July 12, 2007

Gratuitous Historickal Posting (TM)

Boyne.gif

I see that today is the annual commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne, fought in 1690 in northern Ireland, in which the Protestant William III defeated the Catholic James II, thereby (in retrospect) finally putting the English throne out of the grasp of the Stuarts.

I have to confess that for many, many years I assumed that the Syracuse University Orangemen were named after the Ulster Protestants whom James sought to quash and who were defended by William. It was only very recently that I learned the real reason was because the Syracusans didn't like their previous colors (pink and blue) very much. I must say, I don't much blame SU, but I rayther prefer my imagined explanation.

UPDATE: Pace Beth, I meant "northern Ireland" in the geodirectional sense, not the political one. I've dropped the case on the "N" just to clarify that.

Posted by Robert at July 12, 2007 02:27 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Ok, not to be picky...but actually the battle was not fought in Northern Ireland (unless you mean the strictly directional sense rather than Ulster or what we refer to as Northern Ireland the country). The area is actually the northernmost part of the province of Leinster, the same province in which we find Dublin.

Ireland actually has a really good site on the Battle of the Boyne and if you ever have a chance to visit the Boyne valley it's incredible (plus it's home to Newgrange (a megalithic passage tomb) and Mellifont Abbey (a fantastic Cistercian monestary), both worth visiting in their own right.)

:)

Posted by: beth at July 12, 2007 03:13 PM