#No borders on the Island of Ireland

[seachranaidhe]

Predictions for 2023: The Protocol stays, Biden comes, and Donaldson goes – Irish Border Poll

#IRISHUNITY https://irishborderpoll.com/2022/12/28/predictions-for-2023-the-protocol-stays-biden-comes-and-donaldson-goes/

[batarangsoundsdumb]

ngl I am desperately trying to figure out what countries count as British-adjacent, and who wouldn’t be offended by that lol

anything that touches the gnarly claws of their kingdom

[talesfromtheenchantedforest]

("Here the story falls silent about them and speaks about the Saxons from Ireland and the Irish, whose lands bordered the lands belonging to the kings who were waging war against King Arthur")

ah yes, the Saxons, the Saxons from Ireland. there's no such place as Saxony, don't be ridiculous

[externalmemorycomic]

Image description: A black and white illustration, designed to look like a book cover. On a decorative ribbon, the title at the top reads “External Memory”. A scroll work border of leaves and flowers divides the illustration into three rounded panels. The largest panel is in the center and shows a caravan surrounded by greenery, puddles and potted plants. The two smaller panels beneath it show a cartoon cat and mouse respectively, facing each other. At the bottom is another decorative ribbon with the text “a diary comic by My Murphy”. After the cover follows an 8 page comic. The style is cartoonish and the colours are soft pastels. Page one: An orange cat waves and says “Hello! I’m My.” The cat holds up a white mouse and says “This is Mouse, my girlfriend.” Caption: My name is actually My, but Mouse is a nickname for comic and privacy purposes. Caption: When I started this project, me and Mouse lived on a little island off the Swedish coast. The panel shows a stylised, tiny island with a lighthouse, spruce and birch trees, leaning houses and a little dock with a row boat tied to it. The cat and mouse are standing on the cliffs and a swan floats on the water in the foreground. Page two: Caption: Now we’ve moved to Ireland where we live in a caravan in the middle of nowhere. A small caravan, surrounded by greenery, overgrown trees, rocks, puddles and potted plants. The caravan has two windows and the cat and the mouse are looking out of one window each. Caption: We lived on the island to be close to my family. A ribbon with writing on it separates and labels four characters: “mom”, an ermine, “dad”, a wolverine, “brother”, a marmot and “step mom”, a squirrel. The ribbon has been torn in between “mom” and “dad”. Caption: and we moved to Ireland to be close to Mouse’s family. Three characters are shown, each with their own ribbon label. “mother-in-law”, a deer, “sister-in-law”, a jack russell terrier and “brother-in-law”, a hedgehog. Page three: Caption: Me and the mouse are currently in our thirties. The cat lounges on an antique fainting couch and the mouse sleeps on a cushion on the floor. On the floor is an open bag of “let’s” crisps and a laptop. Caption: We’re both pretty decrepit in various ways, so for this comic I draw couches and beds as often as I draw people. Caption: Disability isn’t especially interesting to me, but if a fish made an autobiographical comic… A fish under water paints a four panel comic with a brush held in its mouth. The panels the fish has painted show bubbles, waves and splashing water. Caption: …it’d probably be partly about water, whether the fish cared about water or not. Page four: Caption: My memory has always been pretty crappy. If a friend asks me: “do you remember when...” The question is shown asked by a red robin Caption: I usually have to answer: “no, I don’t.” The panel shows the cat giving this answer while looking away and blushing. Caption: There are many things in my life I’d like to remember. Mom the ermine watches as the cat opens a Christmas gift in front of a Christmas tree. The cat is much smaller than usual, its tail is bushy with excitement and it holds up a big book, “Mort”, with a skull on the cover. Caption: This comic is my EXTERNAL MEMORY so I can capture some of those moments… The cat admires a butterfly hovering above its outstretched paw Caption: …great or small. Page five: Caption: I try to make one strip per day, give or take. Pages with dates written on them blow off of a daily wall calendar by a strong breeze. As they turn over, comic pages are revealed to be drawn on the back. One comic shows the mouse with long fangs, biting the face of the cat and then hissing behind a bat wing. One comic is a pastiche of Tim Buckley’s “Loss” comic and one features a portrait of Frasier Crane and the Seattle skyline. Caption: and on the days when nothing interesting happens A close up shows the cat’s paw drawing a comic panel. In this panel a smaller, rounder version of the cat runs happily in the sunshine carrying a backpack. Caption: I reach back and draw something from my past. Caption: If you read this comic and wonder: A coyote looks at the comic on its phone, strokes its chin suspiciously and asks “did that really happen?” Caption: the answer is always yes. Caption: If you read this comic and wonder: A monkey reads the comic in zine form and think “did they really say that?” Caption: the answer is usually yes. Page six: Caption: When a specific phrase is the point of the strip, it’s recorded verbatim. The mouse says “you’re marching to the beat of the potato drum.” Caption: is a direct quote. Caption: When the point is something else, I sometimes take small liberties to make the memory fit well inside four panels. The cat sits at its drawing table, holding a pair of scissors in one hand and a paper with two comic panels in the other. Caption: Usually that means I make myself or the mouse play the part of the straight man because it will improve a joke. The cat and the mouse, dressed as clowns, stand in a circus tent. The cat pulls the clown nose from the mouse’s face and holds up a pie, ready to strike. Caption: In reality, neither of us is much of a straight man, but all art demands some sacrifices. Caption: In every way that matters, this comic always tells the truth. The cat looks up at a large, glowing, winged sphinx statue version of itself. The statue and framing is a reference to the all knowing Southern Oracle from the film adaptation of “The Neverending Story”. Caption: I am doing this to aid my memory after all, so it wouldn’t be very helpful to make my life seem more funny, interesting or relatable than it really is. The cat draws a comic while watching paint dry on the wall. Caption: That would be a pretty cruel joke to play on my future, more confused self. The cat scratches its head at a drawing of themselves as the winner of a beauty contest, wearing a sash and crown, waving to the crowd and holding flowers. Caption: She’ll probably have enough to contend with… The cat looks suspiciously at its own reflection in the mirror, not recognising it. The drawing is a pastiche of a panel from the webcomic “Gunshow” by KC Green. Caption: Maybe some of my comics will be funny or interesting or relatable to you anyway. That would make me very happy. The cat smiles and presses its paws to its face in joy, seeing that a bear and a horse are reading the comic together and laughing. Cartoon hearts float over the cat. Caption: Some of the comics probably won’t do much for anybody but me, but that’s okay too. The cat presses a page of the comic to its chest, looking contented and protective. In the last panel, the cat and the mouse are floating on air with a blue sky and white clouds behind them. The cat is smiling and twirling around, holding a paint brush out like a wand. From the brush flows paint that swirls around the two figures and making shapes of green leaves and orange and yellow flowers. On two looping blue ribbons appear the last captions: This is a record of my silly little life. Good or bad, I’m glad I get to share it. End ID.

