45 Comments

• seanomelb | Mar 12, 2013, 07:20 PM EDT

  No integrity Robin? Is saying sorry a bridge to far for you, i suppose I'm not suprisedf after all a pom saying sorry to an Irishman would be a bit much.

• seanomelb | Mar 11, 2013, 06:08 PM EDT

  Your crazy RobinF if you read back you might find it was Seanmor who wrote the article in question. I am a retired business man and ran three successful business's. I do not live in the USA. An apology would be in order.

• RobinForester | Mar 11, 2013, 05:09 AM EDT

  No one's got any interest in your opinion, you've never sold goods, studied or took any notice of advertising, and have never wondered why tourists pick one destination in prefereance to another, are you the same Seanomelb who wrote when you were in the US Army stationed in North Carolina, white-anglo WASPS were great, but the miserable Irish/Americans were not, especially those from N.I. Your post is still here on IC.

• seanomelb | Mar 10, 2013, 06:46 PM EDT

  WE love Ireland and your ignorance of a Ireland is well known on this site. England maybe your egocentric world and Ireland no longer needs to go cap in hand to England in this global village we live in. I have a right to my opinion and I'M sure the corporate world have no interest in that opinion. Therefore I find your post silly and puerile.

• RobinForester | Mar 10, 2013, 07:08 AM EDT

  Seanomelb: As it never occurred to you, that you and Ireland North are badly damaging Ireland’s image at home and abroad, with you’re non-stop sniping. If I was the CEO of an international company and I accepted what you both say without question, then I wouldn't dream of investing in Ireland, or ever visiting there. Your 'dripping with dirty water' posts are portraying Ireland as the worst possible place to do business in. At the moment Ireland is fighting to survive, and is having to compete with the appeal of London / England and the grants they can offer new companies, and the and convenience of flying into Heathrow International airport. The Irish Trade and Tourist Board must be heartily sick of you both scaring away travellers and investors.

• seanomelb | Mar 10, 2013, 12:15 AM EST

  Ancaver what a silly post at least you're entitled to say what youi wish even if you are wrong

• ancavker | Mar 08, 2013, 09:37 AM EST

  STEVEN: Ireland is a mess in large part because of the Irish people and their inability to govern themselves and make a go of it once the achieved freedom. As far as anti English, I love the English people, down to earth, friendly, and I don't have to listen to constant anti American nonsense that is so prevelant in Ireland. And the English people whose parents and Grand parents came from Ireland are a great bunch!! You know them STEVN, the ones you call the Plastic Paddies. These English/Irish have great pride in their Irish roots and would do anything for you! Manchester is a wonderful city! Now you keep going on about The Quiet Man, and Maureen O Hara and Hollywood. How would you like Ireland to be portrayed if you are unhappy with that portrayal? Should it be nasty begruddgers, with deep inexplicable anti- Americanism, and grown men running around in Nanchester U Jersey's?

• aloistmartin | Mar 07, 2013, 07:49 PM EST

  Gordon Duggan@ " And on the days that followed I listened to his words I strained to understand him I chased his thoughts like birds "

• aloistmartin | Mar 07, 2013, 07:44 PM EST

  Gordan Duggan@ " Yeah, listen to me dog before you start to whine That side yours and this side mine ... Move it on over Rock it on over Move over little dog A big old dog is movin' in ... Yeah, she changed the lock on my back door Now my key won't fit no more ... Move it on over "

