Posted on 04/14/2005 3:20:52 AM PDT by cooper72
In case any other doubters believe your illogical claim (The Irish Republic was not at war with anyone) here's the google link with 700 plus references.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=De+Valera+hitler+condolences
Please see my post acknowledging my error and my apology for the error.
Done.
Yeah, Yeah, I know. I usually do refer to that nation as the UK rather than England but I wanted to sex up my comments with some specific anti-English sentiments to appeal to my Scottish friends. (No offence Mad Ivan, I'm just joshing as we say in the US)
OK OK, I was being a bit tongue in cheek about the British Crown being German. They're only half German!!
Don't worry you Canadians can't help it. :)
I took a look at your posting history and see you've already been defending Britannia from some of the more outrageous comments us Amis make! And you haven't seen some of the gun crime threads referring to the UK just yet! I can see why you jumped into defense mode with me as well. (I'm just a sarcastic instigator though)
I have gone to the British messaging area and understand the frustration and exasperation there. Certainly don't take it all personally, a eye roll and a click on "Browse" can do wonders for your mental health.
I'm always curious how the Brits, Micks and other Euros see us Yanks, especially the ones not out on the loony left of their respective countries.
If you haven't met some of your fellow countrymen on FR, be sure to introduce yourself to MadIvan, he's our favorite Brit around here.
BTW, cooper72, ever hear of an Irish party called Fine Gael?
You know, the founders of our country?
James Dillon (Fine Gael) was the only member of Dail Eireann to advocate war against Hitler!!!!
Don't blame any modern Irish for the Holocaust - we weren't born at the time - we are here on FR trying to prevent one happening here in Ireland!!!!!
Have you been taking the Mick without pinging me! You naughty boy! Ten skelps of a wooden ruler over the knuckles for you, me boy! ;-)
(Told ye, I would make a great nun! Ha!)
Hahaha! I think me wimple might be a bit tight! *LOL*
(At least it's only me wimple. If I was Scottish, it would be worse. Then me wallet would be tight! Hahaha)
Thanks for your kind welcome.
I do indeed enjoy defending Britain and correct untruths when I feel it is merited, although some people think me being pro- my own country means being anti-American, when of-course it means no such thing. :-D
I look forward to the friendly debate. :)
Whilst largely agreeing with your sentiments I've got to pull you up on the old chestnut; 'the English bastards stole our corn and fed it to horses whilst we were starving'. A moment's thought would work out that no civilised people would steal food from starving neighbours so let's just look at what did happen.
The potato crop failure affected the many thousands of unsustainable smallholdings mainly along the west coast. In the event of the failure these people were left destitute (to be honest they were only a step above destitution beforehand). This however does not mean that the whole of Ireland was in trouble, the majority of farmers in the fertile east and south of Ireland had no problems. Their grain crops were fine and they continued selling them to whomever, Irish or English, would pay them the market price. The idea of confiscating these harvests and giving them to their fellow starving Irish would have been just as anathema to them as if the government took over your home and gave it to your homeless fellow citizens.
To say this is a problem with the free market is nonsense, the free market is the system which has provided the most amount of food and health care in the history of the planet. When governments tried to over ride the free market, famine almost inevitably follows, for example Ukraine 1930s, China 1950s and Ethiopia 1984 (caused not by crop failure but by deliberate policy of the then Marxist government, something never alluded to by Bono or Bob Geldof).
Remember when you hear modern Irish people bleating about the famine that they are by their very nature the descendents of those who survived the famine and probably prospered from it.
Hello again I'm still not sure how your case is rested, should they not have been free to sell their produce? Let's say the government had insisted they give their grain to the starving, what would the farmers have done next year, planted another harvest? I don't think so, why bother, they would just refuse to work to have the fruits of their labour expropriated by the government, would you? Would that have solved the famine? No it would have made it ten times worse. Remember in the Ukraine when the farms were collectivised no body wanted to work them as they did not benefit instead the government took everything, result mass famine - you cannot buck the market.
"The small holders were required by law to subdivide", what was this law? When was it passed? When was it repealed? No such law ever existed, again a moment's thought would realise that such a law could not be enforced. Traditionally Irish families subdivided, this was called gavelkind and was an Irish tradition but not a law, the English, the protestants and most sensible Irish Catholics favoured primogeniture and this benefitted them enormously but to blame England for an Irish tradition is unfair.
I bow to your greater knowledge but are you sure the law forbids planting spuds two years in a row? It would come as a great surprise to many people around where I live, can you give me the name of that law?
Sorry to be a pedant but I so often find that facts about Ireland often turn out to be myths so I always question any I hear.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.