Here’s a little introduction to External Memory! It was fun to make a proper neat and full colour comic - it’s been a while ^^

(If you like this project, please reblog this post! You can also subscribe to my patreon where I post one comic every day ^^)

[jackhkeynes]

Can you give an overview of your conworld and language for new people?

Absolutely! :D

The World

The setting I write in (hereafter "Boralverse") is an alternate history of Earth. The original difference from our own history (hereafter "IRL") is the existence of the island of Borland (Istr Boral) between Great Britain and Denmark, inspired by the IRL existence of Doggerland.

The human pre-classical history of Borland can be summarised as:

With sea level rise about 8k years ago, Borland was cut off from the continent and from Britain (this is when Doggerland was submerged IRL); some Stone Age people remain. They leave some monuments—burial mounds, the Çadrosc labyrinth—and were farmers, but they had no writing or ironworking.

The Celts arrive in Borland shortly before they settle Britain in the second millennium BCE, taking up iron tools and establishing many tribal groups. Due to some later migration from Britain to Borland, they speak a language (Borland Celtic) which is most closely related to Proto-Brythonic.

I assume that as far as possible the history of the rest of the world is indistinguishable from the IRL history up to this point. I continue to do so while the Romans invade and settle Borland shortly after Britain, despite conceding to credulity and allowing a few classical references:

...in Ptolemy's description of the Pritannoi we can understand he referred to the Insular Kelts of Ireland, Britain and Borland as a whole... ...contrasting Hadrian's policies in Britain and in Borland is vital for understanding their different fates in the post-Classical age...

where I admit that the Roman Empire having an entire additional province should probably have some observable effects.

Once the Western Roman Empire collapses, I start properly diverging Boralverse history from IRL history. This begins with a different pattern of Anglo-Saxon migration; the two petty kingdoms of Angland and Southbar arise in western Borland, while the settlement of England proceeds slightly slower than IRL.

Historical divergence spreads through western Europe over the next few centuries, and by 1000 CE things are beginning to go off the rails all across Eurasia and North Africa. I leave the history of the Americas the same until Old World contact (via Basque fishermen stumbling across Newfoundland in 1470 CE), and likewise with Australia.

The map below shows Europe in 1120, during the Second Tetrarchy Period. At this time, Europe was unusually centralised, with four great empires: the First Drengot Empire (red), the German Empire (brown), the Second Roman Empire (purple) and the Single Caliphate (green).

In the modern era, my hope is that the Boralverse world feels fractally uncanny; at every scale something is unexpectedly different, from political borders and languages to fashion and pop culture references.

For clarity, I employ an inconsistent Translation Convention when writing from a Boralverse perspective, mostly using IRL English but peppering in calques of Boralverse English jargon for flavour, such as threshold force "nuclear power" or jalick "garment socially equivalent to a tuxedo".

The Language

The original motivation for this alternate history setting is Borlish (Borallesc), the Romance language spoken on Borland.

It picked up a few Borland Celtic loanwords from the existing population at the time of the conquest (macquar ~ Welsh magu "raise, rear"; vrug ~ Welsh grug "heather"), but was much more influenced through the first millennium by Anglo-Saxon settlement and then Norse conquest during the Viking Age. The following is an example of late Old Borlish (ca. 1240):

…sovravnt il deft nostre saȝntaðesem eð atavalesem n iȝ atrevre golfhavn seȝ hamar dont y verb divin ismetre ac povre paian. peðiv soul ez font istovent por vn nov cliȝs d istroienz istablir… …uphold our most sacred and ancient duty to let Gulfhaven be the centre from which we will send the Word of God to pagan lands. We ask only for the necessary funds for a new teachinghouse…

The Modern Borlish language has undergone spelling standardisation (most recently deprecated some irregular spellings in 1870), and contains many more Latin and Greek loanwords, along with borrowings from languages across the world.

Y stal zajadau dy marcað nogtorn accis par lamp fumer eð y lun fragnt de mar receven cos equal party a domn pescour pevr jarras e fenogl gostant tan eð eç nobr robað n'ornament fluibond ant queldin raut frigsað ne papir cerous. The night market's various stalls lit by smoky lamps and the sea-shattered moon welcomed flocks of fishwives sampling paprika and fennel as well as notables in flowing finery carrying stir-fried suppers in wax papers.

In terms of sound changes and grammatical developments, the major points include:

Intervocalic lenition /p t k b d g/ > /v ð j ∅ ∅ ∅/: catēna > caðen "chain", dēbēre > deïr "must".

