Posted On: Saturday - August 13th 2022 3:40PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Cars World Political Stupidity Peak Stupidity Roadshow
The castle above is in County Kilkenny in Ireland. We had driven there from Dublin*. We had a nice tour of the place, and there was no general wokeness problem as you would expect now from an American historical site**. The picture above is from a low rise 300 yards or so from the front of the castle, and there is much more land behind there that is the castle grounds, between the old tall rock wall and a curve in the river. It was nice to do some walking and running around.
Lack of wokeness is one thing, but the wokeness could be easily reversed. (It just takes a spark.) What you see in the picture, though, is a different story. I'm pretty sure these Moslem women are not tourists as we were. These ground are a nice park, basically, and these women had no luggage, and weren't taking pictures. They were having a little study session, perfectly innocuous, I'm sure. That'd be all just peachy if Ireland had a sprinkling of foreigners, rather than a flood.
I have a comparison of my own to make. I don't want to name years exactly, but suffice it to say that the last time I was in Dublin I paid the equivalent of 3 bucks in Irish pounds for a room, as opposed to the 200 bucks we paid (in Euros, almost on par) this time. (No, that wasn't all inflation, as that first time was just a spot of the floor for my sleeping bag in a room with about 12 other young people vs. our room for a family in a good spot.)
At the time of the previous trip, Ireland was IRISH. It wasn't a very rich country, by any means, and lots of young people were still emigrating, but it was a home for the Irish. (I wasn't particularly well-off either and lived for over a week on baguettes of bread, cheddar cheese, Cadbury bars, and Guinness.) It was a beautiful country the way it was. The population of the Republic of Ireland (excludes the 6 counties of the North) was 3 1/2 million.
Since that time, the Irish have fallen for the Globalism too. Maybe that wasn't so willingly, so I could say "fallen to the Globalism". The country had a very low tax rate on business that helped the employment picture, until the employees and others were getting imported along with the businesses. The population of the Republic of Ireland is now over 5 million. I don't think that was worth it for the Irish people.
I wish I could get a number to represent the diversity quotient in Dublin. It's difficult, because I wasn't sure who were tourists like us. I'd say it is not nearly as high as in London, England, though. From Wiki here, I see that the country is still 92% White (pretty nice!), but 82% Irish - there are lots of immigrants from eastern Europe. The "other Asian" (other than Chinese) category shows only 1.7%, BUT a) that was 6 years ago and b) age matters (wonder what the number is for school kids). A Moslem contingent can grow fast.
Ireland is still better off, DIE-wise, than American and the big countries of western Europe - England, France, Germany, it seems like from the numbers. Things can change quickly though, especially when you don't even stop digging.
That castle has a lot of history, a history of the actual Irish people. Will these young ladies on the hill and their descendants care one whit about it all? Do they, and will they, they care about anything of the culture? It's just another place to put down strange roots and take over.
If the Irish allow large groups of foreigners to immigrate, these newcomers may eventually sound Irish, which is pretty weird when encountered, BTW, but they will not become Irish, even culturally. 10's of thousands of them in big cities will build their cultural fortresses, as those actual fortresses such as the Kilkenny Castle will be let to crumble and fade from history.
PS: One could argue with a comparison to the Irish in America, who eventually DID assimilate after having their cultural fortresses in Boston, NY City, etc. for 1/2 a century. They changed America too, though, and when you're talking very-foreign foreigners, your country will change that much more... toward that Tower of Babel.
* First rule of
Oh, I got a Ford with a 6-speed manual transmission - no problem with that, but it took me 1/2 a day to figure out the trick for the reverse gear.
** I've read about this madness at Thomas Jefferson's mansion Monticello and about 2 or 3 others on VDare. I cannot ruin a whole day due to the anger I'd get from that crap, even if it DOES result on a blog post!
Comments:
Moderator
Tuesday - August 16th 2022 6:14PM MST
PS: IRA man, no, inflation WILL be defeated! They just passed a bill, you know.
The IRA Is Undefeated
Tuesday - August 16th 2022 4:42PM MST
PS Irish Democracy is the way.
O/T-Breaking-Inflation is cancelled!
And just like that it was gone.
OMG! Totes like winningest winnarz evarz!
Forward. Yes we can!
O/T-Breaking-Inflation is cancelled!
And just like that it was gone.
