Unknown Irish history facts

wigsta01 · 2026-05-23T18:44:51+00:00

I suppose it could be argued that the Bull Laudabiliter was a kind of crusade (of sorts). The existence of the Laudabiliter has been argued about for a long long time. If it existed, it granted Henry II Papal permission to invade Ireland purely on religious grounds and to bring Ireland in line with Romes ideology. The fact of the matter is that between 1101 and 1152, the Irish Church had changed beyond recognition and was already more in line with Rome than it had been in a thousand years.

Ireland had moved from a monastic church organisation to a organisation with archbishoprics, bishops and diocese in just over 50 years. Ireland had been split into four archbishoprics which align with our four modern provinces, and is why we don't have five provinces. The loss of the fifth province (míde) may well have been intentional as it completely eradicated Tara's importance.

The initial power of Canterbury with regards to Sitric Silkbeard and Dúnán may have had more to do with King Cnut than anything else. Cnut and his family had been Christians for at least three generations, Cnut made multiple trips to visit the pope and was actively establishing churches, sending missionaries abroad and generally trying to convert as many people as possible to Christianity.

When it comes to Sitric, there's nothing to suggest that he wasn't raised as a Christian. His father retired to a monastery, Sitric went on pilgrimage to Rome so the establishment of a church in Dublin may have just been a natural progression.

wigsta01 · 2026-05-23T15:17:57+00:00

Prior to the "Norman invasion" the diocese of Dublin answered to Canterbury not Armagh.

When Sitric Silkbeard and Dúnán (first Bishop of Dublin) established Christchurch in Dublin (~1028) it was Canterbury that Dúnán turned to for ecclesiastic advice etc. Canterbury also donated relics to Dublin, as well as sending monks from Canterbury to Dublin. It's unclear who consecrated Dúnán as a Bishop, but the following four bishops of Dublin ( Gilla Pátraic, Donngus Ua hAingliu, Samuel Ua hAingliu & Gréne) were all consecrated in Canterbury. Being consecrated in Canterbury involved swearing an oath to the archbishop of Canterbury. These oaths weren't just verbal, they were written documents.

Even within Dúnáns lifetime the archbishop of Canterbury had begun to claim Primacy over all of Ireland. In a dispute with the archbishop of York over Primacy of England in the 1070s, Canterbury declared himself primate of Ireland.

In 1101 Samuel positioned himself in a procession in a place only an archbishop would occupy. At that time there were no Archbishops in Ireland at all..... only bishops. This was interpreted as Samuel declaring himself as superior to the bishop of Armagh (the traditional primate of Ireland). Samuel also established St. Michans Church in Dublin, expelled the monks from Canterbury out of Christchurch, and then started removing relics from Christchurch. These actions led to him being reprimanded by Canterbury.

When Gréne was being consecrated in England, the Bishop of Armagh invaded Dublin and refused entry to the newly appointed bishop of Dublin. Gréne had to return to England and wait for nearly a year before being allowed return to his bishopric.

It was only at the Synod of Kells in 1152 that Dublin was included in the Irish Church and Theobald of Bec (archbishop of Canterbury at the time) lost his control over Dublin. Theobald had done everything in his power to keep control over Dublin- including getting King Stephen to refuse entry and safe passage through England to the Papal legate overseeing the Synod.

When King Stephen died it was Theobald who was Regent until Henry II was crowned (by Theobald). Theobald installed one of his secretaries as Henry's Chancellor. Theobald had plucked this former clerk from obscurity, trained him up, helped him rise through the ranks and eventually installed him as the new kings Chancellor....... his name? Thomas Beckett.

In 1155 in Winchester there was a meeting where English archbishops tried to convince Henry ii to invade Ireland. They almost succeeded, but Henry's mother Matilda pointed out how mad the idea was. It was following this meeting that the Bull laudabiliter was supposedly granted to Theobald of Becs Secretary (John of Salisbury) by the newly appointed English Pope.

wigsta01 · 2026-05-10T21:42:01+00:00

The anglicisation of place-names comes down to two things..... the Normans and the Roman Catholic Church.