The use of ç (and c before e i y) for /ts/, and the use of g in coda to represent /j/. Along with some vowel shifts, this leads to things like cigl /tsajl/ "darling".

Total loss of final consonants in multisyllable words, including -s, which leads to:

Collapse of noun declension, including number; Borlish does not mark number on nouns, and if it wants to it uses demonstratives or simply relies of verb agreement: l'oc scuir pasc, l'ec scuir pascn "this boy eats, these boys eat".

[scotianostra]

31st of August is the Feast day of St Aidan.

Not much is known about Aidan’s early life, it is thought he was born in Connach Ireland.

St. Aidan began his life of service on the Isle of Iona, the monastery at Iona was established by Irish monks under St. Columba, during the so-called “dark ages.” About a century later, in St. Aidan’s time, the monastery had become a major center of Gaelic Christianity and was receiving and sending monks across Europe.

By this time, Christianity in Northern England was largely replaced by the paganism of both native Britons and the Anglo-Saxon conquerors. The Kingdom of Northumbria (northern England and south-east Scotland) had just been reconquered by King St. Oswald of Northumbria. There was no Scotland or England as such back then, and no real borders Oswald brought the two Northumbrian kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira once again under a single ruler, and promoted the spread of Christianity,the North of Bernica are now part of the South of Scotland.

Oswald took back his father’s throne at the Battle of Heavenfield, where he prepared by praying before a wooden cross, legend says it was a relic of the True Cross. Next, Oswald beheld a vision of St. Columba who promised victory if his generals would be baptized. At council, all agreed to be baptized the night before and victory came to Oswald.

Oswald’s Northumbrian kingdom was small but remarkably diverse. Such was it you could hear at least four languages within the kingdom’s borders and there was a mix of church ruins and pagan sites dotting the landscape. While Christianity was initially brought to Britain by Roman saints, and strengthened by Sts. Gregory and Augustine of Canterbury, it had fallen away from the Britons with the Anglo-Saxon invasions.

When Oswald was killed in battle in 642, Aidan worked equally well with Oswin, king of Deira. Aidan preached widely throughout Northumbria, travelling on foot, so that he could readily talk to everyone he met. When Oswin gave him a horse for use in difficult terrain, Aidan gave it to a beggar soliciting alms. Oswin was angry until, as Bede recounts, Aidan asked if the son of a mare was more precious to the king than a son of God. Oswin sought Aidan's pardon, and promised never again to question or regret any of his wealth being given away to children of God. Both Oswald and Oswin are venerated in England as saints and martyrs.

Scores of Scottish and Irish monks assisted Aidan in his missionary work, building churches and spreading Celtic Christian influence to a degree that Lindisfarne became the virtual capital of Christian England. The saint also recruited classes of Anglo-Saxon youths to be educated at Lindisfarne. Among them was Saint Eata, abbot of Melrose and later of Lindisfarne. In time, Eata's pupil, Saint Cuthbert, also became bishop of Lindisfarne.

Aidan lived a frugal life, and encouraged the laity to fast and study the scriptures. He himself fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays, and seldom ate at the royal table. When a feast was set before him he would give the food away to the hungry. The presents he received were given to the poor or used to buy the freedom of slaves, some of whom entered the priesthood. During Lent Aidan would retire to the small island of Farne for prayer and penance. While there in 651, he saw smoke rising from Bamburgh, which was then under attack by the pagan King Penda of Mercia. He prayed for the wind to change, and many of the besiegers were destroyed by fire.

When Oswin was killed in 651 by his treacherous cousin Oswy, king of Bernicia, Aidan was grief-stricken. The saint outlived Oswin by a mere twelve days, dying in a shelter he had erected against the wall of his church in Bamburgh.

The first pic shows tomb of St Aidan, St Aidan's Church, Bamburgh, the second is a stained glass window depicting Aidan at the Monastic Chapel, Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, New York.

[xphaiea]

flying witches • from Walter Scott’s ‘Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft’ • 1830 • illustrator unknown

“…the shoreline of the UK mainland alone is more than five times as long as that of France, and once you add Ireland and all the islands of both countries, you have a lot more edge than middle. Legends flourish in these borders between land and sea. All things supernatural favour the territory linking one state with another - twilight between day and dark, doorways and gates beween in and out, bridges, dreams between sleeping and waking. The shore is another liminal area, joining earth to water, known to unknown, and this is the setting for some of the most beautiful, terrible, and memorable tales of folklore.”

Introduction to The Fabled Coast: Legends & Traditions From Around The Shores of Britain & Ireland (Stephen Kingshill & Jennifer Westwood

[luimnigh]

What happened to Brexit and the impact on the Irish border? It seemed like a really big deal and then Covid hit and I lost all news about it. I imagine putting a hard border there made life much worse for many commuters. Did the border become a target for terrorists the way some people worried it would? Also if you know anything about the situation in Hong Kong that seemed to fall off the radar too.

So the problem in regards to Northern Ireland and Brexit was that there were three option on where to place a border. And there needed to be a border, legally, in order to do customs checks.

Those options were:

Between the two islands and Europe, which couldn't be done because Ireland has no intention of leaving thr European Union.

Between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which would be a breach in the legal obligations set forth in the Good Friday Agreement, an internationally recognized treaty.

Between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, also known as the Irish Sea Border. But this would hurt the feelings of the DUP, the major unionist (pro-UK) party in Northern Ireland.

Now, the reason why the Irish Sea Border was unworkable was because Theresa May held an early election, and lost the Conservative Party's majority. So they turned to the DUP to supply them votes in Parliament. An Irish Sea Border became impossible, because the DUP would pull out of the supply agreement and end the government.

