Archive for the ‘Did you know?’ Category

While researching the Battle of Britain for the recent post I wanted to get Churchill’s quote exacty right and came across a whole load of the great man’s words. They make fascinating reading. He really was a witty and wise man. This one in particular struck home:

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

Oh if only this lesson was heeded more often…………….

Plucked, with thanks, from the web site www.quotationspage.com

I was reading the other day that the Nature Reserve on Brownsea Island in Dorset has all seven British Reptiles.
SEVEN! I got as far as the adder and the grass snake and ran out.

Is there anybody out there who knows the other 5?

As the election is still in my mind I thought I would write about this remarkable woman. In 1918 an act was passed allowing women to stand as Member of Parliament. Later that year Constance Markievicz became the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons at Westminster. However, as she was an Irish Nationalist and a member of Sinn Fein she didn’t take up her seat.

She was already a reknowned figure, having played an active part in the 1916 uprising. She only survived execution because she was a woman. In 1919 she was appointed Minister of Labour in the Dail Eireann, thus becoming the first female minister in a modern democracy.

Her families estate, Lissadell at Sligo, is privately owned but can be visited. The poet W.B.Yeats was a friend and frequent visitor.

The flag of the United Kingdom is really called the Union Flag, but it is commonally referred to as the Union Jack. A ‘jack’ is actually a flag flown on the bow of a ship. It is made up of the individual flags of the countries of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, all united under one Sovereign. Wales was not a Kingdom but a Principality so it could not be included on the flag.

In 1194 A.D., Richard I of England introduced the Cross of St. George, a red cross on a white ground, as the National Flag of England. At this time England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland were separate countries. However in 1536, under Henry VIII, an Act of Union was passed making Wales a province of England.

Scotland is represented by the flag of St. Andrew, a diagonal white cross form (called a saltire) on a blue background. After Queen Elizabeth I of England died withot any direct heirs in 1603, King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne and became King James I of England. In 1604, against Parliaments’ wishes, he declared himself ‘King of Great Britain’, although each country still kept their own parliament.

On 12 April 1606, the National Flags of Scotland and England were united for use at sea, thus making the first Union ‘Jack’. Ashore however, the old flags of England and Scotland continued to be used by their respective countries. The Act of Union of 1707, joined England and Scotland together, creating a single kingdom with a single Parliament called ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’ .

Almost hundred years later, on 1 January 1801, Ireland was united with Great Britain and it became necessary to have a new National Flag in which Ireland was represented. The cross of St Patrick, a diagonal red cross on a white background, was combined with the Union Flag of St George and St Andrew, to create the Union Flag that has been flown ever since. England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland were now all joined together and called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The name was later changed to United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland when the greater part of Ireland left the United Kingdom in 1921.

The Union Flag is not symmetrical however. Due to the complex rules of heraldry, the red bands of St Patrick are not symmetrically placed within the white bands of St Andrew. Very few people in Britain now know which way up to fly the flag!

St. Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century. His father was a Christian deacon. At the age of sixteen, Patrick was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking his family’s estate. They transported him to Ireland where he spent six years in captivity. Although many believe he was taken to live in Mount Slemish in County Antrim, it is more likely that he was held in County Mayo near Killala. During this time, he worked as a shepherd, outdoors and away from people. Lonely and afraid, he turned to his religion for solace, becoming a devout Christian. (It is also believed that Patrick first began to dream of converting the Irish people to Christianity during his captivity.)

After more than six years as a prisoner, Patrick escaped. According to his writing, a voice, which he believed to be God’s-spoke to him in a dream, telling him it was time to leave Ireland.

To do so, Patrick walked nearly 200 miles from County Mayo, where it is believed he was held, to the Irish coast. After escaping to Britain, Patrick reported that he experienced a second revelation-an angel in a dream tells him to return to Ireland as a missionary. Soon after, Patrick began religious training, a course of study that lasted more than fifteen years. After his ordination as a priest, he was sent to Ireland with a dual mission-to minister to Christians already living in Ireland and to begin to convert the Irish. (Interestingly, this mission contradicts the widely held notion that Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland
For the full story visit www.saint-patrick.com