canny granny

1. The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing “is equal to” in his equations. He chose the two lines because “noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle”.

2. When faced with danger, the octopus can wrap six of its legs around its head to disguise itself as a fallen coconut shell and escape by walking backwards on the other two legs.

3. Now for the last, and certainly the least, “Restaurant” is the most mis-spelled word in search engines.

So many blogs I have read in the last few days talk of St Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland. He did no such thing.

I quote from the mythological site Medusa Speaks

St Patrick gets a lot of publicity. He had an excellent theatrical agent in the old days and his slick promotional material, backed up by Roman gold, was of the very best quality. Repeat something often enough and half of the population will believe it (just look at politicians, ancient or modern).

Forget that the stories traditionally associated with St. Patrick, like the account of his banishing all the snakes from Ireland, are false, for who has the heart to let truth spoil the result of hundreds of years of good storytelling?

History has been kind to Patrick, thanks mostly to the grim determination of the Irish to hold fast to what they see as their own, and to the full weight of the Church of Rome. His book helped too, an autobiographical confession written around the year 450, and what a wonderful record of 5th century life in the British Isles it is to be sure.

British he was not, nor was he Irish. A child of the wealthy patrician class, he was born Maewyn Succat about 387 near Dumbarton in Scotland, where his father, Calphurnius, a Roman Decurion, was stationed. Through his noble mother, Conchessa, he was related to the Gallic family of St. Martin of Tours.

So how did he get to be the Patron Saint of Ireland?

Maewyn was kidnapped by Irish marauders when he was sixteen and sold to the Chieftan Milchu who set him to work as a shepherd. In one manner or another, he escaped after six years of tending flocks on the lonely slopes of Slemish and walked nearly 200 miles to the coast to finally return to Britain.

Once back home, his experiences brought about a revelation, and he told everyone who would listen that an angel had commanded him to return to Ireland as a missionary.

In time he became ordained as Patricius and packed himself into a boat back to the land where he had spent his youthful enslaved years. It’s no surprise that he chose a name befitting a man of his rank, for Patrick was certainly not over endowed with humility.

The Christian religion was imposed lightly on the Irish. Patrick knew the language and culture and he wove his lessons over the existing fabric of traditional ritual belief, clearly seen in his placement of the powerful Sun symbol onto the Saviour symbol to form the beautiful Celtic Cross. Popular stories tell how he used the shamrock as a symbol of the Trinity, drove the snakes from Ireland, ousted the High King at Tara and spoke with his God on top of Crough Patrick.

We see in these legends the systematic attempt to eradicate the old religion from Ireland. When Patrick “drove the snakes out of Ireland”, he was banishing the goddess whose symbol was a serpent, but no one had the need to explain the concept of the Trinity to the Irish whether with a shamrock or anything else. The triple aspects of the goddess were well understood and indeed, the shamrock was sacred to her. With the coming of the church of Rome, a lot of the essence of the goddess evolved into St. Brigid, a Christianised version of Brighid.

If you meet someone who is unacceptably coarse, rowdy and vulgar, you can easily say he is beyond the pale and swear never to speak to him again.

The pale here, depending on which side you’re on, is the English Pale or the Irish Pale.

The term appeared during the 14th century, in the areas in Ireland which were ruled by the English and were regarded (by the English) as the last outposts of civilisation. The border was marked by a fence of pointed sticks, the Pale.

Beyond stretched a land of barbarism, stubbornly resistant to the genteel influence of English culture. So anyone who behaved in a socially unacceptable way was beyond the pale.

The Irish had another view of the matter entirely. But this post is concerning the use of the term ‘beyond the pale‘ not about 800 years of occupation.

The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing “is equal to” in his equations. He chose the two lines because “noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle”.

When faced with danger, the octopus can wrap six of its legs around its head to disguise itself as a fallen coconut shell and escape by walking backwards on the other two legs.

and get this … “Restaurant” is the most mis-spelled word in search engines.