Then after May resigned, Boris Johnson held a new early election, and won a majority without the DUP. So guess what suddenly became an option again?

The UK finally did a deal with the EU that agreed to a Irish Sea Border, called the Northern Ireland Protocol, in December 2019. It means that officially Northern Ireland is outside of the EU, but agrees to follow all EU customs and free movement of good rules. There are no customs checks on goods moving from Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK, but there are customs checks on goods moving from the rest of the UK to Northern Ireland.

This upset the DUP, and in February 2022 they brought down the Government of Northern Ireland. Elections happened in May 2022, and they lost their position as Northern Ireland's largest party to their nationalist (pro-Ireland) rivals, Sinn Féin. This upset the DUP even more, so they've refused to start a new Northern Irish government (it's legally required that the biggest nationalist and unionist parties form a coalition to make the Northern Irish government).

So yeah. We avoided the hard border, but now Northern Ireland is without it's devolved government, and the UK Government doesn't care enough to force a new election. Ireland and Northern Ireland are becoming closer economically, while the UK and Northern Ireland are shifting away (with recent announcement of product packaging that labels items as being "not for EU"). The Unionists are angry, but not enough to do much more than their usual posturing and mild rioting.

Overall, probably the best we could have hoped for.

[ayeforscotland]

Did you see that youtuber RealLifeLore's latest video, 'Why NATO's Biggest Weakness is Scotland'? It starts out as a pretty fair retelling of Scottish Independence's recent history and then quickly turns into a huge hit piece on the idea of Scottish Independence, claiming that doing so would lead to NATO losing it's edge in the North Atlantic, and letting Russia encroach.

Normally I'd just brush this off but this guy has like 7 million subscribers. idk it's just disheartening to see from someone w such a huge following.

Hey, just watched it - thanks for flagging it in. I almost want to make a video in response! I'm going to start by saying I don't like this video and I don't like most videos done in this infographic style. I think the fancy graphics often help mask how disjointed the video actually is. The video starts off strong with a retelling of the political situation of the UK. Scottish referendum in 2014, Brexit etc. It's also a good summary of why Scottish independence is a threat to the UK with regards to Oil fields and the like. The problem is that around the halfway mark the video descends into a complete reductive mess with wild assumptions portrayed as likely outcomes. For a start, the assumption that Scotland would copy Ireland and maintain military neutrality. Most people in Scotland passively or actively support membership of NATO, even unionists who hate the idea of Scottish independence would want an independent Scotland to be in NATO.

In Scotland we're well aware of our strategic position in the North Atlantic. The video assumes that Scotland will 'pick up our ball and go home' rather than work with strategic partners. I can't imagine a world where it would be in Scotland's interests to allow Russian nuclear submarines into the North Atlantic. The video also gets more than a few things wrong. Oil and Gas fields are marked incorrectly. Faslane Naval Base is not located in a 'sparsely, remote area' - it is 30 minutes from our largest population centre. The US Naval Bases in his graphic are marked as being in Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. There's also no mention of the strategic position of the Faroe islands which is conveniently left out for some reason. I think the creator was struggling to fill space and needed more graphics to draw on screen. I think that's why he starts talking about the Catholic/Protestant demographic split in Northern Ireland. I enjoyed the bit about Trans-Atlantic, Cross-Border Dataflows - that's something I know a fair but about! It should have been its own video because it's actually super interesting. However, when it's tacked onto to a point about Scotland allowing Russian subs to enter the North Atlantic so they can start destroying the cables - it stretches the video into an over-dramatisation of an absurd outcome. I don't know much about the creator of the video - but I'm getting a whiff of arm-chair general with some slight masturbatory inclinations towards a full-scale global conflict. At the end, it gets to the point where he draws a battle-plan for Russian submarines coming from Murmansk and says Scottish independence will dramatically increase the likelihood of the event. I hate to say it, but it's a very 'American who likes to think they know a lot about geopolitics' video.

[a-super-evil-cat-who-murders]

Redid the borders of the map for Ice Child, and readjusted it to match the dimensions a little better. The changes were mainly done to be more meaningful and thus better reflect the cultures, as well as to incorporate some better understanding of the art styles I'm (roughly) mimicking.

As with the previous version, the top bar, and the right side and corners are for the "Ceorlish" people, pagan tribes migrating to an island named Partania. The bottom bar, and left side are reflective of the "Partanians", an iteration of a much earlier culture on the island, heavily changed by the Tiberian Empire that ruled over them for 300 years.

More info and details below:

The top bar, showing intertwined serpents, wheels, birds, and two men engaged in a sword dance.

The top right corner, showing 4 tangled wyrms, flanked by ravens.

The right band shows the story of the Ceorlish migration to Partania. From the top: Haleþ Oshere is slain in battle against the King of the Obii, this, alongside rising sea levels forces them from their old homelands. Frigfrea, the Ceorlish goddess of plants, life, and family, is shown looking towards the island, she communicates this to the other gods and the Ceorlish. Her hair tangles with the hair of Weland, the Ceorlish god of crafts and work, who inspires the building of boats that carry the Ceorlish to their new home. This migration is symbolized with the antlered head of Dirling, the god of the wild, animals, and travel. It then depicts the discovery of Scin Igland (the shining island), where they find a gleaming hawthorn tree. The tree is flanked by ravens and robins, birds considered emblematic of Witenos and Thanor, the gods of the mind, knowledge, and magic, and the god of storms, the sky, and will, respectively. Two dogs flank the rune for Frigfrea, symbolizing their settling of the land, and the establishment of a new home. Two warriors are shown clashing, the left one is clad in Partanian and Tiberian armor, representing the Partanians, the left is in ceremonial Ceorlish armor. They, and the tangled serpent between them represent the conflict between the Partanians and the Ceorlish. The rune for Hæl, the god of death and change, flanked by two ravens, and twisting serpents representing the turmoil of the world.