• STEVENSTAR | Mar 07, 2013, 06:24 PM EST

  Well we're now in the year March 2013... Ireland is in an even Bigger mes it was 12months ago. More Taxes, Higher unemployment, more job losses. more people moving abroad, Property taxes, Water taxes.Why blame the Irish goverment? They dont run Ireland its Europe/ Brussels dictate everything now the Irish goverment are mere Puppets for Angela!! We owe the Germans Billions!!! Even our new electricty bills now have a low usage chargse on them.. In other words if you use little electricrty they charge you for that also .. The list goes on.. Ireland is in the Biggest Mess ever along with the Euro!! There seems to be a real sinister anti British element on here cominng mainly From Americans & the few Irish republicans who are left. I for one like alot of more evolved Irish citizens who live in Ireland ...Believe we would be far better off Linked upto the UK and sterling and get out £Punt back...and to HELL WITH EUROPE.. The days of Maureen O Hara, The Quiet Man and all these hollywood images of Ireland are gone. Americans need to move on.. and if i had my way so would Europe the Euro and Angela Merkel (the new Hitler)Be gone!!!! and southern Ireland would be linked up with the Uk more as a trading partner etc etc Southern Ireland be linked to The Uk Scotland and Wales... Im comfortable in my irishness to not feel threatened by that like alot of old school people on here..!!!

• Gordan Duggan | Mar 07, 2013, 05:34 PM EST

  Could anyone explain what Aloismartin is going on about on this site. Is it Marxist? Whatever it is, it make little sense. BTW I had an uncle in the Irish Guards. He won medals and served in many countries with them. He joined them because he could not get into the Irish Army as they were not recruiting and he wanted to travel.

• Gordan Duggan | Mar 07, 2013, 05:27 PM EST

  Could anyone explain what Aloismartin is going on about on this site. Is it Marxist? Whatever it is, it make little sense. BTW I had an uncle in the Irish Guards.

• RobinForester | Mar 07, 2013, 03:41 PM EST

  ancavker: I have no interest in revisonist nonsense and hope what facts I have presented are correct and fair. The famine occurred during 1845 / 1852, a 7 year period. To understand it you have to draw comparisions and not overlook small clues which reveal what was going on - on the ground. For instance I was not impressed with, and object to (a) the British Government not drafting an Emergency Law proclaiming all farm-rent debts including those becoming due for payment, or in arrears were to be cancelled for all Irish famine victims with provable potato blight losses (b) that all evictions had to cease forthwith, and any evictions which had occurred were null and void in order to avoid hardship to families which almost certainly included young children (c) that Landlords Agents were forbidden to offer nominal sums of money (or shipping line tickets) to tenants to induce them to give up their farms/homes and rights. I'm certain I could soon find another 10 proposals to alleviate want, distress and one hopes avoid death, illness, or loss. So who can we blame for not going down this road, A side issue is how many Irish lived in an ordinary domestic house and not a farm and who had no connection whatosoever with potato's, with potato blight, and if enquired closely into had a certain amount of prospertiy about them? Could we say 1 million died, 1 million emigrated, but amongst them was only 100 000 actual potato growers? It's an interesting subject, and your 3xsails ahead of me on it.

• IrelandNorth | Mar 07, 2013, 02:17 PM EST

  Kilsally! I'm gratified to see a fellow Irishman (Col Timothy Collins) made it into the upper echelons of the British military establishment - the Sandhurst Brahmin caste, and in one incarnation too! (Could he be related to his name sake Michael (1890-1922) from Sam's Cross in west Cork, who was in London on important business c1920, and entertained by society hostess, Anglo-American heiress Lady Hazel Lavery. Hmmm!

• ancavker | Mar 07, 2013, 12:13 PM EST

  Robin: I am well aware of the draft riots in NYC during the Civil War. One shameful chapter in an otherwise outstanding history of Irish accomplishment in the U.S. I am not going to argue with you about who left and who did not leave. The fact is so many Irish left Ireland because of the simple fact they were starving. As opposed to the others you mention who left for all the reasons immigrants hace come to America down through the years. Ireland was supposed to be a constitutent part of the U.K., and yet England did almost nothing during the famine. There is no way an English government would have stood by and did nothing had the fammine occured in England. Yes it is the past, but it does not change what happened. All your revisionist nonsense does not change that fact.

• McNamara31 | Mar 07, 2013, 11:29 AM EST

  Does anyone really care?

