QI fact of the day

[Benipete]

It most certainly is.

[Margaret Pilkington]

and the Black Sea isn't either......though the Dead Sea maybe.

[Benipete]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

and the Black Sea isn't either......though the Dead Sea maybe.

They all are

[shillelagh]

ok folks a new one for you ...

In ancient Greek, paignia dorkalidon (lit. 'antelope playthings') are dice made from the vertebrae of a gazelle.

Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother.


now try saying paignia dorkalidon when you've had a few in the railway ...

[DaveinGermany]

Trivia (a Roman Goddess) to whom sacrifices were offered at crossroad. Due to travellers engaging in gosssip at such places, her name Trivia (3 roads coming together) became associated with such information.

(taken from "The ultimate loo book"" by Mitchell Symons. )

[DaveinGermany]

How about ya Shill ? or are you waiting for St.Pats on Wednesday ?

[shillelagh]

here you go dave .. another from the bbc website ...

Only two people have ever won both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) and Al Gore (1948-).

No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

[shillelagh]

well to say ive ran for being a councillor and failed twice i must say (before anyone else gets in with it) .. i mustnt have dieted enough ..

[shillelagh]

Originally Posted by DaveinGermany

How about ya Shill ? or are you waiting for St.Pats on Wednesday ?

im a lancashire lass with irish ancestry .. though it is northern irish .. mother and father from co armagh .. which you may know the area .. i'll come up with something for st paddys day ..

like guinness in ireland tastes nothing like the guinness you get over here ... mind you it tastes horrible anyway .. preferred Black Bush over the black horrible stuff .. expensive tastes i have ... but thats my irish cousins fault he introduced me to that ..

[shillelagh]

got these from this website: ireland facts

In olden days, a pig was often allowed to live in the house with the family on an Irish farm. He (or she) was commonly referred to as "the gentleman who pays the rent."

The longest place name in Ireland is Muckanaghederdauhaulia, in County Galway. Try saying that when your drunk .. i cant even say that when im sober ..

"11th Night" is a celebration still widely observed by Protestant groups in northern Ireland, who build huge bonfires across the country on the night of July 11th. The fires are lit on the night before the July 12th commemoration of William of Orange’s defeat of King James, a Catholic, in 1690 in the Battle of the Boyne. The battle took place near Drogheda, north of Dublin.

An odd Irish birthday tradition is to lift the birthday child upside down and give his head a few gentle bumps on the floor for good luck. The number of bumps should allegedly correspond to the child’s age plus one.

and finally a little poem that was taught to me at the age of 13 by a b&b owner in ballycastle ...

If you werent so Ballymena
With your Ballymoney
You'd have a Ballycastle
for your bloody home!!!!

[shillelagh]

another one for you

Gerald R Ford (1913-2006), 38th President of the USA, is the only US President who was never elected as either President or Vice President.

I guess it just proves that anyone in America can be President. GERALD FORD

[shillelagh]

An Irishman will always soften bad news, so that a major coronary is no more than 'a bad turn' and a near hurricane that leaves thousands homeless is 'good drying weather'.Hugh Leonard

There are so many strange things in the world beyond our knowledge, and maybe there are ghosts too, though I do not understand why they should come back to this world when they have gone from it. Peig Sayers

My grandmother made dying her life's work.Hugh Leonard

there is a village in Kerry called Inch and on a road sign outside the village there is this "Inch 1 Mile".

Irish aviation fact = Shannon became the worlds first duty free airport in 1947

Bushmills, Couny Antrim is the Worlds Oldest Whiskey Distillery based on the undisputed fact that a seven year licence to distil dating from April 20th 1608 is attributed to the distillery. Located near the village of Bushmills in Co. Antrim. It is though that distilling may have begun on the site as early as the thirteenth century, but the first permit was granted by James VI and I to Sir Thomas Phillipps, a local landowner, in 1608.

Irish Quotes from Famous Irishmen

[DaveinGermany]

Are you aware that the "Shillelagh" isn't what it appears to be ?


Is Your Shillelagh a Sham?
by Bridget Haggerty

In his very informative book, Things Irish, Anthony Bluett writes that according to a leading folklore authority, the short, stubby blackthorn cudgel sold to tourists as the "ancient Irish shillelagh" has no tradition in Ireland at all.

What I have mistakenly called a shillelagh all these years was once a very popular weapon in 19th-century London. Very handy to have - but not something the Irish would have used at that time, or earlier. Their weapon of choice would have been a cane made from oak, blackthorn, ash or holly.



Information from the "Irish culture & Customs" web site

sitehttp://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/AEmblem/Shillelagh.html

[shillelagh]

Originally Posted by DaveinGermany

Are you aware that the "Shillelagh" isn't what it appears to be ?


Is Your Shillelagh a Sham?
by Bridget Haggerty

In his very informative book, Things Irish, Anthony Bluett writes that according to a leading folklore authority, the short, stubby blackthorn cudgel sold to tourists as the "ancient Irish shillelagh" has no tradition in Ireland at all.

What I have mistakenly called a shillelagh all these years was once a very popular weapon in 19th-century London. Very handy to have - but not something the Irish would have used at that time, or earlier. Their weapon of choice would have been a cane made from oak, blackthorn, ash or holly.



Information from the "Irish culture & Customs" web site

sitehttp://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/AEmblem/Shillelagh.html

you mean something like this ... my cousin made it for my dad when he was ill one year .. brought all the way back from ireland .. and its lived in the living room ever since ... and no one ever notices it .. now if some of my visitors had known that was there ..i wonder if id have had the conversations that ive had ... by the way it does hurt .. have been swiped round the back of the legs in my younger years by my granny in northern ireland .. she had one!!!

[shillelagh]

and also ....

Origins and History of the Shillelagh Stick
Sticks have been used as weapons since fighting began, however the skilled use of hardwood clubs by the people of Shillelagh led to these clubs to be called Shillelagh's by Richard II in 1395. With the dispersion of these peoples through the ages the term Shillelagh spread throughout Ireland and the new world in reference to a weighted fighting stick.

When it became illegal for any Irish person to carry a weapon their Shillelagh's were often elongated to appear as a walking stick but were just as effictive a weapon when the need arose. These irish who emigrated to America enjoyed the right there of all men to carry arms and Shillelagh's became very promenant in the faction fights in the turbulant years of the young United States. Many Irish Americans can remember this kind of Shillelagh in use or will have heard stories about them while most English and Irish people will remember them as walking sticks or lucky charms from home.

Shillelagh Sticks