Interesting irish historical facts

SEANYBOY1 · 05-10-2009 4:36pm

sensibleken wrote: »

i was talling to my da last night about zozimus and a friend of his mick kearney was also involved in getting the headstone apparantly. maybe they know each other

I'll ask the Auld Fella and see what he says, I'm sure he knows him as he was involved;)

Gingy · 26-10-2009 12:33am

In 1780, James Daly made a bet that he could introduce a meaningless word into the English language in 24 hours; he hired lots of young lads to paint the word 'Quiz' on every street in Dublin and the word was created.

The flavoured crisp was invented in Dublin in 1954 by Joe Murphy, who invented Cheese and Onion, in his office off Moore Street.

Malahide Castle was occupied by the Talbot family for 791 years, from 1185 to 1976.

IIMII · 26-10-2009 11:02am

Balmed Out wrote: »

Bandon was a walled prodestant town and apparently had something in the manner of "No catholic may enter" written on the gateway. Beneath was graffitied with "so say the gates of hell".

Irish people were banned from Kinsale for over 100 years at one point too

mace · 30-10-2009 1:50pm

sensibleken wrote: »

John Philip Holland, the inventor of the modern submarine was an active member of the IRB. in fact he began working on submarines in the hope of using them against british warships.
he moved to america and continued his research while being funded by the IRB and developed the submarine 'The Fenian RAM'. in a dispute over funding the IRB nicked the sub but then realised they had no-one who knew how to operate it.

holland went on to develop the deisel/electric submarine which was only replaced by the nuclear submarine

I haven't had internet for a while so i haven't been able to check back on this thread much, but all of it, especially this quoted fact, is great, thanks for all the contributions.

Does anyone know if there's any truth in the brendan behan "guinness gets you drunk" story?

Cul a cnoic · 02-11-2009 2:16am

mace wrote: »

Does anyone know if there's any truth in the brendan behan "guinness gets you drunk" story?

Stephen Fry quoted that line on the BBC programme QI and I believe that everything quoted is well researched beforehand.

SEANYBOY1 · 18-11-2009 5:12pm

The British actually renamed Irish surnames, as in the Gaelic versions, to simple names like, Bird and Fox, as they could'nt grasp the spelling or proununciation. I actually know people with them surnames.
Has anybody else heard this one too?

MarchDub · 19-11-2009 1:36pm

SEANYBOY1 wrote: »

The British actually renamed Irish surnames, as in the Gaelic versions, to simple names like, Bird and Fox, as they could'nt grasp the spelling or proununciation. I actually know people with them surnames.
Has anybody else heard this one too?

The first Irish civil registration of Births, Deaths, Catholic marriages, began around 1864 by the British administration [Protestant marriages were recorded from some 20 years prior to this] and the names had to be entered in "English". So Irish names were given English "translations" or phonetic equivalents. Much of this had started to happen before this anyway but this put the "translating" process on record.

SEANYBOY1 · 25-11-2009 9:09pm

sensibleken wrote: »

i was talling to my da last night about zozimus and a friend of his mick kearney was also involved in getting the headstone apparantly. maybe they know each other

Hi rerarding above the head stone was placed on the grave as aproject for the Dublin millenium 1988. It was instagated by James Molloy, my uncle and his brother Kevin, my Dad and fellow group members The Dublin City Ramblers along with the Smith brothers who owned the Submarine bar and sponsored the project.

My dad Kevin wrote the epithaph on the head stone.

"Sing a Song For Us Old Zozimus
As Always From The Heart
Your name Will Live Forever
As A Dubliner Apart"

My Dad was wondering who is Mick Kearney is as he never heard of him?

sensibleken · 26-11-2009 2:36pm

SEANYBOY1 wrote: »

Hi rerarding above the head stone was placed on the grave as aproject for the Dublin millenium 1988. It was instagated by James Molloy, my uncle and his brother Kevin, my Dad and fellow group members The Dublin City Ramblers along with the Smith brothers who owned the Submarine bar and sponsored the project.

My dad Kevin wrote the epithaph on the head stone.

"Sing a Song For Us Old Zozimus
As Always From The Heart
Your name Will Live Forever
As A Dubliner Apart"

My Dad was wondering who is Mick Kearney is as he never heard of him?

oh, maybe my da got it wrong sorry. i wouldnt know much about mick other than he used to drink in the barley mow

Rebelheart · 26-11-2009 7:58pm

Gingy wrote: »

Malahide Castle was occupied by the Talbot family for 791 years, from 1185 to 1976.

I've heard this before. That's some record. Does anybody know the circumstances which finally led them to losing it?

