Cead mile failte - we love Ireland!

[661-Pete]

Hmmm..... 50-50 whether this thread is a candidate for Tea Shop, I think. Not much about cycling, at any rate....

[pwa]

Hmmm..... 50-50 whether this thread is a candidate for Tea Shop, I think. Not much about cycling, at any rate....

This is Ireland you are talking about! If you keep politics and history out of it you are not talking about Ireland.

[661-Pete]

Hmmm..... 50-50 whether this thread is a candidate for Tea Shop, I think. Not much about cycling, at any rate....

This is Ireland you are talking about! If you keep politics and history out of it you are not talking about Ireland.

Well: I think that, unlike Basil Fawlty, I could talk for a while about Ireland without once mentioning politics.

Or even history. Well, perhaps not that last. There are many famine memorials scattered around the country, we've come across one or two; each has a tale to tell....

[pwa]

Hmmm..... 50-50 whether this thread is a candidate for Tea Shop, I think. Not much about cycling, at any rate....

This is Ireland you are talking about! If you keep politics and history out of it you are not talking about Ireland.

Well: I think that, unlike Basil Fawlty, I could talk for a while about Ireland without once mentioning politics.

Or even history. Well, perhaps not that last. There are many famine memorials scattered around the country, we've come across one or two; each has a tale to tell....

Exactly. Politics and history rolled up into one. It's part of Ireland's character.

[landsurfer]

A quote ........
The Irish don't know what they want ..... But they will fight anybody to get it !!!!!
Paddy O'Orangeman

[Cyril Haearn]

*Eire* or *The Republic* or *The twenty-six Counties*

Two more reasons to love Ireland just occurred to me

Sean Kelly and

The Listowel & Ballybunion Railway! It could have revolutionised land transport

[pwa]

*Eire* or *The Republic* or *The twenty-six Counties*

Two more reasons to love Ireland just occurred to me

Sean Kelly and

The Listowel & Ballybunion Railway! It could have revolutionised land transport

We'll all be googling that now.

[661-Pete]

Some people still went round by horse and cart. Indeed, we hired a horse drawn caravan for a couple of weeks and travelled many miles that way.

I remember the horse-drawn vardos, hired out to tourists, that used to ply their way around the lanes of the Southwest in their hundreds. Back then they all bore the livery of "Slattery's of Tralee" - a company which has since gone defunct I believe. Does anyone know whether these caravans are still in business - under a different name?

The practice was a wee bit controversial. Many people were concerned that these ponies may have been hired out to tourists, unvetted, with no or minimal experience of horses, was there a risk of ill-treatment, whether deliberate or involuntary? Certainly I, knowing little about horses, would not wish to take charge of one without a lot of preparatory learning.

But I would not like to put a damper on this trade. A splendid way to spend a quiet holiday. If the weather is kind to you, that is! (On our more recent trips to Ireland, it wasn't!)

[pwa]

Some people still went round by horse and cart. Indeed, we hired a horse drawn caravan for a couple of weeks and travelled many miles that way.

I remember the horse-drawn vardos, hired out to tourists, that used to ply their way around the lanes of the Southwest in their hundreds. Back then they all bore the livery of "Slattery's of Tralee" - a company which has since gone defunct I believe. Does anyone know whether these caravans are still in business - under a different name?

The practice was a wee bit controversial. Many people were concerned that these ponies may have been hired out to tourists, unvetted, with no or minimal experience of horses, was there a risk of ill-treatment, whether deliberate or involuntary? Certainly I, knowing little about horses, would not wish to take charge of one without a lot of preparatory learning.

But I would not like to put a damper on this trade. A splendid way to spend a quiet holiday. If the weather is kind to you, that is! (On our more recent trips to Ireland, it wasn't!)

I suppose it is less attractive as a holiday these days. When we did it in the 1960s the roads were dead quiet and we could move around easily. Progress was slow, of course. Walking pace. If I remember rightly one of the adults would walk alongside the horse much of the time to lead it. And wherever we stopped the first job was to find grazing for the horse. My Dad was brought up on an Irish farm so he knew about horses.

[honesty]

I've had a niggle to investigate the Wild Atlantic Way more since I first heard about it. Seems like it would make a rather good cycle holiday...

[npcarey]

I’ve dipped into this thread and frankly I wonder what it’s all about. The idiocy of the comment about the cultivation of maize in Ireland in the famine period has forced me to respond. Maize was imported by the British authorities as a cheap food replacement for the starving populace. Instructions as to it’s preparation and cooking had to given out. The population did not like the Indian Corn or ‘yella meal’, however it was eat it or death. Incidentally the corn had to be purchased.
The reasons for the famine are straight forward, over reliance on one crop, however the social political and economic responses are complex, starvation was not inevitable.
And I think the ‘joke’ about the chip on their shoulder is out of order.
And no, the Good Friday Agreement was not a disaster, seventeen years of peace is progress.
Neil

[Graham]

This topic will be shifted to the Tea Shop shortly.

Please try to avoid comments/"jokes" that may cause offence and involve moderator workload.

Thank you.

[colin54]

There is a reading of an interesting book about a walk along the border between the North and South

of Ireland this week on Radio 4.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hlk9s


Happy St Patrick's Day.

[pwa]

I suppose it might be because my Dad is Irish and I've had so much contact with Irish people throughout my life, but I do feel that Ireland is a part of a family that includes the other parts of what we call (recognising possible problems with the term) the British Isles. Culturally we are close. Closer than we are to other "foreign" countries. To a British person Ireland feels much the same as a part western Britain, but with differences.

[Cyril Haearn]

This topic will be shifted to the Tea Shop shortly.

Please try to avoid comments/"jokes" that may cause offence and involve moderator workload.

Thank you.

I though the *joke* was a bit off, not the sort one tells now

It is safest to use self-irony like Wilhelm Busch

Die Selbstkritik hat viel fuer sich..

It is good to practice self-criticism
People will think: he is so modest, so honest!
It also removes the need for others to criticise one
The best is: one may expect to be contradicted
So everyone will agree that the initial criticism is the opposite of the truth

Sorry for the translation, it is better in German