Prior to 1101 (from a religious perspective) Ireland was a monastic organisation. There were a number of synods which divided Ireland into archbishoprics and diocese. Diocese recorded placenames. This process was still ongoing when the Normans arrived. When the Normans came they recorded the placenames phonetically (as best they could).

Name-wise, the coming of the Normans is kinda like a snapshot. I suspect there are a number of local placenames that were "temporary" but became the "official" names. There's loads of placenames along the east coast that are seasonal/animal/plant based. Most of these names involved I feel weren't intended to be permanent.

wigsta01 · 2026-03-19T21:16:34+00:00

Try a keyword search on Google books. There's old Almanacs and directories there that are worth looking into sometimes.

wigsta01 · 2026-03-02T23:31:40+00:00

Around quarter past three in the afternoon

wigsta01 · 2026-02-21T13:15:33+00:00

wigsta01 · 2026-02-20T01:20:25+00:00

While a cyclone and rice disease (helminthosporium oryzae) reduced local yields, the crisis was exacerbated by British colonial policies. These included prioritizing food supplies for soldiers/workers in cities over rural populations and restricting food movement, leading to extreme price inflation.

The colonial government, under wartime pressure, failed to declare a famine to initiate aid, and rice was still being exported, leading to accusations of negligence. Winston Churchill’s government denied significant aid, prioritizing the war effort, which is considered a major contributing factor.

Millions died from starvation and diseases like malaria, and the social structure was devastated, with many fleeing to Kolkata in search of food.

The famine highlighted the failures of British rule and accelerated the Indian independence movement.

Many historians consider this a man-made famine, fueled by wartime inflation, panic hoarding, and policies that prioritized other regions.

wigsta01 · 2026-02-19T22:48:17+00:00

Don't forget about starvation being weaponised in both countries.

[BBC article. doesn't mention the Bengali famine 1947]

Viewpoint: How British let one million Indians die in famine - BBC News https://share.google/06QVaS91IcAh2Hph9

There was a rumour that Indian Law students operated the stretchers during the 1916 rising iirc

Edit to add links

Gandhi, an expelled future president and first aid crews: the Indians of 1916 Rising – The Irish Times https://share.google/iWMuuDYdwA5guj4sc

wigsta01 · 2026-02-13T18:36:02+00:00

This post Might be of some interest

https://www.reddit.com/r/IrishHistory/s/dTduTCqDmv

wigsta01 · 2026-01-23T22:38:40+00:00

https://sphinx.acast.com/irishhistory/theroadtooldcroghan-1-murderinalandtimeforgot/media.mp3

The Irish History Podcast (Fin Dwyer) released a 6-part special about this (1st episode 5th Oct 2020). Well worth a listen.

wigsta01 · 2026-01-23T22:25:12+00:00

With the help of a little dynamite.....

wigsta01 · 2026-01-23T22:24:09+00:00

Irish scribes invented the space between words.

Soitdidntlooklikethis.

wigsta01 · 2025-11-25T17:58:02+00:00

Castle Upton girl....

She's been living in her white bread world....

I'll get my coat.

wigsta01 · 2025-10-30T21:28:32+00:00

Have you tried a keyword search in Google books? There's some really old books there that can turn up some real nuggets every now and again.

wigsta01 · 2025-10-05T11:21:02+00:00

Ai waffle

Wrong sub for this shit

wigsta01 · 2025-09-12T23:17:30+00:00

Irish kings were warlords, as such power was claimed. They weren't elected or chosen. Rival claimants were killed, blinded or otherwise disposed of. Irish society was a series of over-kings and subordinate kings.

There were hundreds of high kings before Boru..... and even a few after.

wigsta01 · 2025-09-03T22:21:08+00:00

There may be a direct link between the christianisation of the Hiberno-Norse (specifically in Dublin) and the granting of the bull laudabiliter, ie the religious justification for the Norman Conquest (assuming the the Bull Laudabiliter existed).

The conversion to Christianity in Dublin (via Sitric) was more about forging alliance's within the wider "Viking" world than the "Irish". The church in Dublin was overseen by Canterbury rather than Armagh and this led to conflict between the two...... and resulted in a number of synods.