The only family of Norman origin that is still in possession of their family seat as far as I know is the Plunkett family of Dunsany in Meath. There may be one or two others, but I don't know of them

johnny_doyle · 27-11-2009 9:45pm

in 1903, a natural deposit of oil seeped from the below the basement of a house in Summerhill.

johnny_doyle · 27-11-2009 10:10pm

one of the chief suspects in the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels from Dublin Castle was the brother of polar explorer Shackleton.

baalthor · 27-11-2009 11:56pm

This one is really interesting ...

John Robert Gregg, the inventor of one the two main shorthand styles was born in Rockcorry Co. Monaghan.
There's a plaque on one of the houses (easy to find as Rockcorry is tiny) commemorating him.
(There also always seem to be dodgy-looking hoodied kids hanging around ...)

johnny_doyle · 28-11-2009 8:31am

the statuette used in "The Oscars" was designed by Dubliner (Austin) Cedric Gibbons.

Blue Jay · 02-01-2010 11:45pm

McArmalite wrote: »

Fine if it's true but seems a bit far fetched to me. Could you post the links/references that " Documents were found in Berlin after World War II which suggested that the bombing of Dublin was not an accident. " and " the germans saw this action s a breach of neautrality and so decided to bomb the capital. " ?

Hi. I've just come upon this thread while looking for information on the Dublin 1941 bombings. I have enjoyed reading it from the begining, and picked up loads of info.
The West German government took responsibility for the bombings and apologised to the Irish people for the 1941 North Wall bombings in 1958. They also paid over the sum on £327,000 at the time to be used for social housing. This is well documented.
The East German or Austrian governments never made any apologies or paid any compensation - they were all together in 1941.
What I was trying to confirm - because I remember reading it somewhere : was that the Minister responsible at the time : (possibly Erskine Childers ?) used this money to build Ballymun.
Can any one confirm this?

Whether or not - I've really enjoyed this thread.
Blue Jay

junder · 04-01-2010 4:40pm

SEANYBOY1 wrote: »

Make sure you include 3B Iveagh Buildings B Block, Patricks Street. There is a flat there where my great aunt lived, Nelly Molloy who only died a few years ago. The flat was givin to the family from Guinness as my great uncle returned from WW1 with a load of medals. The Guinness family ownes the Iveagh buildings. Here flat has remained as a frozen time piece. All the plumbing, gas fittings and decor are the original fittings from the 19 century.
The only thing that changed was a flourecent lamp fitting. There was even a programme on RTE about it. You can book a visit in advance.
Every St. Patricks day my Dad brought me and my sister there to visit Nelly, and she would tell us stories about the fighting between the British and the IRa ( she would pronounce the Letter A like ah )during the War of Independance. Priceless memories.

My great great Granny served Maud Gonne as a servant.
Did you know that the Jews started to dig around the Hill of Tara around the early 1900's trying to fing the arc of covenant and Maud Gonne led people up there to stop them, I know more about this but I cant remember now.

It was'nt the Jews it was a group that calls itself the British Israelites

SEANYBOY1 · 04-01-2010 5:42pm

junder wrote: »

It was'nt the Jews it was a group that calls itself the British Israelites

Bad research by me there;)
Anyway here is an interesting site

http://www.badarchaeology.net/forgotten/british_israel.php

sensibleken · 11-01-2010 1:17pm

In at least the first few centuries AD in order to show subjugation to an irish king you would kiss their nipple. there is even a bog body on display in the national museum who has had his nipples cut off, leading to speculation he was a usurper or threat to a local king.. this is him..

sorry i would give a link for the above but im in work and there no chance im googling kissing ancient nipples

Morlar · 11-01-2010 1:19pm

sensibleken wrote: »

im in work and there no chance im googling kissing ancient nipples

You know you want to . ..

gitane007 · 21-06-2013 12:55pm

This is an excellent thread , so in an attempt to try kick it off again , here's a story about Mud Island which used to be in Dublin Bay. Had their own king and all apparently.
http://www.fairview-marino.com/history-of-mud-island-by-weston-st-john-joyce

gobnaitolunacy · 21-06-2013 4:06pm

Gingy wrote: »

In 1780, James Daly made a bet that he could introduce a meaningless word into the English language in 24 hours; he hired lots of young lads to paint the word 'Quiz' on every street in Dublin and the word was created.

Good story. Unfortunately, this is a myth that does the rounds every so often.

