Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The Irish

A few decades back I recall reading something about alcohol consumption per capita in Europe. Ireland was quite low compared to most other European countries. I remember that because it went against the hard drinking stereotypical Irish image. Any truth to that or could it have been fake news ?

I would guess Irish then and Irish now, two different animals. I will say that, maybe even more than England, the local pub is a social/cultural center. And best keep your mouth shut on political issues because in Ulster especially there’s “ahem”.... British pubs and Republican pubs. And outside of Ulster Republican pubs. Be content to be a clueless American, ergo neutral, because for them it ain’t just idle talk. Anyways that was my experience.

Far from it, I expect by the numbers the Spanish Armada theory is a bit far fetched. Cork Harbor is an incredibly good harbor; narrow entrance, large sheltered bay, short passage up the broad River Lee to a large loch.

From what I have read the harbor really didn’t take off as a major port until the Napoleonic Wars, second decade of the 1800’s, then it became a major seaport employing thousands of locals like my kin as sailors. Some of these brung back wives from the Mediterranean Nations, fellow Catholics. I recall reading too of an Italian Tailor setting up shop in Queenstown (present day Cobh). So when the port went International, so did the population to some extent.

That’s my guess.

Wonderful farm land, moderate temperatures and constant rain courtesy of the Gulf Stream, part of the reason why two acres of potatoes could feed a family of ten.

Was told about the wreck of the Armada fleet and subsequent comingling by folks in Ireland while in the country and took them at their word.

As you said, the truth is most likely somewhere in between.

And yet if DNA is to believed, the Vikings left very little of themselves in Ireland, certainly much less than is apparent today in parts of Scotland and Northern England. However the Irish left a lot of themselves in Iceland.

What did Ireland have that Rome needed that was worth the effort?

Now extrapolate that out.

The women they took from the island you mean. Sure as hell wasn't raiding Irishmen spreading the seed lololol

The Romans stopped along about Hadrian’s Wall. Their furthest north outpost was East Gate located in the quaint town of Lincoln, England. The East Gate Hotel sits atop the ruins.

My son and I took in the Isle of Man TT Races in 2016 Camping next to us were some trendy young folk from Dublin. JFC talk about a victim mentality! Wearing it on their sleeve as an excuse to be downright rude to their English neighbors.

I visited and called ‘em on it, pointed out that they were indeed privileged compared to myself and our English Working Class neighbors of forty years earlier and by blood I was as Irish Catholic as them. Boy did they get PO’d, screamed at me and everything Unfortunately we had to leave to get the ferry early the next morning.

I would have loved to PO them some more. I despise a victim mentality, and rudeness.

Birdie,,,,were you not a victim of their ire ? Pot/kettle ?

Grins

I’m Irish!!!!........of course I can patch drywall!!!!

And yet IIRC St Patric hisself first arrived in Ireland as a slave taken by Irish pirates.

Again IIRC Iceland was a pioneer colony founded mostly by younger Vikings of fewer prospects living on the fringes of that class-bound society. Pop history has them dragging off Irish girls and yet strangely enough all these captive Irish girls don’t seem to show up elsewhere.

OK, even given that some or even many were taken as spoils of war, who runs things in your household?

Meanwhile, in Ireland, the supposedly invincible Vikings, unlike everywhere else they landed, are restricted to the ports, eventually vassals to the surrounding Irish, fulfilling a useful purpose in the import/export trade and, as noted, apparently leaving little trace of their DNA, which is a puzzle.

Well now it’s on you to post an example of me as a victim, ever.

The Irish slavery comment was tongue in cheek, that whole Irish slavery thing is historical twaddle, and even if it were true how could I complain, I get to be an American

Britannia was enough drain on Roman resources
the idea of more of the same would be silly.
Rome seemed largely content to conduct trade
with the 'Hibernians'.... archeology at Drumanagh
has uncovered coins dating to reigns of:
Titus (AD 74-81), Trajan (AD 98-117) and Hadrian
(AD 117-138), Roman brooches and copper ingots.

WITH THE Romans it was not about 'can we or can't we?'...
but more about... 'should we?'... Agricola considered it,
but Rome was already extented and had issues like
soldier revolts and task of maintaining higher priorities
in the far more rewarding east empire provinces...Plus
the dynamics of politics in Rome.

We both did. As Warren Buffett explained when asked about financial disparities in the USA, he said, “when I was born, I had an approximately one in sixty thousand chance of being born in this great country at the time of my birth.. If you’re here, don’t waste that opportunity “.

Hot damn, now I'm gonna play the lottery again!

I'll take that as a no. lol

They called Ireland Hibernia and considered it part of their Empire by some maps. What they did or didn't take all those 2000 years ago I don't know. But I suspect it was little if anything being about as far from Rome as you could get. And Ireland wasn't all gaga about gold and silver like England for instance.

A real puzzle to me is why and how the population of the poorest in Ireland exploded the way it did in the sixty years prior to the famine.

Was it an imposed Pax Brittanica that squelched tribal warfare?

Or maybe the poor and dispossessed in every time and place fall back on breeding in the absence of any other prospects.

In common with others of similar ancestry my first Ancestry.com results were really specific; Cork Headlands, extreme SW Ireland, which proximity to the sea would explain the sailor thing.

It has become common knowledge since that this Irish specifity as to location came about through widespread inbreeding; cousin marriage. In an impoverished setting with little means or freedom to travel, one could easily have fifty first cousins in the neighborhood, and even more second cousins.

Apparently folks are offended by this, since then Ancestry.com has amended the results to include more of SW Ireland 🙄

Everybody knows Hadrian’s Wall, most everyone overlooks the Antonine Wall, built a generation later.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Wall