OMG! Totes like winningest winnarz evarz!
Forward. Yes we can!
Moderator
Tuesday - August 16th 2022 1:36PM MST
PS: After, I dunno, an hour of driving with plans to not back up anywhere, I went to the manual, Alarmist. One page was on "Manual transmission". There was nothing about the reverse trick! (The book was probably written and published in China.)
The Alarmist
Tuesday - August 16th 2022 12:15PM MST
PS
lulz, Mr Mod ... that up & down action got me the fist time I rented in Geneva. It was one off the first times, if not the first, that I had to crack open the owner’s manual.
lulz, Mr Mod ... that up & down action got me the fist time I rented in Geneva. It was one off the first times, if not the first, that I had to crack open the owner’s manual.
Moderator
Tuesday - August 16th 2022 8:10AM MST
PS: What I meant was, Mr.G, is that you could have told me about the up/and down action of the sleeve that lets it shift into R.
Moderator
Tuesday - August 16th 2022 8:09AM MST
PS: If you'd only told me that BEFORE we rented a car in Ireland, Mr. Ganderson!
BTW, the clutch was very smooth.
BTW, the clutch was very smooth.
Ganderson
Tuesday - August 16th 2022 6:33AM MST
PS I OWN a Ford with a six speed manual…
Moderator
Tuesday - August 16th 2022 4:53AM MST
PS: Alarmist, yes, "roundabouts" is right - at least that's what my wife's GPS called them. OTOH, that voice was in American English based on its synthesized speech program, I guess?
The car had a big GPS display too, but it was one or the other. We turned its voice off. The car's one was hooked up to a small display - where, you know, in the old days you looked at speed, milage, coolant T, and oil P - which gave distance in m to go to the next turn, the direction of the turn, and lane changes if necessary.
As I wrote, this was only the 2nd time I really was glad to be using one of these GPS systems. The first was a couple of years ago about 200 miles from home when we needed to pick up something at a grocery store off the main highway at night.
Anyway, I corrected the post to replace "rotaries" with "roundabouts". Where'd I get "rotary" from? Is that the British way or maybe an American traffic engineer term?
The car had a big GPS display too, but it was one or the other. We turned its voice off. The car's one was hooked up to a small display - where, you know, in the old days you looked at speed, milage, coolant T, and oil P - which gave distance in m to go to the next turn, the direction of the turn, and lane changes if necessary.
As I wrote, this was only the 2nd time I really was glad to be using one of these GPS systems. The first was a couple of years ago about 200 miles from home when we needed to pick up something at a grocery store off the main highway at night.
Anyway, I corrected the post to replace "rotaries" with "roundabouts". Where'd I get "rotary" from? Is that the British way or maybe an American traffic engineer term?
The Alarmist
Monday - August 15th 2022 1:58PM MST
PS
Try driving a Range Rover in France ;)
Try driving a Range Rover in France ;)
Moderator
Monday - August 15th 2022 7:32AM MST
PS: Alarmist, parking was a MAJOR problem for me, even in that Ford (sub?)compact! I had to get my wife to get out and help me back up in the parking garage. That wasn't so much LH vs RH side driving, but things are just TIGHT.
Thanks for the comments, Mr. Hail. I hope to see a new post on your blog soon too.
Thanks for the comments, Mr. Hail. I hope to see a new post on your blog soon too.
Moderator
Monday - August 15th 2022 7:30AM MST
PS: Thanks for your reminiscent comment, Mr. Kief! I assume the young lady's Mom thought that you spoke English with no foreign accent. Your English teacher was German too, I presume?
We went to that Trinity College ourselves, Dieter. Unfortunately, it was not in that same mode of scholastic and family research - my wife just said "we have to go here - it's one of the important sights on the map"* or something like that, haha! She doesn't get the idea of travel that I have, but then I had a chance to do it my way, such as on that long trip that had the 10 days in Ireland long ago.
* It was a long walk too, in the rain, but I enjoyed the cool weather there. In that summer long ago, I felt like I was freezing my ass off - even in the sunshine. Global cooling, you know...
We went to that Trinity College ourselves, Dieter. Unfortunately, it was not in that same mode of scholastic and family research - my wife just said "we have to go here - it's one of the important sights on the map"* or something like that, haha! She doesn't get the idea of travel that I have, but then I had a chance to do it my way, such as on that long trip that had the 10 days in Ireland long ago.
