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Famous last words from history...

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  • 27-10-2009 9:44pm
    #1
    Judgement Day
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭


    I am working on a new edition of a history of the 1798 Rebellion and some of the historical similarities with other battles/events in history are quite striking. On the 4th June 1798 crown forces camped in Gorey moved south against rebels approaching from Enniscorthy but they made the classic mistake of dividing their force in enemy territory without knowing the strength and disposition of the forces facing them. The upshot was that at Tuberneering (nr.Clough) a small crown column of circa 350 men, led by an inexperienced but adventurous officer, Colonel Lambert Walpole unexpectedly came upon the advance guard of the rebel force numbering some 12-15,000 men. The result was inevitable and the crown force was cut to pieces, along with a relief column, and with the survivors put to flight - and not stopping until they reached Arklow! The bold colonel was amongst the 1st to fall and one wonders what his last words were as he rounded the bend in the road at Tuberneering and ran smack into the massive ambush?

    Some 78 years later another adventurous army officer made the same mistake and divided his forces before the Battle of Little Bighorn....this time General Armstrong Custer was the last man to die along with his entire command, and anecdotally his last words on seeing the enormous Indian force (estimated 1,800+) facing his (200+) detachment of the 7th Cavalry were "Hurrah, boys, we've got them! We'll finish them up and then go home to our station." These last words are often referred to as "Where did all these f.......n indians come from?"


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    #2
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    Reminds me a bit of the story about the little big horn when the officer said '' Men , just shoot at will ''

    So they did , they all pointed at Will and shot him


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    #3
    Judgement Day
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭Judgement Day


    Among my favourites that I have collected for a future publication is the following:

    Union General John Sedgwick (September 13, 1813 – May 9, 1864)
    Sedgwick fell at the beginning of the American Civil War, Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, on May 9, 1864

    Despite the firing of Confederate sharpshooters Sedgwick strode around in the open and was quoted as saying, "What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Although ashamed, his men continued to flinch and he repeated, "I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance..." Just seconds later he fell forward with a bullet hole below his left eye


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    #4
    Judgement Day
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭Judgement Day


    and this one from nearer to home.

    November 24, 1922 - the execution of Erskine Childers by pro-treaty forces at Beggar's Bush Barracks.

    Calmly standing against a wall, without blindfold, Childers uttered these words to the waiting firing squad "Come closer, boys. It will be easier for you."


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    #5
    Snickers Man
    Registered Users Posts: 5,301 ✭✭✭Snickers Man


    Is it true that Gandhi's last words were:

    "Go ahead punk. Make my day!"

    or was that somebody else?


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    #6
    Dublin_Gunner
    Registered Users Posts: 7,692 ✭✭✭Dublin_Gunner


    Yamamoto after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour:


    "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve"

    Though it has never been proven (nor disproven) that he actually spoke those words, they were apparently found in his diary, and uoted in the film 'Tora! Tora! Tora!'


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    #7
    donaghs
    Registered Users Posts: 2,702 ✭✭✭donaghs


    Kenneth Williams last entry in his diary (before suicide or accidental overdose?)

    "Oh, what's the bloody point?"


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    #8
    Ponster
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 10,912 Mod ✭✭✭✭Ponster


    "I've had eighteen straight whiskeys. I think that's the record" - Dylan Thomas (in a bar in New York where I myself managed 2 last summer) :)


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    #9
    medici
    Registered Users Posts: 91 ✭✭medici


    Horatio Nelson, shot at the Battle of Trafalgar was reputed to have said to the Captain of the HMS Victory, Thomas Hardy; "Kiss me Hardy"


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    #10
    McArmalite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,476 ✭✭✭McArmalite


    Karl Marx " Last words are for fools who havent said enough. "


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    #11
    Rebelheart
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,077 ✭✭✭Rebelheart


    God Save Ireland!
    - Allen, Larkin & O Brien on the gallows, 1867

    (or was it[SIZE=-1] the speech from the dock in 1867 by Edward O'Meager Condon (1841-1915) who stood trial along with the Manchester Martyrs ;))[/SIZE]