• RobinForester | Mar 07, 2013, 11:09 AM EST

  Poverty and Serfdom in Europe: If you digest the fact that 13 million people left Ireland, Britain and Germany during the Great Immigration wave, then surely it's unfair to cast 'famine blame' on the English, since almost 4 million Brits left England as well, 4 million leavers indicates their lot was no better than the Irish. See Roger Daniels, Guarding the Golden Door (New York, 2004)

• RobinForester | Mar 07, 2013, 10:52 AM EST

  ancavker: You’re correct on your immigration figures, during the great 50 year immigration period Ireland provided the USA with 5,177 000 Irish immigrants, Germany 4,054 000, and (3rd) GB 3, 868 000. This News might interest you: "The Irish Catholics in North America became disillusioned when the Civil War focused on ending slavery", and fearing that freed blacks would take their jobs became resentful. Poor and prejudiced against blacks-with whom they were forced to compete with for the lowest-paying jobs-the Irish in New York objected to fighting on their behalf to free them from slavery. Groups of irate citizens, many of them Irish immigrants, banded together across the city eventually numbering some 50,000 people, the mob terrorized neighborhoods on the East Side of New York for three days looting scores of stores. Blacks were the targets of most attacks and several lynchings and beatings occurred. In addition, a black church and orphanage were burned to the ground. All in all, the mob caused more than $1.5 million of damage. The number killed or wounded during the riot is unknown, but estimates range from two dozen to nearly 100.

• ancavker | Mar 07, 2013, 09:17 AM EST

  Robin: The level of immigration wa far, far higher from Ireland than Englanf Scotland, or Wales. And their peoples did not endure the horros of the fammine, or all the other injustices done to Ireland down through the centuries. I have no problem with the islands of Ireland and Britain being good friends and neighbors. But I don't buy into this we are all one family now, and we Irish whether at home or abroard should somehow be proud of this. For those Irish who still care, we are Irish, we will always be Irish, sadly the language is basically lost, but we are still Irish. I have tried several times over the years to learn it, and I still can't even with a spouse who speaks it fluently. That being said we are still Irish,and we will always be Irish, we will hold onto what little we have left of our culture, and we will be proud of the contributions we have made to the world. And yes we will honor our heroes who fought for us down through the years, just like other normal countries do. I will be home again this year, to northwest Cavan, southwest Fermanagh, over then to Leitrim, and down through Galway, and into north Kerry. There are those of us who ar still Irish, and we plan to remain so.

• antoman | Mar 07, 2013, 08:07 AM EST

  Spare a thought for the poor bears. Each recruit in that outfit is given a baby bear at the beginning of their basic training. Towards the end of their training they are required to slay the bear, eat it, and fashion a hat from its hide.

• Thomas84 | Mar 07, 2013, 07:37 AM EST

  ancavker you keep commenting , you have every right in the world my friend. Anglo norman you have to factor in that most people in ireland would die before joining the uk and that includes me .

• Scouse Tony | Mar 07, 2013, 03:09 AM EST

  Does anyone ever stay on topic or is degenerating into a gain saying slanging match SOP. I've always had a soft spot for the Irish Guards as they are top heavy with scoucers to give the Irish Man U supporters someone to ague with.

• curtisjohnson | Mar 06, 2013, 10:03 PM EST

  " The 26 counties will move back in britain in the near future as it is the most sensible thing to do." Right . . . back in reality the british terror state just had its bonds downgraded and this week revealed absolutely dismal data on its manufacturing and bank lending.

• aloistmartin | Mar 06, 2013, 09:53 PM EST

  And Why Not ? The Bourgeois Aristocracy has even Set The Stage for a possible Un-Holy Alliance of Protestant and Catholic Sado-Masochistic Modernist Reformation; So a little Jaunt in the Back Country seems just another Trophy on the Old Imperialist Itinerary ~

• anglo-norman | Mar 06, 2013, 07:47 PM EST

  The 26 counties will move back in britain in the near future as it is the most sensible thing to do. Europe will unfold soon.

• anglo-norman | Mar 06, 2013, 06:22 PM EST

  StevenStar- You are more british than you think son...

• seanomelb | Mar 06, 2013, 05:37 PM EST

  Robin just loves to retrospectively rewrite history to assuage his hate of anything Irish.

