Some years ago, when (part of) Ireland had her own currency, a friend of mine from Belfast started learning Irish in London. A Republican, Communist and Feminist from a good Protestant family, she thought it a shame that her otherwise fine education had something missing. She was bemused to find that our rude forebears used slave women as units of currency.
I told her that those forebears couldn’t pee, and instead of calling the slave Patricius as he had been christened, they called him Caithreaca, and I speculated on the etymology of the Irish punt. I’m glad that my friend has a sense of humour and didn’t scratch my eyes out.
No sooner had Jude posted my BLOG (29 Oct) ending with Edward MacLysaght’s January 1919 exposure of British misrepresentation of Sinn Fein’s stunning victory in the previous month’s General Election, than I saw that Eoghan Harris in THE IRISH INDEPENDENT was yet again peddling the old canard that because they didn’t get a majority of the votes cast, Sinn Fein had not won a popular victory.
Like the Monty Python parrot, that canard is a Dead Duck.Not getting a majority of votes cast, when Sinn Fein took 25 seats which were uncontested, is a red herring. A very old red herring, and boy, are those who peddle it, such a Eoghan Harris, Stinkers,First Class? Another fragrant columnist, in the INDO and SINDO, has also sought to peddle that red herring. I realise that solicitors, acting on her instructions, have described her as a distinguished historian. I doubt the very dogs (and cats) in the streets where she walks, would disagree with them, for they must know red herrings when they smell them.
In 1906 John Redmond’s party took 84 uncontested seats in the General Election and the Unionist Party took more of the popular vote. The Unionists didn’t complain “WE WUZ ROBBED.” They would have lost 84 deposits had they ventured to stand where nobody wanted them. Let Harris and Dudley-Edwards, Crown solicitors and half-crown solicitors, put that in their pipes and smoke them. When they’ve finished smoking red herrings!
You may remember that I once alluded to punt guns, long-barrelled guns of the sea, used for shooting ducks, canard, faux-canard, and perhaps, by Bargee Men other targets. Duckers and Divers perhaps. But why Eoghan Harris sails in my stream of consciousness with punts is maybe a matter for a shrink?
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