A willow tree, representing Witenos, two cats, hares, and hounds, and a pair of tangled serpents all surround the rune for Eorðe, the mother goddess of the world.

The Partanian borders feature geometric interlace, with a special focus on the X shape that symbolizes the martyr, Ceset, who was crucified by the Tiberian Empire, only for his religion to replace the Imperial Pantheon a 100 years later. Triquetras and Trefoils accompany the interlace, and while they have been syncretized with the Cesetist faith, the were originally symbols of the 3 ancient gods of Partania.

_____________________________

IRL, the two styles are inspired the Anglo-Saxons for the Ceorlish, and Celtic for the Partanians. Both would roughly fit under the category of "Insular" art, also called Hiberno-Saxon (for Ireland and England, the two centers of the style). The rough difference I cut between the two is that English/Ceorlish uses animalistic imagery, human figures, and is irregular and asymmetric. Meanwhile, the Celtic/Partanian style is geometic, symmetrical, and relies on symbol.

[shiverandqueeef]

extremely long and detailed answers below! i may or may not have gone full adhd hyper focus mode on this one 😅

VOTE BEFORE GOING ANY FURTHER!!

or read ahead and vote once you know the correct answer i don't control you - you do you bud

there is an american state canadians affectionately refer to as "south canada"

good ol' minnesota! basically, minny and parts of canada (mainly ontario and BC) have such similar climates, flora/fauna, and culture that it's pretty easy to see each other as cross border cousins. it's almost like political borders are social constructs or something. wild. anyways, one factor of the whole two lands pointing at each other and yelling "same hat!" is the not insignificant portion of minnesotans who have canadian ancestry. a shared passion for hockey is another (arguably more significant) factor in canadians' continued fondness for this one very specific region of america.

-> british columbians also really like portland (we find common ground in being unbearably pretentious) but the rest of canada makes fun of us for it.

the base of our national cocktail is vodka, tomato...and clam juice

okay so it's called a caesar and is basically a bloody mary with one major difference. here's a list of ingredients:

and for those not in the know, clamato juice is a combination of tomato and clam.

yeah. istg it's actually a delicious cocktail. though admittedly i may have been indoctrinated at an early age.

we share a land border with our ultimate archenemy: Denmark

The Whiskey Wars! okay so Hans Island is this dinky little uninhabited piece of land literally smaller than 2 clicks long, and both canada and denmark have tried to claim as their own since like, the late 1800s. it was a low key, essentially meaningless land dispute for a decent chunk of the 20th century but then. it's the 80s and a group of canadian soldiers are fucking wrecked on cocaine. they roll up to hans island, plant a canadian flag in the barren ground and place underneath it a bottle of primo canadian whiskey. denmark responds by hauling ass to the flag site and replacing it with their own, drinking the whiskey and leaving a bottle of danish schnapps. thus began 3 decades of international capture the flag, where we basically took turns planting our flags and leaving each other liquor, sometimes with cute little notes trash talking one another. naval ships passing each other in international water and emphatically waving their flags at each other became a time honoured tradition.

in 2022, canada and denmark officially settled the dispute by splitting the island down the middle and each taking half. it was meant as a symbolic gesture of solidarity with ukraine after it was invaded by russia, which. kinda stupid? but also kind of lovely. and now we get to share a land border with our beloved frenemy <3

there is a province in which everybody speaks with an irish sounding accent

girl. please allow me to let me tell you about Newfoundland and Labrador, canada's easternmost province, and an island unto themselves. like they are literally an island but also just so culturally unlike anywhere else in the country. during the colonization of canada, the majority of europeans who settled in the area were from either Ireland or the West Country of england. between the two you have like, 8 distinct dialects, and that's before you add the influence of scottish, french, and algonquian. this linguistic stew bubbled away and over the years has resulted in the newfie accent/dialect. it is delightful. newfies are also just super friendly in general towards visiting mainlanders (but watch out! they will lull you into a false sense of safety with their hospitality and then gleefully drink you under the table. you have never had a hangover like the hangover from a newfie drinking contest. if one challenges you just. say. no.)

they also cook steaks to the point they become utterly indistinguishable from a hockey puck but it's okay, we forgive them.

here's a clip of american comedian Gianmarco Soresi encountering a newfie accent in the wild during a gig in edmonton (the title calls him a 'dumb american' but it's from his own youtube channel)

we had a 90s hair fad called "the beaver" it was like a mullet! but worse :)

NOT TRUE! thank god. although if it was true i'd like to think that it would have by now been appropriated and by some enigmatic lesbian magicks made sexy (as they have so successfully done with the mullet)

we passed a law specifically to ensure "sorry" is not an admission of liability

i know right. apparently because it's so common in canada to use "sorry" not only as an apology, but also as an expression of sympathy, the government instituted "apology laws." they preclude courts, tribunals, and arbitrators from finding that an apology is an admission of liability.

there was this one time we burned the white house down. allegedly. (sorry)

America has actually invaded Canada twice (in 1775 and 1812). they lost pretty much every battle -thanks in large part to the unsung efforts of first nation and indigenous tribes who sided with the british. anyways it was in 1812 that canadians invaded america right back, took control of the capital, and burned a bunch of shit down - including the white house! canadians are very proud of this, despite the fact it was ~technically~ a war between america and britain. "canada" didn't exist as an official country until 1867 but...well. what is historical accuracy in the face of an opportunity to mock america ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

iconic canadian musical comedy trio The Arrogant Worms have a whole song about it. it's a wild oversimplification of events and also a total banger

to this day america's official position is that this very much did not happen.