The Ireland's Own used be a great source of canards like this.

nuac · 21-06-2013 7:12pm

sensibleken wrote: »

back in the day (as scholars call it) kidnapping was the new black. my favourite story is of granuaile, stoping at howth to gain supplies after a long voyage only to find the doors at the earl of howth's residence locked gainst her. so her being her, kidnapped his son and brought him back to galway. the earl then had to go all the way to galway to get him back because of his rudeness.

i was at the castle on saturday and was delighted to see the old doors in a permanant open position

Yes. that happened except she would not have gone to Galway as she often "exacted tribute" from ships going in or out of Galway. More likely to have gone to Clare Island or Carraig a'Chabhlaigh near present day Newport. Also had a base on present site of Westport House

nuac · 21-06-2013 7:23pm

mega man wrote: »

The ulster dialect of irish use to be spoken in Co. Mayo up until the 20th century as a result of the platations.

Some families came from Ulster to Mayo in C 18th, but the number was not high in relation to the local population.

Never heard of an Ulster dialect in Mayo.

nuac · 21-06-2013 7:48pm

theboss80 wrote: »

Ireland was the first EVER country to be mapped with accuracy starting in 1824 and not finishing untill 1846, a british Lt. Col. Thomas Colby and a team of engineers. He triangulated his ay around the country starting up near Belfast. It produced the original 6" scale map.
Also by the way when that survey and a another one following that finished early in the 20th century most of west Donegal and major parts of Mayo and Galway were never mapped precisley have never since been mapped for ordinance survey.

I live in Mayo. All OS mapped. afaik this was down c 1838

mickmackey1 · 21-06-2013 10:06pm

Eamon de Valera's mother married Charles Wheelwright in 1888, when Eamon (then called Edward) was 5.

Charles Wheelwright had originally been a coachman in England.

His employer's name was... Edward de Vall :eek::eek:

markomuscle · 23-06-2013 2:33am

Some gold including a small gold boat was found in 1896 on the north coast from the 1st century BC, it was most likely a sacrifice to the god of the sea, there was a high profile court case at the time to decide who would get to own it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/yourplaceandmine/londonderry/A756001.shtml

A lot of Irish women in NI in the 1940's ended up marrying US soldiers and moving to the US as they had bases in NI during WW2.

kabakuyu · 23-06-2013 2:24pm

nuac wrote: »

Some families came from Ulster to Mayo in C 18th, but the number was not high in relation to the local population.

Never heard of an Ulster dialect in Mayo.

Hi Nuac can you tell me the circumstances of the this migration,I have Mayo relations but I noticed that a lot of their neighbours have what I consider Ulster sounding surnames like(McNicholas,O'Boyle,Fergus,Mc Nulty,Cawley).
,

Ipso · 23-06-2013 3:14pm

kabakuyu wrote: »

Hi Nuac can you tell me the circumstances of the this migration,I have Mayo relations but I noticed that a lot of their neighbours have what I consider Ulster sounding surnames like(McNicholas,O'Boyle,Fergus,Mc Nulty,Cawley).
,

I thought it happened post Ulster Plantation, supposedly it was supposed to have happened to one of my family lines.

nuac · 23-06-2013 8:50pm

kabakuyu wrote: »

Hi Nuac can you tell me the circumstances of the this migration,I have Mayo relations but I noticed that a lot of their neighbours have what I consider Ulster sounding surnames like(McNicholas,O'Boyle,Fergus,Mc Nulty,Cawley).
,

It happened after one of the anti-catholic pograms in Ulster. It has been written up in some historical magazines. If i can find the article I will post up the details

pedroeibar1 · 26-06-2013 11:11pm

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I guess the same could be said about Booterstown Nature reserve as well, salt marshes created by the building of the Dublin-Kingstown railway.

I recall reading somewhere that the landowner of that area refused to allow the railway to be built on his land, so they built it through the sea instead, creating the marsh. Maybe someone can elaborate on that a bit?

There used to be a sluice gate on that marsh, near where the DART station is - sadly it fell into disuse, was allowed to deteriorate and I think is the reason the marsh had to be 'redone' in recent years.

The landowner story I think relates to Lord Cloncurry, who owned Maretimo House (where the block of apartments now stands) and his neighbour (name escapes me) who owned Blackrock house. They put up a losing battle, but got serious compo and 'follies' were built for them, such as the granite bridge, Vances Harbour and the doric temple (all shamefully vandalized and in crap condition). Cloncurry supposedly never moved back, but it was only his town house, he lived mainly at Lyons (restored some years ago by the late Dr. Tony Ryan). Cloncurry was a fascinating guy, wife was a bit of a slapper and he took an action for crimcon against Sir John Piers (him of the Betjeman poem) who bedded her for a bet. Cloncurry supposedly was heavily involved in the 1798 rebellion. The Dun Laoghaire to Dalkey rail extension also had a problem and it was placed 'semi' underground as a result.

While we are on the seashore rail topic, there once were plans to build a ship canal from Dalkey to Dublin along the southside of the Bay, also an alternative one from Sutton to Dubln. That was before the Ballast office did the job on the Bull Wall.

Interesting irish historical facts

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