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    #12
    Judgement Day
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,549 ✭✭✭✭Judgement Day


    Another favourite from my collection are the last words said to have been spoken by King George V on his deathbed....The London Times reported that his last words were "How is the Empire?" Another less establishment newspaper reported that his last words were addressed to his physician, who was reassuring the king that he would soon be able to resume his holiday at Bognor Regis, to which he is supposed to have responded "Bugger Bognor." I know which I like best. :D


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    #13
    Eoinp
    Registered Users Posts: 98 ✭✭Eoinp


    Judgement Day wrote: »
    Another favourite from my collection are the last words said to have been spoken by King George V on his deathbed....The London Times reported that his last words were "How is the Empire?" Another less establishment newspaper reported that his last words were addressed to his physician, who was reassuring the king that he would soon be able to resume his holiday at Bognor Regis, to which he is supposed to have responded "Bugger Bognor." I know which I like best. :D

    I've always liked that one for some reason!
    Seems apt!
    Eoin


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    #14
    Eoinp
    Registered Users Posts: 98 ✭✭Eoinp


    medici wrote: »
    Horatio Nelson, shot at the Battle of Trafalgar was reputed to have said to the Captain of the HMS Victory, Thomas Hardy; "Kiss me Hardy"

    A bit embarrassing really.
    Eoin


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    #15
    blinding
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 7,466 ✭✭✭blinding


    Ian Paisley

    Never Never Never.............Oh alright then


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    #16
    Fratton Fred
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26,567 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    Eoinp wrote: »
    A bit embarrassing really.
    Eoin

    Rum, sodomy and the lash.....:D


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    #17
    MarchDub
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭MarchDub


    Oscar [Fingal O'Flahertie Wills] Wilde - never to be without more words than anyone else is reputed to have had TWO "last words" words:

    On looking up from his bed at the cheap ugly wallpaper in his Paris bedroom the supreme aesthete said :

    "One of us had to go".


    On seeing his doctor's bill for his last illness -

    "I am dying as I have lived, beyond my means".


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    #18
    MarchDub
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭MarchDub


    The last words of James Joyce:

    "Does nobody understand?"


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    #19
    Azelfafage
    Closed Accounts Posts: 125 ✭✭Azelfafage


    Judgement Day wrote: »
    Among my favourites that I have collected for a future publication is the following:

    Union General John Sedgwick (September 13, 1813 – May 9, 1864)
    Sedgwick fell at the beginning of the American Civil War, Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, on May 9, 1864

    Despite the firing of Confederate sharpshooters Sedgwick strode around in the open and was quoted as saying, "What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Although ashamed, his men continued to flinch and he repeated, "I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance..." Just seconds later he fell forward with a bullet hole below his left eye


    I prefer the short version:

    "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..."


    .


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    #20
    dimejinky99
    Closed Accounts Posts: 495 ✭✭dimejinky99


    'Nurse, give us a blow job wil ye?'-Phill Lynott, ever the rocker


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    #21
    Mellor
    Registered Users Posts: 39,159 ✭✭✭✭Mellor


    Most documented last words are likely completely inaccurate. The simple fact is not every witty poet had something witty to say, nor every notable general, a notable death.
    medici wrote: »
    Horatio Nelson, shot at the Battle of Trafalgar was reputed to have said to the Captain of the HMS Victory, Thomas Hardy; "Kiss me Hardy"
    Eoinp wrote: »
    A bit embarrassing really.
    Eoin


    Nelson is a good example, he did say that to Hardy, but my no means his last words. When Hardy did Kiss him, he replied "who is that" then "God bless you hardy"


    He continued to speak and his supposed last words were
    "fan, fan, rub, rub, drink, drink"


    An officers who remained with him heard him mutter something about "God and country".
    Although this is possibly made up, as other documented his voice had faded, in order to give him the honorable final words.


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    #22
    Gingy
    Registered Users Posts: 683 ✭✭✭Gingy


    I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis - Humphrey Bogart.


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