Where Do You Come From ?

[Bluecat]

Can anybody see Mijan's avatar?

Scampy, you're the specialist,...

[otherstuff1957]

Appleman Thai,

I am from Northern Ireland, the counties which should belong to us are Cavan and Monaghan who cares anyway its a waste of time even thinking in the past, sure soon it will belong to the new European community.  Are you from Armagh the apple county.

I'm going to both lazy and pedantic in one post! Ulster was historically the 9 northern counties of Ireland. When the Irish Free State was created each county voted to either join the new Irish country or remain British. Six counties stayed with the UK and three joined Ireland. The six counties that stayed are officially referred to as Northern Ireland, but are also informally called Ulster. Donegal was one of the counties that went Irish - I don't remember what the others were.

My maternal grandparents immigrated from County Antrim just before WWI and thought of themselves as being BOTH Irish and British.

[Stocky]

I thought most posters here were from UK but they are from USA where I'm from. I'm glad to see this.

Why?

They just keep creating new identities so they can increase the tally

[xyz]

QUOTE (xyz @ Sat 2004-07-31, 18:21:58)

I thought most posters here were from UK but they are from USA where I'm from. I'm glad to see this.

Why?

They just keep creating new identities so they can increase the tally  

You give polls a bad name. Where did you come from...North Korea? I should complain to the administrator.

[Stocky]

QUOTE (xyz @ Sat 2004-07-31, 18:21:58)

I thought most posters here were from UK but they are from USA where I'm from. I'm glad to see this.

Why?

They just keep creating new identities so they can increase the tally  

You give polls a bad name. Where did you come from? North Korea? I ought to complain to the administrator about this! Shame!

Oh dear! Did you think this was a scientific survey

[xyz]

Oh dear! Did you think this was a scientific survey 

No, but you probably trash science as well, right?

[Stocky]

Oh dear! Did you think this was a scientific survey 

No, but you probably trash science as well, right?

Yep! I'm a scientist, so it's my job

[xyz]

Oh dear! Did you think this was a scientific survey 

No, but you probably trash science as well, right?

Yep! I'm a scientist, so it's my job

They need people like you...in North Korea

[Stocky]

They need people like you...in North Korea

Why, I'm already working in Siberia, does this not punish me enough for your disillusionment?

[chonabot]

Oh dear! Did you think this was a scientific survey 

No, but you probably trash science as well, right?

Yep! I'm a scientist, so it's my job

They need people like you...in North Korea

They need people like you , like a hole in the arse....

[Stocky]

They need people like you , like a hole in the arse....

Chon, you mean me or Mr XYZ?

I know you're working 12 hour shifts in Leytonsville but give me a break!

[chonabot]

They need people like you , like a hole in the arse....

Chon, you mean me or Mr XYZ?

I know you're working 12 hour shifts in Leytonsville but give me a break!

xyz me old mucker! Leytonsville- upon -scum is a great place!

[Stocky]

xyz me old mucker! Leytonsville- upon -scum is a great place!

Eastern Siberia is worse I can assure you And I've just started a 2 month stint, at least it's still summer over here.

[xyz]

xyz me old mucker! Leytonsville- upon -scum is a great place!

From where I sit, you come across like you got a hole in your head -- either that or you got your head up your ... well, let's not go there

[chonabot]

xyz me old mucker! Leytonsville- upon -scum is a great place!

From where I sit, you come across like you got a hole in your head -- either that or you got your head up your ... well, let's not go there

Good retort ( for a troll)

[xyz]

xyz me old mucker! Leytonsville- upon -scum is a great place!

From where I sit, you come across like you got a hole in your head -- either that or you got your head up your ... well, let's not go there

Good retort ( for a troll)

Do I need to repeat myself? You got it ass backward!

[chonabot]

(llort a rof ) troter dooG

[drummer]

OK.... someone asked why the Irish don't like to be called British.

From my meager, American understanding, a lot of it has to do with religion. This is why the counties of Ulster remained with GB... they were/are mostly Potestant. It also has something to do with long running feuds and rascism, etc, and guys like Oliver Cromwell. He was not just known for having the biggest head in history (honestly- the biggest recorded brain ever) but also for locking whole Irish villages in barns and burning them down.