the majority of canadian kids grow up playing soccer instead of hockey

while hockey is the official winter sport of canada (lacrosse is the official summer sport) and hands down the most watched sport in the country, the majority of canadian families simply can not afford to let their kids play it. with expensive equipment, league fees, and travel expenses (just to name a few), hockey currently costs more than equestrian sports. you can own and care for an actual goddamn horse for less money than it takes to put your kids in hockey. so while most kids grow up playing pond hockey and shinny in the backyard, only a privileged minority ever become involved at a competitive level

our money is plastic, holographic, and semi-transparent (and sometimes pink!)

our money is so pretty you guys!!! it looks like it belongs in a barbie play set. also, every bill has braille on it for the vision-impaired! we are the only country who has this which is. genuinely wtf. it's such an obvious and easy accommodation

just ignore all the faces of various colonizers and imperialists and look at the pretty colours and shiny bits 🙃

and that's all folks! i hope you had fun and maybe learned a little about canada. if you found any of this interesting, i would say "look into more fun and funky fresh canadian history!" but honestly? our history texts are kinda infamously dry and boring. unless you focus on resources from indigenous, first nations, metis and/or inuit voices, and then it gets real interesting real fast. also infuriating. hey did you know canada had chattel slavery for a hot second? anyways this was meant to be about silly things only. here, enjoy this video from a 1994 episode of sketch comedy show Royal Canadian Air Farce ft. legendary Oneida actor Graham Greene

[seachranaidhe]

Brexit: UK and EU to restart talks over NI Protocol - BBC News

Brexit: UK and EU to restart talks over NI Protocol – BBC News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63081585 Scotland, Wales and the North of Ireland have refused to give consent to Brexit – but Westminster isn’t listening!!!

[historia-vitae-magistras]

Can you tell us more about who England refers too as mother? And did you divide the UK siblings roughly into two pairs because of Roman Britain? I'm sorry you just keep dropping hints and no one else has asked 💌

Oh lord, okay. So disclaimer, working with prehistory is a fucking crap shoot. Archaeology has a lot of interpretations and not as many facts as historians and archivists like me, especially who studied modern history, would like. And even when history does come to the islands in the form of the Roman writers, that is also largely questionable because propaganda is as old as human communication. So I try to work with what we do know, but before a certain point, I'm basically writing fantasy. But also, no one has to work with history ever in a fucking stupid anime fandom. I'm just a diagnosed anxious headcase who copes with the uncertainty of existence by researching the fuck out of every choice I've ever made sober, including this shitshow of a blog and predecessors. Most of my focus is on much later history, so I'm taking a minimalist approach here and making as little work for myself as possible while at least taking some guidance from history to fit the themes I like so none of this is likely going to be the best take, tbh. That said, onwards into the breach, I fucken guess.

Can you tell us more about who England refers to as mother?

Yes. So most of the time, the conglomerate characters of "Germania" or the fanon "Native America," where dozens and hundreds and thousands of politically interlocked or entirely separate cultures are smushed into one character, make zero sense to me. In the case of Native America, it's downright racist, and in the case of Germania it's basically sucking Tacitus off 2,000 years after the fact. But Brittania could make sense. Being an island separated from mainland Europe made for some attractive socio-political and cultural unity hinted at in writing after the Roman invasion and before the fact in the archaeological record. But how long before the Romans? Where do I begin with Brittania, eh? The Red Lady of Paviland? The Creswell Crags? The Starr Mesolithic Site? Neolithic Chambered Tomb-Shrines? Stonehenge? The Iron Age Hillforts? Ah! There we go, the Celtic arrival in Britain. i.e. the option that makes me do the least work to get the job done. The Celts arrive in Britain about 1,300-800 BCE and in Ireland about 800-500 BCE depending on who you read. There is one tribe among the Celtic that had strong links to Britain and Ireland. The Brigantes were stuck in the border region between what is today Scotland and England, with at least some sort of material connections in Wales and Ireland. So my shortcut to a decent storyline that had some basis in fact, was to have her people interpret her as their patron goddess of Brigantia and link her tightly to Celtic paganism and weakened by the invasions of Rome but also the widespread adoption of Christianity in the 5th century. She was a proud woman who enjoyed the worship she once knew and who loved her children fiercely. She was every bit a Cartimandua or Boudicca. And when Christ and his nails bled her to death, her sons eventually dug her a barrow at the foot of an iron age hillfort, and her only daughter braided her hair and placed her golden jewelry on her one last time and their world was never the same.

And did you divide the UK siblings roughly into two pairs because of Roman Britain?

Yes and no. The Romans did take and hold England and Wales but Wales was much harder to hold onto. Under the Romans, life didn't change there or in Scotland nearly as much as in England. My main reason for splitting them into Brighid and Alasdair and Rhys and Arthur beyond much more modern politics is linguistic. Scottish Gaelic is much more related to Irish than it is to Welsh. And the Welsh word Cymru once referred to both the Welsh and Cumbrians. Now Cumbrian is a fascinating little language that is now dead, but it left a fantastic legacy in its counting system. @oumaheroes headcanons it as being something he uses to refer to his weans, and I, sobbing, concur wholeheartedly. I also have made random references to a shitfaced Arthur babbling in Cumbrian. So with that being a Celtic language in what is today England, et voila, two pairs.

[artisticmiles]

I see that you are taking requests 👁️👁️

May I request NY hc’s?

NY and California are in a qpr/ non-sexual relationship. They've been together since the 70s when Cal started trying to get clean.

Only 4.9% of his population is without healthcare coverage, so he's a big advocate for affordable heathcare.

