Oscar Wilde

Ciaran.hudson

I was in Benetton in Brussels the other day and they are selling this.
Anyone else find it very annoying?

http://www.zalando.de/sisley-t-shirt-print-offwhite-7si22d010-003.html

Snickers Man

Get one made up with a picture of Eddy Merkx on his bike and the legend "Holland's finest" and see what they say.

Or a similar one with another famous Belgian. Let's face it, there's only about ten.

gobnaitolunacy

Snickers Man wrote: »

Or a similar one with another famous Belgian. Let's face it, there's only about ten.

Tintin is the only one I can think of.:D


Well, technically he was a British subject, but find the slogan somewhat pointless.
Smacks of those Japanese T shirts with random English phrases on them.

robp

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

Tintin is the only one I can think of.:D


Well, technically he was a British subject, but find the slogan somewhat pointless.
Smacks of those Japanese T shirts with random English phrases on them.

Incorrect. A UK subject, not British. Ireland was part of the UK but not Britain. Technically even Ian Paisely is not British. He is from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland after all. Arguable people from northern France are British as they are from former lessor Britain ie Brittany but not Irish.

Richard

robp wrote: »

Incorrect. A UK subject, not British. Ireland was part of the UK but not Britain. Technically even Ian Paisely is not British. He is from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland after all. Arguable people from northern France are British as they are from former lessor Britain ie Brittany but not Irish.

Next time you see a UK Passport have a look at what it says in the nationality section.

my my my

Ciaran.hudson wrote: »

I was in Benetton in Brussels the other day and they are selling this.
Anyone else find it very annoying?

http://www.zalando.de/sisley-t-shirt-print-offwhite-7si22d010-003.html

nothing that happens is of any importance

robp

Richard wrote: »

Next time you see a UK Passport have a look at what it says in the nationality section.

It says British citizen, which is in itself deeply illogical and inconsistent. Great Britain always referred to the Wales, Scotland and the other one. British subject and citizen is not the same thing. Though assuming the law was the same in the 1900s as it is presently maybe Gobnait is right. Though it is odd they don't also claim Joyce or Yeats.

donaghs

People can consider themselves British and Irish, as would have been more common back then. T-shirt does seem a tad pointless, meaningless and random, as has already been pointed out.

robp

donaghs wrote: »

People can consider themselves British and Irish, as would have been more common back then. T-shirt does seem a tad pointless, meaningless and random, as has already been pointed out.

Well I would argue that is equal to an Austrian/Brazilian.

tac foley

robp wrote: »

Incorrect. A UK subject, not British. Ireland was part of the UK but not Britain. Technically even Ian Paisely is not British. He is from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland after all. Arguable people from northern France are British as they are from former lessor Britain ie Brittany but not Irish.

...and of course they refer to themselves as 'Breton'. They also speak a mutually intelligible, although not quite identical, form of the Brythonic language called Welsh in Greater Britain, as do some Cornish people, now that the language seems to be undergoing a very gentle revial.

Nice people, the Bretons, great ones for the music and the craic.

tac

Fratton Fred

This thread should be in after hours where a more appropriate level of outrage could be achieved and more pitchforks readied.

Characters like Oscar Wilde always intrigue me. From what I can gather of the Anglo Irish, if they evicted people during the famine they were English, if they wrote a few plays, or invented an iconic beer then they were Irish.

SolitaireX

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

Smacks of those Japanese T shirts with random English phrases on them.

Exactly what I was thinking.

This kind of thing happens, no point worrying over it, other peoples ignorance of the facts doesn't change the truth so just laugh at the silly Brussels people (Brusselians? Brusselites? Bruskies?)

tac foley

Re Japanese T-shirts - seen last night at bowling -

'Alive!! Frantic hippos alert me greatly! Why note [sic] Dancing?'

tac

gobnaitolunacy

SolitaireX wrote: »

silly Brussels people (Brusselians? Brusselites? Bruskies?)

Sprouts.

Balmed Out

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Characters like Oscar Wilde always intrigue me. From what I can gather of the Anglo Irish, if they evicted people during the famine they were English, if they wrote a few plays, or invented an iconic beer then they were Irish.

Think that's a bit unfair. I think most would consider anyone born and bred in Ireland as Irish. The stereotypical evict-er was an absentee landlord who wouldn't have had anything to do with Ireland other then a source of income.

Many anglo Irish were nationalists and Im not certain but think Wildes parents were supposed to be.

Snickers Man

Balmed Out wrote: »

Many anglo Irish were nationalists and Im not certain but think Wildes parents were supposed to be.

His ma certainly was. She used to write nationalist columns under the name Speranza.

And Oscar's middle names, as I'm sure we all know, were Fingal O'Flaherty Wills.

Pretty Irish all that.

riffmongous

But Wilde himself never had much time for Ireland after university did he? I'd wonder how he identified himself

my my my

nothing that occurs is of the slightest importance

tac foley

riffmongous wrote: »

But Wilde himself never had much time for Ireland after university did he? I'd wonder how he identified himself

Only, famously on one occasion, as a 'genius'.

tac

InTheTrees

Fratton Fred wrote: »

From what I can gather of the Anglo Irish, if they evicted people during the famine they were English, if they wrote a few plays, or invented an iconic beer then they were Irish.

Funny.

I thought it depended on the accent.

Peregrinus

riffmongous wrote: »

But Wilde himself never had much time for Ireland after university did he? I'd wonder how he identified himself

He identified himself as Irish, but much less strongly and less frequently than he identified himself as an artist. Despite making his career in England, he never considered himself English.

He wasn't hugely interested in or motivated by Irish political questions but, when he took a position on them, it was a nationalist position. Most of what he said on this subject comes from his lecture tours in North America, where he always took a strongly patriotic Irish stance, and at various times expressed support for, or admiration of, Emmett and Parnell, but he was a man who understood what would play well to his audience, so we can't be sure how strong these feelings actually were. He was much less forward in articulating them in Britain. But he did write a series of articles in support of Parnell in the British press during the Piggott forgery scandal.

Santa Cruz

Ciaran.hudson wrote: »

I was in Benetton in Brussels the other day and they are selling this.
Anyone else find it very annoying?

http://www.zalando.de/sisley-t-shirt-print-offwhite-7si22d010-003.html

They mightn't find it so good if he had a teenage boy sitting on his lap