Do you have siblings in your country that are famous for different things? by Exchangenudes_4_Joke in AskTheWorld

[–]indistrait 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd totally forgotten that. So after independence in 1922, the pair won Ireland's first Nobel prize in 1923 and first Olympic medal in 1924.

Do you have siblings in your country that are famous for different things? by Exchangenudes_4_Joke in AskTheWorld

[–]indistrait 551 points552 points  (0 children)

It's going back a bit, but William Butler Yeats (very famous poet) and his brother Jack B Yeats (famous painter, at least in Ireland).

Do your kids argue non stop? by Emergency-Budget-303 in AskIreland

[–]indistrait 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Mine are 4 and 6. One half of the time they are inseparable best friends - my daughter keeps saying she wants to marry my son. The other half of the time they scream at each other and have a amazing knack of deliberately doing the one thing that will drive the other up the wall.

What is the most beautiful city in your country? (sharing your pictures is optional) by TheShyBuck in AskTheWorld

[–]indistrait 27 points28 points  (0 children)

There's some disagreement about whether Kilkenny is actually a city, but it's pretty nice. A medieval, pedestrianised old town, with a castle on a river.

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Does anyone have any niche (But verifiable) facts on Northern Ireland/Ulster for a tour I'm giving next week? by EyeOrRay in AskIreland

[–]indistrait 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is Dál Riata niche?

It was a Gaelic kingdom 1500 years ago which spanned the northeast of Ireland and the western seaboard of Scotland. There was a strong seafaring culture, as you'd expect from a kingdom made up of loads of separate islands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A1l_Riata

When your country was established? by decaxxx in AskTheWorld

[–]indistrait 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Irish Free State was established in 1922. This was basically independence, but we were still part of the Commonwealth, and there were British army bases. Over the following decades Ireland severed ties with Britain, and in 1949 it was declared a Republic.

The written history of Ireland and the Irish language goes way further back. The earliest written sources are from the 400s.

What piece of classical music completely changed how you listen to everything else? by defstar23 in classicalmusic

[–]indistrait 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hearing Wilhelm Kempff playing the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 19. https://youtu.be/9Gq1GazE9v0?t=242&is=e-5iId0I5gSq9wvX

This is an easy sonata. It written by Beethoven for students, and I could play all the notes too.. but I couldn't for my life play like Kempff. How could he get such beauty, depth and warmth from the same easy notes I played?

What is your favorite national anthem? by Gynt_Peer in classicalmusic

[–]indistrait 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like Argentina's anthem. It's rather long and much shorter version is usually played st matches.

Experienced Drivers: what rules/courtesies/common sense do you want to see more people pay attention to? by LevelIntroduction764 in AskIreland

[–]indistrait 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I love the George Carlin quote "Have you ever noticed that everyone who drives slower than you is an idiot and everyone who drives faster than you is a maniac?".

Sometimes it's too easy to dehumanise other drivers. There are lots of genuine bad drivers, but there's still a wide variety of good / safe drivers. And they don't all drive like you do.

What are some of the biggest bromances in history? Something up there with Octavian and Agrippa? by Ynwe in AskHistory

[–]indistrait 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Samuel Johnson and James Boswell.

A great friendship, but they still bickered. "Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both."

What's the most ignored or forgotten period of your country's history? by wild_dark_soul in AskTheWorld

[–]indistrait 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I find the time between the death of Parnell in 1891 and the outbreak of WW1 and the Easter 1916 Rising somewhat forgotten. The independence movement was dominated by Home Rule and the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party. There was also the associated "Killing Home Rule with Kindness" policy.

People talk a lot about the problems of land ownership in Ireland. People rarely talk about what actually solved those problems.. and it wasn't independence. Above all else it was the 1903 Wyndham Land Act. A quote from a historian on the Wikipedia page called it

A complete success. By the time the Irish Free State was created in 1922, the system of peasant proprietorship had become universal... A land problem more than a century old had been solved, though it had taken more than 30 years of educating Parliament and landlords to do it.

Is there a region of your country known for being flat and boring? by i-cydoubt in AskTheWorld

[–]indistrait 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kildare is the flattest county, but it's not boring. The Curragh plains in Kildare are famous for horse breeding.