Whenever he vacations somewhere out of the US, it is always to Italy or Ireland. His population is 11% Italian and 10% Irish, which is double the national average.

He speaks many languages, but other than English, he is most fluent in Yiddish.

He never brings it up in meetings bc it would set Texas off so bad, but he's a proponent of open borders. A 5th of his population is foreign born. If it was up to him, he'd open Ellis Island back up

[daywalkers-fic]

12. why the 1880s?

something about this decade really sings to me. I find in particular, nearing the end of the nineteenth century, so much was happening on around the world in terms of arts, politics, technology, colonization. world events and global news don’t personally reach the day-to-day lives of the everyday folk, but they are an important part in gauging what life, thought, and society was about—what things were important then and now?

basically for myself, reminding me of notable things that occured during the 1880s—some thematic, some of relevance to context and characters, and the rest just ?? interesting and/or wild?

cocaine is a hot new cure for everything and anything. perscribed, sold in foods and more. heroine introduced as a lesser-addictive substitute for morphine…

lots of developments in fields of psychology; many experiments and happenings; Freud starts his work 1886.

1880-1914 had +twenty million immigrants to the United States: Germany, Ireland, England, China had the most arrivals.

William Dorsey Swann, the first self-proclaimed drag queen, organizes a series of drag balls in Washington, D.C. 1880-1890s.

Jack the Ripper claims his “first” victim in 1888 White Chapel, London. big scare.

Sherlock Holmes first appears in Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study In Scarlet as part of the British magazine’s Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887.

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is published in 1886. Gothic fiction, drawing from emerging fields of science and psychology. & Treasure Island was published earlier in 1883 by him too!

Mark Twain drops The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889).

Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant’s second novel is published in 1885. about a man who seduces and manipulates high society French women in the French colonies for power and wealth. MOVIE WAS ADAPTED IN 2012 STARTING ROBERT PATTINSON LOL

western European art movements very romantic and swirly and pretty: Monet, Debussy xoxo.

meanwhile, African American ragtime music becomes the “pop” music across the pond here.

North Dakota (1889), South Dakota (1889), Montana (1889), Washington (1889) become states.

train segregation laws flag beginning of Jim Crow; Civil Rights Movement of 1875 voided, making discrimination in private is not illegal, and prohibiting state intervention to personal or commercial segregation. l*nching continues throughout the south. slavery may be over on paper, but indentured labour is legal.

1882 infamous O.K Corral gunfight.

Gold Rush continues, all over the world—South Africa, to British Columbia, to California, to Argentina, to Russia-China borders.

centuries of American “Indian” wars continue.

American Dawes Act of 1887 granted American government authorization to regulate indigenous lands, including creating and assigning and enforcing reservations.

Sitting Bull’s 1883 speech of the atrocities experienced at the hands of white American settler colonists.

Canadian Pacific Railway 1881-1885. foreign labourers were hired to do a lot of heavy, dangerous, unwanted work. in America, more than 100,000km of tracks were laid by majority Chinese, Irish, Scandinavian workers.

America’s Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Canada’s Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 was officiated, enforcing law of a Head Tax to be paid for every Chinese person entering North America. over the course of the next couple of decades, the fee of $1,500 was doubled to $5,000 was increased 500% to $25,000 in today’s currency—per person. this had devastating and lasting impacts on generations and societies of Chinese living both overseas and already in North America. propaganda at this time created many racist myths that persist today: there are too many Asians, they are taking our jobs, (the men) are gross and effeminate and a threat to (white) women, they shady and scheming people. these were the first and only major federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality in American and Canadian history. (I study Asian Canadian history, I can go on about this all day)

Tong Wars (1883-1913) had Chinatown gangs and factions in violent street wars across America, San Fransisco to New York.

large, targeted, and repeated anti-Jewish rioting (pogorm) and antisemitism rampant throughout Imperial Russia, 1881-1882 had more than two hundred anti-Jewish events alone. Jews continue to be racialized and othered.

fuck ton of colonization happening in Africa and the Middle East, Southeast Asia. Berlin conference 1884-1885 literally chopped up Africa to distribute to European powers.

Irish nationalist efforts to push forth Home Rule bill of sovereignty is defeated in British Parliament. Irish are not “white”, they are “othered” in Europe and in Americas.

use of photographic film pioneered by George Eastman, who started manufacturing film. his first camera (Kodak) was ready for sale in 1888.

Thomas Edison gets lit in New York 1883 with first electrical power station. next several year sees major cities being lit up with street lamps and public lighting with the science and works of a Nikolas Tesla (1886-1893).

hell of a lot more inventions in the works and patents being claimed. Hertz and radiowaves, Bell for telephone services.

“Between the years of 1850–1900, women were placed in mental institutions for behaving in ways the male society did not agree with”

way too much history to cram, obviously. here are some keywords for further research oki

prison industry / spiritualism / opium epidemic / irregular and uneven “modernizations” in rural vs. urban areas / class and poverty gaps / morality scares, checks, comparisons, gaps / new businesses and gadgets, products, tech to help with anything / fascination of the (colonial) Other; side shows, “freak shows” and other human zoos

[brookston]

Holidays 8.11

Holidays

Alcatraz Day

Annual Medical Check-Up Day

Border Guard Day (Turkmenistan)

Brother's Day

Builder’s Day (Former USSR Nations)

Burry Man Parade Day (Scotland)

Cheech and Chong Day (San Antonio, Texas)

Chris Hemsworth Day

Constitution Day (Anguilla)

Day of the Latvian Freedom Fighters (Latvia)

Deimos and Phobos Discovery Day (Moons of Mars)

Dog Days of Summer end

811 Day

Fair Day (Puck Fair, Day 2; Ireland)