This, of course, was a long time ago, but old feuds die hard, anywhere in the world.

OK... heres a joke and I don't want *anyone* to get offended. I'm not partisan, and I'm just making a joke. If you are English and don't like jokes, don't read.

Why can't Irish and English play chess together?

The English can't seem to tell the Bishop from the Queen.

And so people don't get too upset with me- many of my favorite jokes are about me....

What do you call someone who hangs out with musicians?

A drummer.

What did the drummer get on his SATs?

Saliva.

Little Johnny is talking to his dad and says "I want to be a drummer when I grow up!" Dad says "You can't have it both ways, son."

Cheers

[wolf5370]

I'm from Ireland (Dublin), and I don't think of myself as British (not according to the history I know  ). But I do hold a British passport right now. Just in the process of getting an Irish passport (fingers crossed!)

So what did you put on you passport application that you currently hold?

[Fidel]

Appleman Thai,

I am from Northern Ireland, the counties which should belong to us are Cavan and Monaghan who cares anyway its a waste of time even thinking in the past, sure soon it will belong to the new European community.  Are you from Armagh the apple county.

I'm going to both lazy and pedantic in one post! Ulster was historically the 9 northern counties of Ireland. When the Irish Free State was created each county voted to either join the new Irish country or remain British. Six counties stayed with the UK and three joined Ireland. The six counties that stayed are officially referred to as Northern Ireland, but are also informally called Ulster. Donegal was one of the counties that went Irish - I don't remember what the others were.

My maternal grandparents immigrated from County Antrim just before WWI and thought of themselves as being BOTH Irish and British.

"When the Irish Free State was created each county voted to either join the new Irish country or remain British. Six counties stayed with the UK and three joined Ireland."

That's not actually true. The Irish Free State was the product of the treaty that ended the war of independence.

The British realised they couldn't win the war. However, 4 of the 32 counties had Loyalist majorities and refused to allow the land they occupied to be included in the territory of an Irish Free State.

4 counties were insufficient to create a viable statelet so the British demanded a minimum of 6 counties.

The Irish party, led by Michael Collins, signed the treaty which ceded control of the 6 counties to Britain.

The Irish are not British. We are quite close to the British. We have our own distinct culture and language. Any claim that the British have on Ireland is a throw-back to the British Imperialist days.

The reason why the Irish don't like to be considered British is because we are not British. We were simply invaded and occupied by hostile British forces, had our language, (and almost our religion), destroyed, indeed all but wiped out, by oppressive penal laws.

The intention was to turn Ireland into the Bread Basket of Britain, all cereals, vegetables, livestock, meat etc were taken to Britain under armed guard, leaving the Irish to subsist on a single crop, the potato.

When the potato crop failed all other crops and food products continued to be shipped to Britain leading to the Irish "Famine" which subsequently led to the reduction in the population, through starvation and emmigration, from 8 million to a low of about 3.5 million.

The "Famine" impacted the Irish population and psyche to the same extent as a nuclear holocaust.

Religion played some role in the conflicts between the British and Irish but most of the uprisings against the British, (1798 for example), were Republican, based on the French Revolutionary model and as such were non sectarian and were often led by Protestants, (Wolfe Tone, for example).

The Irish Catholic minority that remained in the six counties after the treaty was signed was brutally oppressed and denied the right to vote, (to vote you needed to own land, few Catholics owned land), access to jobs, (traditionally the rate of unemployment amongst Catholics has been 2.4 times the rate amongst Protestants), and housing.

The IRA was obselete pre 1970s with only a few border skirmishes in the 1950s. The organisation went through a revival when the Civil Rights movement was crushed by the B-Specials and then the British army.

The campaign for independence, (equal rights and justice), was carried on by the IRA with murderous results but it wasn't until the IRA launced it's "Mainland bombing campaigns), more terrible, bloody murder of innocents by the way, that the British took notice and went to the negotiating table.

Now it looks like the IRA is on the verge of being disbanded.... goood news!

And that is why the British and the Irish sometimes have trouble seein eye to eye.