Garry Owen Lives!
Posted on August 8, 2010
Five hundred years before Columbus discovered the Western Hemisphere, Vikings were raiding the British Isles. They even attacked along the western shores of Ireland where one settlement took root on the banks of the Shannon River estuary. Two hundred years later Anglo-Normans conquered the area and built a castle to control river traffic. The fortress was named after King John who was later forced to sign the Magna Carta back in England.
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A town grew up around King John’s castle. Apparently the residents were a fun-loving sort as indicated by the ribald poetic form that took the city’s name of Limerick. High ground across the river and toward the south east provided broad commanding views of the castle and surrounding terrain. It was a pleasant place for recreation. While the elderly imbibed under shade trees youths played ball games and other athletic activities on the green, or lingered in hedgerows with fair acquaintances. From the Gaelic words for “garden” and “John” the area got its compound Anglicized name, Garryowen.
In time the “boys of Garryowen” developed a reputation for rowdiness often amplified by generous intoxication. Sometime before the end of the eighteenth century a minstrel, whose name is lost to history, composed a lively tune the Garryowen boys would sing as they staggered from tavern-to-tavern. Read more…
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Opinion Surveys vs. Direct Experience
Posted on April 8, 2009
How do opinion surveys of the uninitiated compare to the knowledge of those with direct experience?
There’s a lot to be said for direct experience.
While looking for an advantageous way to attack the Confederates in the Spring of 1862 the commander of the Federal army in Virginia and his staff approached the Chickahominy River. Stopping at the bank, they pondered whether it was too deep for troops to cross. As the group discussed the matter, one of the youngest staff members rode his horse down the bank and into the river. From his dry saddle at midstream he turned around and shouted back, “This is how deep it is General.” *
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