Quoted:
English Mother Fucker... Do You Speak It?
Sorry... was feeling all Samuel Jacksonish... Certainly. Allow me to translate: Our day will come.
No offense taken, but I guess I would find it more humorous if the Gaeltacht wasn't so small on account of the British having outlawed speaking and teaching the Irish language, with a death penalty for violators in many cases.
Perhaps the British can appreciate how hard terrorism has to be fought because they've been guilty of it themselves so often.
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Actually, that had much more to do with how many Irish speaking men, women and children starved to death or left Ireland forever during the "famine" of 1845 to 1850. At the beginning of said "famine", the Irish numbered almost 8 million, and were some of the healthiest people in Europe, despite many of them living in abject poverty. Within 5 years, about 3 1/2 MILLION people starved to death, died from diseases associated with starvation, or left for lands like the U.S....nearly ONE HALF of the population.
During the entire "famine", thousands of ships laden with grain and meat sailed for English and European ports, often under armed guard so the starving natives couldn't loot the contents. The "famine" was particlarly hard on the poorest parts of Ireland, in the West, which also contained the highest concentration of Irish speakers.
The huge influx of Irish into American during that time period would have a profound effect on that "land beyond the sea", referred to in that fairly well known song:
"But if at last our colour should be torn from Ireland's heart,
Our sons with shame and sorrow from this dear old isle will part;
I've heard a whisper of a land that lies beyond the sea
Where rich and poor stand equal in the light of freedom's day.
O Erin, must we leave you driven by a tyrant's hand?
Must we ask a mother's blessing from a strange and distant land?
Where the cruel cross of England shall nevermore be seen,
And where, please God, we'll live and die still wearing of the green!"
God Bless America!! Brit free since 1776