* It was a long walk too, in the rain, but I enjoyed the cool weather there. In that summer long ago, I felt like I was freezing my ass off - even in the sunshine. Global cooling, you know...
Hail
Sunday - August 14th 2022 11:22PM MST
PS
Mr. Kief, your stories of past travels and related activities give insight into some things about you I have long wondered about. Namely, your strong interest in English and things America-related.
Quote: "her mother was straw blonde and very Swedish all in all - I later met her family in Michigan. Her mother said: How is it possible that I still have an accent, after my family has been here for over a hundred years and you don't?"
This means the mother believed YOU didn't have an accent? That's a surprise.
There is a Scandinavian influence on some regional accents and maybe family traditions, especially so in older times. This mother, probably born in the first third of the 20th century?, would be a candidate.
My grandmother in the rural Upper Midwest, (U.S. born, spoke Norwegian in the home as a young child with her mother, but otherwise in an English environment), spoke with a typical accent of her place. It was of a kind which, if you dropped her into a postmodern Big Blue city of today, they'd think she was a foreigner, I'm sure.
Mr. Kief, your stories of past travels and related activities give insight into some things about you I have long wondered about. Namely, your strong interest in English and things America-related.
Quote: "her mother was straw blonde and very Swedish all in all - I later met her family in Michigan. Her mother said: How is it possible that I still have an accent, after my family has been here for over a hundred years and you don't?"
This means the mother believed YOU didn't have an accent? That's a surprise.
There is a Scandinavian influence on some regional accents and maybe family traditions, especially so in older times. This mother, probably born in the first third of the 20th century?, would be a candidate.
My grandmother in the rural Upper Midwest, (U.S. born, spoke Norwegian in the home as a young child with her mother, but otherwise in an English environment), spoke with a typical accent of her place. It was of a kind which, if you dropped her into a postmodern Big Blue city of today, they'd think she was a foreigner, I'm sure.
Hail
Sunday - August 14th 2022 10:32PM MST
PS
On the rose-colored, misty, romantic (romanticized) way people seem to like to think of Ireland, including (in many cases) those without any ancestry on that island: I don't quite know what to make of it.
On the rose-colored, misty, romantic (romanticized) way people seem to like to think of Ireland, including (in many cases) those without any ancestry on that island: I don't quite know what to make of it.
Hail
Sunday - August 14th 2022 10:25PM MST
PS
Thanks for the travel reminiscences, Moderator and Mr. Kief and The Alarmis(t).
Thanks for the travel reminiscences, Moderator and Mr. Kief and The Alarmis(t).
The Alarmis
Sunday - August 14th 2022 5:19AM MST
PS
Oddly enough, Dublin was one of the first places in Europe where I saw smokers standing outside restaurants and pubs. Yes, Eire has recently been colonised in ways that might turn out to be uglier than the past, though the English were a particularly nasty set of overlords.
We call them roundabouts , ronds-points, or Kreisel depending where I am. I took a continental car (left-side driver) to the UK, and it was great for the roundabouts, if you had ignored a huge blindspot, but it was hellish for the gates in parking garages and lots.
Oddly enough, Dublin was one of the first places in Europe where I saw smokers standing outside restaurants and pubs. Yes, Eire has recently been colonised in ways that might turn out to be uglier than the past, though the English were a particularly nasty set of overlords.
We call them roundabouts , ronds-points, or Kreisel depending where I am. I took a continental car (left-side driver) to the UK, and it was great for the roundabouts, if you had ignored a huge blindspot, but it was hellish for the gates in parking garages and lots.
Dieter Kief
Saturday - August 13th 2022 11:37PM MST
PS
Mod. looking back results in rosy pictures. That is an old one, I admit.