• RobinForester | Mar 06, 2013, 05:26 PM EST

  ancavker: I would tread warily when discussing Irish / English History, the more I dig up comes another equally as good, or even better answer from the English side. If you accept the four nations (Eng/Ire/Wa/Scots/) who made up the British Isles had the same laws, the same history it would help, you also had similar poverty and lack of jobs, opportunity, health, food and clothes problems in all four provinces, AND all housing and land was RENTED, the property owning classes in the UK did not emerge until after WW1 1918, and rent evictions occurred equally without discrimination. Once you can see these patterns and take into account that millions of English, Welsh and Scots EMIGRATED to foreign climes, you begin to realise that what happened in Ireland 'fitted the general pattern' throughout the UK. I agree more could have been done, but consider this there was no telephones, road and rail transport was non-existent and sending aid was not a simple task. If you weigh and measure these problems the English emerge looking a lot better than painted. Even today thousands of evictions occur but no one mentions them, why, because it would illustrate that the payment of rent to the property owner is considered a duty, which all law-abiding countries will enforce.

• merefalow | Mar 06, 2013, 05:14 PM EST

  yes,i can realy see these lot fighting for the republic.stick it.irish?

• ancavker | Mar 06, 2013, 04:20 PM EST

  STEVEN: How amny times are you going to tell us you are form Ireland, we know! We don't care! And we Irish in Ameirca will stop commenting on Irish affairs, when the know it all Irish in Ireland stop commenting on U.S. affairs, and world affairs in general. Amazing to me how the Irish are experts in so many countires affairs, and readily offer opinions, wanted or not, and yet bristle when Irish-Americans comment on Irish affairs. By the way my English and Scottish friends prefer English and Scottish, not British.

• ancavker | Mar 06, 2013, 04:17 PM EST

  Pittsburghkid: Scotch blood! What a fool you are! And what does having Norman bolld have to do with anything? DO the French have Norman blood? After all the Normans came form France, and before that from Scandavia, hence the name Norman. Some much ignorance on this board!!

• ancavker | Mar 06, 2013, 04:10 PM EST

  RobinForester: A shared history indeed!! The only problem is the Irish were not asked to share in it, they were forced to share in it. This so called "shared" history did not work out very well for the Irish down through the centuries.

• IrelandNorth | Mar 06, 2013, 02:44 PM EST

  As an ex-Irish Army MP NCO, I ordinarily resist impugning the integrity of any service personnel anywhere, who almost invariably are placed in impossible situations. I'm just uncomfortable with glorifying battle with competitive casualty ratings in an Abrahamic aberration or cult of death worship - like WWI. Kilsally! No royal prefix in unarmed uniformed Án Gárda Síochána na h'Éireann (ÁGSÉ), unlike their Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) gendarmerie predecessors. "Swords into ploughshares" - people!

• IrelandNorth | Mar 06, 2013, 02:43 PM EST

  As an ex-Irish Army MP NCO, I ordinarily resist impugning the integrity of any service personnel anywhere, who almost invariably are placed in impossible situations. I'm just uncomfortable with glorifying battle with competitive casualty ratings in an Abrahamic aberration or cult of death worship - like WWI. Kilsally! No royal prefix in unarmed uniformed Án Gárda Síochána na h'Éireann (ÁGSÉ), unlike their Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) gendarmerie predecessors. "Swords into ploughshares" - people!

• IrelandNorth | Mar 06, 2013, 02:43 PM EST

  As an ex-Irish Army MP NCO, I ordinarily resist impugning the integrity of any service personnel anywhere, who almost invariably are placed in impossible situations. I'm just uncomfortable with glorifying battle with competitive casualty ratings in an Abrahamic aberration or cult of death worship - like WWI. Kilsally! No royal prefix in unarmed uniformed Án Gárda Síochána na h'Éireann (ÁGSÉ), unlike their Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) gendarmerie predecessors. "Swords into ploughshares" - people!