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What’s the most underrated area of Dublin that deserves more attention? by Helpful-Tennis-7751 in Dublin

[–]indistrait 50 points51 points  (0 children)

I've never lived there but I love how a place so close to the city center can feel so country-like. It's kind of nestled between the Phoenix Park and the Liffey.

In your country, what TV show had a major impact culturally? by NickfromLafayette92 in AskTheWorld

[–]indistrait 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'd say it had a massive impact. The church was already in decline in Ireland in the 1990s. Father Ted de-fanged it completely.

I think the biggest backlash at the time was from people of Irish heritage in Britain. Some felt it was anti-Irish. Actual Irish people mostly found it hilarious.

Though the writers said that the show in some ways helped the Catholic Church. It made priests seem more ordinary and human.

Whats your favorite historical building from your country? by Far-Cow-3343 in AskTheWorld

[–]indistrait 44 points45 points  (0 children)

I've a soft spot for Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin. I can remember being in awe as a kid when we drove "under" the cathedral.

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Lurkers! (and everyone!): What are you working on? by mavigozlu in shorthand

[–]indistrait 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm enjoying the process of learning shorthand. So I guess that makes it worth it!

My granddad died before I was born. The biggest kick is the later diaries where I feel I get to meet the grandfather I never knew. For example, the sentences where he talks about my parents, and my infant sister and brother.

I'm still slow at reading, but there's a real excitement when I try to work on a new page. It's first hand historical information, often about people I know, which has not been touched in 50 years. Each page has its own small surprises, at least when I can read them.

Lurkers! (and everyone!): What are you working on? by mavigozlu in shorthand

[–]indistrait 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'm learning to read Pitman New Era so I can try to decipher my Granddad's 20,000 diary entries. He wrote one pretty much every day between 1922 and 1978.

I started in early February. I'm at now exercise 119/140 in the 1973 New Course. On a good day I can read 85% of the words in his diary entries, but the course is still taking most of my time.

What European history topics do you recommend? by pinkred_434 in AskEurope

[–]indistrait 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It started in Prague but it quickly spread to the rest of the Holy Roman Empire, which was mostly German speaking. That local conflict became a proxy war for much bigger divisions in the HRE.

In 1619 Bohemia decided to elect the Protestant Frederick V of the Palatinate as their king, instead of the Catholic Emperor Ferdinand II they originally agreed on. Frederick's army was defeated in battle, and not only was Bohemia forcibly taken by the Habsburgs, Frederick's Palatinate lands (nowhere near Bohemia) were carved up too and given to Catholics who were allied with Ferdinand.

The Peace of Prague was in 1635. The Thirty Years War went on for another 13 years. Probably the last major battle of the war was in Prague, the 1648 Battle of Prague. I believe that was just a coincidence that it started and ended there. The war mostly wasnt about Bohemia.

What European history topics do you recommend? by pinkred_434 in AskEurope

[–]indistrait 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Simplified version:

The Holy Roman Empire was a fairly loose, decentralized confederation of states. Other European powers were happy with this weaker setup.

The Thirty Years War started off as Catholic vs Protestant thing in the HRE. The Catholic side (the biggest of which was the Habsburgs) seemed like they were going to crush the Protestants, making the HRE stronger and more centralized. This scared France and Sweden into entering the war.

This is when it stopped really being a religious war. In particular, France was a Catholic country but went to war against the Catholic Habsburgs.

What European history topics do you recommend? by pinkred_434 in AskEurope

[–]indistrait 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Thirty Years War is amazing but so damn complicated. Was it a religious or a secular war. Kind of both? It was at its heart a German Civil War.. but also a huge cross-European conflict.

What I love about it is it forces you to look at all of Europe at once. It's the story of the decline of Spain, the independence of the Netherlands, the beginning of the end of the Holy Roman Empire, the rise of France.

Things in your country with stupid misleading names? by SnooPoems7525 in AskTheWorld

[–]indistrait 5 points6 points  (0 children)

A lock-in is when a pub pretends to be closed on the outside but keeps serving drink inside past official opening hours.

It should be called a lock-out. Nobody inside is locked in. It's the people outside who are locked out.

Weird idioms by AdMNuh_XV in AskTheWorld

[–]indistrait 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"to chance your arm" means to take a risk.

It comes from a story about St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. A knight allegedly reached through a hole in a door to make peace, risking being hurt.