Long before the days of my youth sentries guarding their strong-posts by night, on hearing the approach of unidentified persons, would shout “Who goes there?” or Qui Vive? (who lives?). Friends were expected to know the password. If they gave the password they were invited to “Pass and be Recognised”
Unrecognised strangers risked being shot.
I presume most readers know of the famous occasion when the Prince of Orange’s troops had a siege train with explosives to blow their way into Limerick, a city defended by Irish troops serving King James II. The besiegers’ password word was discovered. It was that of Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan,the leader of a band of 500 horsemen loyal to King James and at large in the countryside.
When a Williamite sentry demanded the Password he was told “Sarsfield’s the Word and Sarsfield’s the Man” as the 500 overwhelmed the guard and proceeded to collect all the explosives and blow the siege train to Kingdom Come.
In 1,200 years since St Patrick’s mission to Ireland, the name Patrick was never fashionable.
When Cromwell sneered at the Irish he called us “Taigs and Donals” not “Paddies and Micks”
So great was Sarsfield’s fame in Ireland that the name Patrick was bestowed on many boys shortly
after the BIG BANG AT BALLYNEETY (11 August 1690).
The name Michael has been bestowed on Jews, Christians, and I presume Moslems all over the
world for thousands of years.
But the word “Mick” to denote Irishmen dates to 1868.
On 26 May of that year the Fenian Michael Barrett was publicly hanged outside Newgate Prison, beside the Old Bailey Court to the boos and catcalls of over 2,000 people.
He had been in Glasgow when the Fenians exploded a bomb outside Clerkenwell Gaol in order to
spring some of their comrades.But the explosion killed eleven innocent bystanders and badly injured
scores more.
The anger of the crowd may be understood. And, as has repeatedly happened, before and since, police and politicians picked an innocent man to please the mob.
That injudicious but judicial execution was the last of its kind in England.
A story is told about Charles Fort at Kinsale, completed in 1682 to the design of a great French man,
Vauban, who built many similar forts and created canals in France. In 1690 the Duke of Marlborough.
on behalf of the William of Orange, seized it from King James’s forces.
Before the Brits left the Fort , an Irish-Speaking, soldier in their ranks, returning to the married quarters with his spouse, was asked “Who Goes There?”
He answered “Sean O Ceallaigh agus a Bhean”
“Advance, Sean,when you have parked your Van ” was the answer
These days some Governments seem to think themselves bound to accept how children and others
describe themselves.
If I were to self-identify as a fifteen-year old, left-handed, colour-blind, Urdu-speaking Hermaphrodite.
would any government be obliged to take me at my word?
Would I be asked to advance to be recognised?
Would any sentry resist the impulse to pull the trigger?
I love these vignettes but not being of Ireland I only understand half of them. Keep them coming!