Talking of ludicrous political systems, I see Sinn Fein is polling at 25% in Ireland.

:hehe: That would be rather fun. Mind you, it would immediately scupper any possibility of Protestants in NI voting for unification.

As you know...

I had some spare time a while back and picked out a number of books.

Oddly Nick Mordin’s bible on horse racing gambling systems was available.

I met him a few years back at Newbury and mentioned it to him and he found it rather funny his pride and job ended up where I found it...and in my hands.

But also the complete history of SinnFein

This was a beast...like 1000 pages in the smallest font possible...I made it 3 pages in and gave up.

Wanted too but it was a painfully boring read.

Maybe it gets better a few hundred pages in but fark me...and that font! Jesus Christ....

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Originally Posted by Tony C

As you know...

I had some spare time a while back and picked out a number of books.

Oddly Nick Mordin’s bible on horse racing gambling systems was available.

I met him a few years back at Newbury and mentioned it to him and he found it rather funny his pride and job ended up where I found it...and in my hands.

But also the complete history of SinnFein

This was a beast...like 1000 pages in the smallest font possible...I made it 3 pages in and gave up.

Wanted too but it was a painfully boring read.

Maybe it gets better a few hundred pages in but fark me...and that font! Jesus Christ....

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Probably for the best, t. If the screws had seen you reading a history of Sinn Fein, they might have thought you'd been radicalised and stuck you in Belmarsh. :hehe:

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Originally Posted by Burney

Probably for the best, t. If the screws had seen you reading a history of Sinn Fein, they might have thought you'd been radicalised and stuck you in Belmarsh. :hehe:

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Remarkably the unification of Ireland was a subject I used to get out of an awkward situation on Saturday - left as I was with a very pro-Palestine Irishman and very Jewish German. Last time they were left together the former suggested that a certain Austrian had the right idea. Fortunately I was a good few hours into a session

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

Remarkably the unification of Ireland was a subject I used to get out of an awkward situation on Saturday - left as I was with a very pro-Palestine Irishman and very Jewish German. Last time they were left together the former suggested that a certain Austrian had the right idea. Fortunately I was a good few hours into a session

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Without wishing to be indelicate, that's got to be a pretty rare beast.

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Originally Posted by Sir C

Without wishing to be indelicate, that's got to be a pretty rare beast.

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He is indeed

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

Remarkably the unification of Ireland was a subject I used to get out of an awkward situation on Saturday - left as I was with a very pro-Palestine Irishman and very Jewish German. Last time they were left together the former suggested that a certain Austrian had the right idea. Fortunately I was a good few hours into a session

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I must admit that if you said that you were with an Irishman, an anti-semite, a German and a Jew and that there were only two people, I probably wouldn't have allocated the attributes that way.

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Originally Posted by Burney

I must admit that if you said that you were with an Irishman, an anti-semite, a German and a Jew and that there were only two people, I probably wouldn't have allocated the attributes that way.

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You'd have assumed the Irish jew was an anti-semite :nod:

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Originally Posted by Burney

Probably for the best, t. If the screws had seen you reading a history of Sinn Fein, they might have thought you'd been radicalised and stuck you in Belmarsh. :hehe:

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It's all their fault for the Easter Uprising in 1916. In 1914, Home Rule had passed the HoC three times, but was being delayed until the end of the war. Had the traitors just waited a couple of years, they'd have had a united Ireland.

Instead, while the Battle of Verdun was raging, they thought it was better to help the German with their plans to take over the whole continent, before using its resources for a second war against GB. Had the Germans succeeded, they'd have become a de facto German colony as was planned for Holland and the like. With a German dominated customs union and military domination, they'd have had to do what the Lutherans told them.

They'd have had less control over their own affairs than they did in 1914, compared to being a self governing dominion in the imperial economic bloc. They're as bad as Jinnah and his religious partition heresy.

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Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult

It's all their fault for the Easter Uprising in 1916. In 1914, Home Rule had passed the HoC three times, but was being delayed until the end of the war. Had the traitors just waited a couple of years, they'd have had a united Ireland.

Instead, while the Battle of Verdun was raging, they thought it was better to help the German with their plans to take over the whole continent, before using its resources for a second war against GB. Had the Germans succeeded, they'd have become a de facto German colony as was planned for Holland and the like. With a German dominated customs union and military domination, they'd have had to do what the Lutherans told them.

They'd have had less control over their own affairs than they did in 1914, compared to being a self governing dominion in the imperial economic bloc. They're as bad as Jinnah and his religious partition heresy.

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A sophomoric and naive analysis that displays exactly zero understanding of the balance of probabilities with regard to Home Rule. Had the Irish not resorted to violence, it is highly unlikely (given the power wielded by Unionism and the primacy of the Ulster question in British minds) that Home Rule in any form would have been forthcoming. Even as it was Ireland only achieved rule over that portion of Ireland that was left once the Ulster question had been resolved to Unionist satisfaction.

It is our common error to assume that NI is what was 'left over' after the establishment of the Free State - in fact, it was very much the other way about as far as the British were concerned. This is why the British offered a truce to Sinn Féin only after the boundary was in effective operation and the Northern Ireland parliament had come into existence in June 1921.

In short, the British would almost certainly have fúcked Home Rule out the window in order to keep the Unionists (which also meant the military - see the Curragh Mutiny) happy. Violence is the only way they got any semblance of independence.

As for the war, by 1916 there was no realistic possibility of anywhere in the British isles being occupied by Germany - the British fleet was far, far too powerful for that ever to happen, even if the Germans had by some miracle won on land.

Anyway, read this and learn something.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fatal-Path-.../dp/0571297404