I made quasi the same tip like you did in September 1978. I'd add blueberries to my nutrition mix - and eggs, beans and bacon. I spent 300 Marks in two weeks (= 150 euros) for all my travel expenses (two overnight ferry boat rides from and to Le Havre in Normandy and the bike rent for a tour of the Dingle peninsula included). And I brought back a bottle of Glenfiddich Whisky and a nice bruyère pipe and 200 Grams of Morning' Dew tobacco - also included the three hundred German bucks. And I fell in love with a soft voiced American lady who had an elegant/relaxed way to walk 'n' talk and hazelnut brown eyes with cute eyelashes. She knew before the trip that she was half Irish (and half Scandinavian - her mother was straw blonde and very Swedish all in all - I later met her family in Michigan. Her mother said: How is it possible that I still have an accent, after my family has been here for over a hundred years and you don't? I said that the Doors and The Allman Brothers and Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan didn't have an accent either or soemthing in that vein. I could have added that I had an unbelievably sexy (sexy dressed too - these were the Seventies near High!delberg....) young and cool English teacher when I was sixteen. And - this is just plain talk here: She loved to teach. And I loved being taught by her. She even tauhght me face to face for some time in private lessons - still no double talk or some such here at all. It was strictly about the language... - one of my purer and very happy experiences indeed).
I hadn't known about my Irish roots before. But I did want to find out and I got first hand infos from the genealogical department in Dublin. But I also felt something. I felt akin. So I just went there and knocked at the door of the dream-like office in a tower of the Trinity College and the dean of the department, who opened this 2,80 m ca. high old and nice door himself - asked me in to tell me about the O'Keeffes and how quite some of them did indeed leave (flee) Ireland due to Norman pressure on their land near Cork (O'Keeffe castle seems to be still there) and headed for - Speyer/Germany (and that's been where I grew up ca. eight hundred years later - ten kilometers away from Speyer). Strange experience - the same as in Vienna, for different (Sudeten roots from my mother's side) reasons: People seemed to know me or recognise me partially. Everywhere. I never got invited and talked to as often on a trip with the sole exception maybe of the US. Since I was in a hyper-sensitive mood then the Irish experience was (and still is) may I say: hyper-real to me. I have not been there since.
'appy sunday Peakers!
Mod. looking back results in rosy pictures. That is an old one, I admit.
I made quasi the same tip like you did in September 1978. I'd add blueberries to my nutrition mix - and eggs, beans and bacon. I spent 300 Marks in two weeks (= 150 euros) for all my travel expenses (two overnight ferry boat rides from and to Le Havre in Normandy and the bike rent for a tour of the Dingle peninsula included). And I brought back a bottle of Glenfiddich Whisky and a nice bruyère pipe and 200 Grams of Morning' Dew tobacco - also included the three hundred German bucks. And I fell in love with a soft voiced American lady who had an elegant/relaxed way to walk 'n' talk and hazelnut brown eyes with cute eyelashes. She knew before the trip that she was half Irish (and half Scandinavian - her mother was straw blonde and very Swedish all in all - I later met her family in Michigan. Her mother said: How is it possible that I still have an accent, after my family has been here for over a hundred years and you don't? I said that the Doors and The Allman Brothers and Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan didn't have an accent either or soemthing in that vein. I could have added that I had an unbelievably sexy (sexy dressed too - these were the Seventies near High!delberg....) young and cool English teacher when I was sixteen. And - this is just plain talk here: She loved to teach. And I loved being taught by her. She even tauhght me face to face for some time in private lessons - still no double talk or some such here at all. It was strictly about the language... - one of my purer and very happy experiences indeed).
I hadn't known about my Irish roots before. But I did want to find out and I got first hand infos from the genealogical department in Dublin. But I also felt something. I felt akin. So I just went there and knocked at the door of the dream-like office in a tower of the Trinity College and the dean of the department, who opened this 2,80 m ca. high old and nice door himself - asked me in to tell me about the O'Keeffes and how quite some of them did indeed leave (flee) Ireland due to Norman pressure on their land near Cork (O'Keeffe castle seems to be still there) and headed for - Speyer/Germany (and that's been where I grew up ca. eight hundred years later - ten kilometers away from Speyer). Strange experience - the same as in Vienna, for different (Sudeten roots from my mother's side) reasons: People seemed to know me or recognise me partially. Everywhere. I never got invited and talked to as often on a trip with the sole exception maybe of the US. Since I was in a hyper-sensitive mood then the Irish experience was (and still is) may I say: hyper-real to me. I have not been there since.
'appy sunday Peakers!
Moderator
Saturday - August 13th 2022 4:11PM MST
PS: Agreed, Mr. Blanc. They thought they'd seen Troubles. They don't know what Troubles are yet!
MBlanc46
Saturday - August 13th 2022 3:53PM MST
PS They’ve fought so hard to free Ireland from the British, only to give it up to hordes of Third Worlders without a fight.