymore plus our increasing wealth and economic success, alot of the inferiority complex that drove anti British feeling is melting way...we feel more able to look bigger countries in the eye as equals, as strange as that sounds, and the UK has often worked with us in the EU, frankly they are probably our closest friends now.