Britain and Ireland
Waterloo, the great…German victory? – Waterloo is famed as being one of Britain’s finest moments, where the Duke of Wellington, master of defence, finally faced off with the master of offence; Napoleon. It has gone down in history as one of Britain’s biggest and most well known victories and made an already venerated Wellington, a national hero. There is no denying, it was a “close run thing” and a lot of credit can go to Wellington’s nerve and ability, but sadly it was more a German victory than a British one; with the majority of the allied combatants being, well, German: 26000 of them, under Wellingtons command and 50000 Prussians under Blucher. Some people might remember that next time they are ribbing the Germans about the World Wars because if it wasnt for our German cousins, the world might be a completely different place.
And we owe it all to Belgium – Belgium, despite being the ‘place to be’ if you are fighting a warhas recently, according to academics, taken credit for one of Britain’s biggest institutions: Cricket! New research states, after uncovering a poem dating from 1533, that the game was brought to England by Flemish weavers and played with Sheep herding crooks. Within the poems text “kings of crekettes” and “wickettes” are mentioned, adding a bit more credence to the claim… Begs the question, why don’t they play it still?
Other British things the Belgians are laying claim to now
- Chips – it seems they have made them since the 17th Century but its ok, Britain was the first country to have a chip shop (in Oldham)
- Golf – evolved along the same lines as cricket.. industrious people these Flemish
Oppressed or oppressor? – Many of the Irish are proud of their Celtic heritage, with the English / British occupation of their lands in the past (depending what side of the fence you sit) being a bit of a sore point. Many politicians and patriotic citizens will hark back to the dawn of time and point out that Eire has always been their land… but has it though? It is interesting to note that the so long oppressed and colonised Celtic Irish were in fact a bit handy at colonising and oppressing.
The Celts, as the Gaelic tribes were collectively known, came from central Europe (what is southern Germany, Austria and eastern France) and unhappy with their lot, increasingly due to Roman expansion, they started to fan out across Europe: Raping, pillaging, fighting, sacrificing and generally being unpleasant along the way. Local peoples who had been in places like: Ireland and Britain from as early as 8000BC were wiped out and their lands taken, as the Celtic land grab continued. Sadly, all good things must come to an end; the land ran out. Unperturbed they just started fighting each other (sounds familiar) and cast their eye on their neighboring tribes’ lands.
It is because of this in fighting that a certain tribe of Celts, who had settled in Ireland, called the “Scoti” decided to pop across the Irish Sea and have a rumble with the tribes there. After expanding their power base in the north and assimilating or wiping out rival tribes like the Picts, the land became known as the land of the Scoti, or Scotland.* Ironically it was the Scottish who popped back across the Irish Sea and set up plantations in 1610.
*Interesting Fact: Scoti is the masculine form of the Latin meaning, Irishmen and Scotia is the feminine. So technically Scotland means the land of the Irishmen and Nova Scotia means new land of the Irishwoman?
Boyne, Boyne, Boyne – The battle of the Boyne, celebrated by my countrymen (N.Ireland) on the 12th day of July to remember a glorious victory over the Catholic hordes, a turning point in the Jacobite War… but yet the battle wasn’t actually fought on the 12th, it was fought on the11th, Catholics and Protestants fought on both sides; the Williamite army consisted mainly of Germans, Dutch, French and Danes but; both sides were effectively fighting for a British monarch (ironically) and the battle itself was a minor incident, with minimal casualties on both sides. Interestingly enough the most pivotal battle of the war was the Battle of Aughrim (Galway) and it WAS fought on the 12th July! To add insult to injury all the fighting In Ireland was nothing to do with Ireland or its freedoms. It was more to do with two kings duking it out for power. But at least we get a day off every July, oh wait I live in England now so I don’t even get that!