• RobinForester | Mar 06, 2013, 12:50 PM EST

  stukafaust: | Mar 06, 2013, 05:43 AM EST Quote: "This highlights the close links between Britain and Ireland (forged in shared history) that some might like to deny. What everyone seems to overlook is if America, Canada, Australia or Ireland is attacked the Brits don't even have to be asked to offer aid, they are partners in the North Atlantic Treaty organisation, and during the last 50 years we have had to rescue our junior partner - commencing with President Eisenhower onwards - from one political gaffe affter the other. What the Irish are not so keen on revealing is they have been sheltering under our military umberella for close on 90 years. And not once during those years have we closed our doors. A few daays ago somone remarked the Irish did not want our help, she must be a brainwashed American whose totally ignorant about exports, locality, and the threat Polish and Roumanian farmers pose to Irelands farm sales. The next 25 years are going to be tough, super tough, and China and India are grabbing too much market share.

• STEVENSTAR | Mar 06, 2013, 11:48 AM EST

  @@hughor2 | Mar 05, 2013, 10:19 AM E>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>MORE NASTY COMMENTS ON HERE FROM AMERICANS I SEE. PLEASE STOP IM IRISH I LIVE HERE IN IRELAND AND I FIND YOUR OUTSIDER COMMENTS OFFENSIVE TOWARDS MY BRITISH NEIGHBORS !!! HOW WOULD U LIKE IF I OFFENDE THE CANADIANS OR THE MEXICANS YOUR NEIGHBORS.... OUPPS SORRY YOU DONT LIKE THEM EITHER :)

• Kilsally | Mar 06, 2013, 09:28 AM EST

  IrelandNorth - I do believe that Irish Officers were a majority at a time in the British Army as a whole. THere are plenty of officers from Ireland - Colonel tim Collins being the most well known for his speech in Afghanistan. As to royal - I don`t believe any of the Guards regiments use royal as a precursor - Scots Guards, Welch Guards, coldstream guards, Irish Guards

• stukafaust | Mar 06, 2013, 05:43 AM EST

  This highlights the close links between Britain and Ireland (forged in shared history) that some might like to deny.

• RobinForester | Mar 06, 2013, 04:21 AM EST

  Sean / I.n. Don't you think this is a wonderful character reference re the Irish Guards: The Guards won 2 Victoria Crosses in WW1 and 2 V.C.s in WW2. Outside NY theres an Irish/American cemetary with a Medal of Honour soldier buried there. I read elsewhere 5 Irish won the Medal of Honor. All this confirms is how 'we all see oursleves as (the) 'Gathering of the Clans' brothers' and to remind you of an old Irish saying: ''If you fight one of us- You fight all of us''.

• Pittsburghkid | Mar 05, 2013, 06:48 PM EST

  I'm glad to see this. Most Irish have Norman blood, while the British have Celtic Welsh, Cornish, and Scotch blood. There is not a whole lot of difference.

• seanomelb | Mar 05, 2013, 04:57 PM EST

  What a yawn!! not worth a respnse

• IrelandNorth | Mar 05, 2013, 02:02 PM EST

  All of whose officer cadre are Englishmen. Keep the Paddy's in their place. A welcome omission is the absence of royal in their title Irish Guards, in contrast to the Royal Irish Regiment - the Royal Irish Rifles - and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers et al. Incidentally, the main gate entrance into Saint Stephen's Green - Fusiliers Arch (known as Traitors Gate to republicans), bears names and ranks of those killed in the South African campaigns in 1899. Officers names are invariably English. Non-commissioned officers and ordinary fusiliers almost invariably Irish. Still, one musn't bicker! Contemporary generations can't be held responsible for the sins of their forefathers, despite the vengeful and harsh hard heartedness of the God of the Jews. And many an Irishman only ever joined to put food in his chidrens mouths.

• hughor2 | Mar 05, 2013, 10:19 AM EST

  too bad they were fighting for the wrong country. england always got cannon fodder from the colonies.

• Seanmor | Mar 05, 2013, 09:31 AM EST

  The Irish Guards is a regiment that includes men from all parts of Ireland and of all political and religious persuasions. The Guards won 2 Victoria Crosses in W W 1 and 2 more V.C.s in W W 11. The article states that the Irish Guards held their first St. Patrick's Day parade in 1901- (and Ireland would remain a single political entity for about 2 more decades).