Intelligencer - On the Green Glassy Slopes

On the Green Glassy Slopes

HISTORY is being made so often in Ireland these days that it seemed quite a mundane matter when the Reverend Ian Paisley rolled up at the Battle of the Boyne site outside Drogheda to meet Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern last Friday.

This was Paisley's Disney World, the wonderland that had inspired him all his life. Now finally on the sacred field he was clearly in fine form. He joked with everyone and despite his advancing age, shook enough hands to banish all thoughts of his recent ill health.

Before the dignitaries arrived there were Ulster Scots and Irish Catholics mingling freely. All had set off from the nearby Newgrange site where the visitors had gathered for security checks before reaching the site about four miles outside Drogheda.

Orange collarettes were proudly worn. Some local entrepreneurs spoke about opening guest houses for the expected invasion of Protestant visitors when the Boyne attraction opens officially for tourists next year. "King Billy's Bed and Breakfast might go down well," said one local only half in jest.

The journalists waiting around were already bored by the time Big Ian arrived. When he and Ahern went to inspect a horse similar to the breed used on the battlefield that day someone whispered, "Ulster says neigh" to great amusement. History can be trivial, too.

The Irish government with great foresight a few years back bought the site of the 1690 battle that decided Europe's war among kings for generations when King William of Orange and the British conquered King James, the Irish and the French.

If the government hadn't bought the site it would have become a hotel and golf club, instead of the grand house and rolling green fields where the battle was fought that it is today.

It is hard to look over the site without recalling James' frantic retreat from the field. He ran from the battlefield so fast when his army folded that when he told a woman in the first town he got to that the "Irish can certainly run fast" she responded, "Not as fast as you my Lord. You are the first here."

He is known as "Seamus A Chaca," or James the S***, ever since.

William, on the other hand, was a brave fighter who was in the heat of the battle throughout even though he was a bad asthmatic. He survived numerous attempts to kill him before he declared himself victorious.

Little wonder did the Irish chieftain Patrick Sarsfield remark, "Change kings and we'll fight again."

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Nster.com