I bet you didnt know that

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Rabbits aren't native here.

Neither are trees like the chestnut, sycamore, beech a couple of pines and the red poppy. Ireland because it was cut off and scoured by the ice for so long originally had far less biodiversity than our neighbour Britain(and a much reduced geology). Because the south of Britain remained ice free and a land bridge connected it to Europe for longer their biodiversity is much higher.

Irish bears were related to Spanish bears, not the ones found in Britain(or most of the rest of Europe).

Irish wolves were larger and more aggressive than mainland European wolves(or indeed British). Wolf attacks on humans were vanishingly rare, except for here. The old annals regularly mention people being attacked and killed by them(and reports of werewolves). This continued quite late too. The English Planters were scared of their reputation and were hell bent on wiping them out. Oliver Cromwell of all people was likely the most responsible for protecting the old Irish Wolfhound, as he encouraged their breeding and banned their export(and there was a small fortune in reward for killing wolves). The last one known was killed in Carlow.

The Irish wolfhound is one of the few wolfhound breeds bred to take on a wolf one on one, hence their huge size. The majority of the other breeds were bred to work as a team in large packs. They were also famed as war dogs across the ancient world and the Romans mentioned them with wonder and fear, including one Gaius Julius Caesar. As an aside oul Julius reckoned that Ireland lay off the coast of Spain. Bless. Luckily they have also long being regarded as having a lovely temperament(even the Roman's noted this) and are big oul softies(to friends). Which is a good thing cos if one went rogue, it would make mincemeat of most other dogs and really ruin your day.

Oddly as well as the big bad wolf and werewolves and all that, the Irish Brehon laws mention them as quite popular pets, along with herons of all things. The latter particularly popular with clerics.

The last Irish round tower was built when the leaning tower of Pisa was going up. The deepest foundations on an Irish round tower are only a couple of feet. Even though the monks were aware of European classical building techniques they're also built on near neolithic building methods, with the addition of mortar. They even made doorways using a lintel stone, but carved the classical arch onto it, even though they knew how to make an arch. Contrary feckers we've always been it seems.

For much of the Roman empire east of a particular point Greek was more spoken than Latin. Romans gave us the notion of courses in meals. The word "salary" comes from Rome too. It roughly translates as "salt", as Roman soldiers were often paid in same. The purple dye used only by the richest of Romans stank to high heaven which added to the status.

That's my stream of consciousness waffle. :D