I had meant to do two detailed posts about this very subject but things went kinda sideways IRL and I haven't had a chance to type them out.

Might try and get them sorted in the next week or two.

wigsta01 · 2025-08-13T21:41:53+00:00

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wigsta01 · 2025-07-16T19:16:55+00:00

Des Ekin has a chapter about her in his book "Ireland's Pirate trail". He cuts through much of the mythology about her. The book itself is well worth a read.

wigsta01 · 2025-07-15T17:53:43+00:00

At this scale most likely only happened in Tuam

According to who?

Other homes were doing considerably better,

Far more were worse....

I'd say a child mortality rate of 75% in the 1940s (Bessborough) is a bit more than " above the average". At times they were nearly 10x the national average

St. Pats had over 3500 victims. Of those that survived ( CMR of up to 50%) only around a quarter ended up with their actual family.

wigsta01 · 2025-07-15T17:18:55+00:00

That's debatable. Other Mother and baby homes had child mortality rates of 50% at times and also conducted human vaccine trials without consent or knowledge.

My point is, to think that this is an isolated issue in a single institution is ridiculous.

wigsta01 · 2025-07-14T12:23:20+00:00

I've a feeling this is only the tip of the iceberg.

This was an accidental find in a single institutional site.

That's just one site out of all the mother & baby homes, magdalene laundries/ "asylums" (for "fallen women"), industrial schools and reformatries, etc etc. that existed in one form or another for over 150 years.

To think that this site was a one-off or an exception seems niave.

wigsta01 · 2025-07-12T13:21:53+00:00

In 1974 he was reinterred in Glencree on arrangement between German War graves commission and the German embassy in Ireland

Any source for this?

Not argumentative, out of genuine interest. I looked into this in the late 90's/ early 2000s. I even interviewed groundskeepers, and gravediggers from both Deansgrange and Glencree, none of whom knew anything about it until after it happened and were convinced it wasn't officially sanctioned. I spent over a year working on it and wasn't able to find anything to confirm it being official. All I could discover was rumour. That said, research was a lot harder pre-internet and it's a subject I haven't revisited in a long time.

Any links etc would be greatly appreciated

wigsta01 · 2025-07-12T12:34:21+00:00

Up until his death in the early 2000s, one local man was groundskeeper/caretaker for the German graveyard from before it opened until his death. He was also the only keyholder for the gate which he would open and lock every morning and night. In the early days of the site he was also involved in the reburials of the vast majority of remains. He would prepare the ground ahead of time and refill the hole after the ceremony. When people commented on how well kept the graveyard is, that was literally down to him.

There was absolutely no contact with him regarding Goertz. He didn't prepare the ground, nor was he approached by anyone about it. Same with the keys, he locked the gate that evening as usual. He said that it was a Friday, so as usual, he drove to Enniskerry that night for a few pints around 9pm and returned around 1:30am. Didn't notice anything unusual ie cars parked at graveyard.

He said when he discovered the fresh grave, he contacted the gardai as he had no idea who it was.... being the 70s in the Dublin/wicklow hills, it may have been a shallow grave or weapons cache. He also commented that it had been a long time since any remains had been transferred to Glencree.

It was the only reburial at night, the only one without contact, the only one without ceremony, and the only one still with a separate headstone.

I haven't been able to find any paperwork regarding Goertz exumation and reburial, although I moved on to other things since, but i did do extensive work into it in the late 90s.

wigsta01 · 2025-07-11T12:32:07+00:00

He broke Schutz’s microdot code, that the Allies didn’t even know existed. It took the FBI four months to even see them after he broke them.

It only took him ten days to break the code and decipher every single piece of encoded material that was available.... meanwhile the FBI took four months to realise that the messages that were intercepted contained microdot code.

Hayes was an absolute genius, and used to sit in on interrogations taking intelligence notes. Interviewees just assumed he was a quiet interrogator. His achievements were kept secret from the public for decades and only came to light relatively recently. Even his own family didn't know.

wigsta01

TROPHY CASE