Festival of Happy Feet

Fiesta de Santa Clara (New Mexico)

Flag Day (Pakistan)

Freethinkers Day

Gay Uncles Day (a.k.a. Guncles Day)

Global Kinetic Sand Day

Green Bay Packers Day

Health Center Staff Appreciation Day

Heroes' Day (Zimbabwe)

Hip Hop Celebration Day

Hug a Tiny Day

Ingersoll Day

Inula Day (French Republic)

Koomu Alezer’i (Elder Scrolls)

Mountain Day (Japan)

National Align Your Teeth Day

National Canine Companion Graduation Day

National Day of Civic Hacking

National Face Mask Day

National Hip Hop Day

National Minority Day (Pakistan)

National Safe Digging Day

Navy Day (Bulgaria)

Nutritionist Day (Mexico)

Play in the Sand Day

Presidential Joke Day

Roller Rink Day

Son’s and Daughter’s Day

SOS Day

Veterinary Workers Day (Ukraine)

Watts Riots Anniversary Day (Los Angeles)

WIT Brag Day

World Krill Day

World Steelpan Day (Trinidad & Tobago)

Food & Drink Celebrations

International Fufu Day

National Bakewell Tart Day (UK)

National Instant Coffee Day

National Panini Day

National Raspberry Bombe Day

National Raspberry Tart Day

Independence & Related Days

Balochistan (from UK, 1947) [unrecognized]

Chad (from France, 1960)

Ebenthal (Declared; 2014) [unrecognized]

Penang (Ceded to the British by Rajah of Kedah; 1786)

2nd Sunday in August

Bagel Day [2nd Sunday]

Children’s Day (Chile) [2nd Sunday]

Day of Cantabria (Spain) [2nd Sunday]

Father’s Day (Brazil, Samoa) [2nd Sunday]

Gay Uncles Day [2nd Sunday]

Melon Day (Turkmenistan) [2nd Sunday]

National Day [2nd Sunday]

Spirit of ’45 Day [2nd Sunday]

Victory Day (Rhode Island) [2nd Sunday]

V-J Day (a.k.a. Victory Day) [2nd Sunday]

Weekly Holidays beginning August 11 (2nd Full Week of August)

Feeding Pets of the Homeless Week (thru 8.17) [2nd Week]

National Health Center Week (thru 8.17) [2nd Week]

National Resurrect Romance Week (thru 8.17) [2nd Full Week]

National Smile Week (thru 8.17) [2nd Full Week]

Festivals Beginning August 11, 2024

Beacon Sloop Club Corn Festival (Beacon, New York)

Bludfest (Milton Keynes, United Kingdom)

Carytown Watermelon Festival (Richmond, Virginia)

Comiket [Comic Market] (Tokyo, Japan) [thru 8.12]

Czech Heritage Festival (Bechyn, Minnesota)

Hugo Awards (Glasgow, Scotland)

Italian American Festival (Akron, Ohio) [thru 8.13]

Kadayawan Festival (Davao City, Philippines) [thru 8.18]

Montrose Blueberry Festival (Montrose, Michigan) [thru 8.18]

Oslo Jazzfestival (Oslo, Norway) [thru 8.17]

Feast Days

Alexander the Charcoal-Burner (Christian; Martyr)

Alex Haley (Writerism)

Ancestor Day III (Pagan)

Andre Dubus II (Writerism)

Athracht (a..k.a. Attracta or Araght; Christian; Saint & Virgin)

Blaan (a.k.a. Blane; Christian; Saint)

Byron (Positivist; Saint)

Clare of Assisi (Christian; Saint)

Clare Foley Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Claude Joseph Vernet (Artology)

Day Honoring Oddudua (a.k.a. Mother of All Gods; Santeria)

Don Freeman (Artology)

Enid Blyton (Writerism)

Equitius (Christian; Saint)

Fiacre (Christian; Saint)

Gaugericus (a.k.a. Gery; Christian; Saint)

Gerard of Gallinaro and His Companions (Christian)

Great Quackini (Muppetism)

Jim Lee (Artology)

John Henry Newman (Church of England)

Leila (Christian; Saint & Virgin)

Mick Foley Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Morris Weiss (Artology)

Philomena (Christian; Saint)

Puck Fair (Irish Fertility Festival; Everyday Wicca)

Rakish Bandhan 2022 (Hindusim) [Last day of Śrāvaṇa]

Rum Quaffing Day (Pastafarian)

Sidhe (Place of Peace; Celtic Book of Days)

Susanna (Christian; Saint)

Taurinus of Évreux (Christian; Saint)

Tiburtius and Chromatius (Christian; Martyrs)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [32 of 53]

Prime Number Day: 223 [48 of 72]

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

The Abyss (Film; 1989)

Advise and Consent, by Allen Drury (Novel; 1959)

After Dark, My Sweet, by Jim Thompson (Novel; 1955)

Almost Human (TV Series; 2013)

American Graffiti (Film; 1973)

Atypical (TV Series; 2017)

C’est Chic, by Chic (Album; 1978)

Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke (Novel; 1953)

Corduroy, by Don Freeman (Children’s Book; 1968)

Dangerous Minds (Film; 1995)

Danny Deckchair (Film; 2004)

Doug (Animated TV Series; 1991)

Down to Earth, by Jimmy Buffett (Album; 1970)

Food for Feeding’ (Disney Cartoon; 1950)

Free Ride, by The Edgar Winter Group (Song; 1973)

A Hard Day’s Night (Beatles US Film; 1964)

The Harmony of the World, by Paul Hindemith (Opera; 1957)

Henpecked (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1930)

Hey, Soul Sister, by Train (Song; 2009)

His Better Elf (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1958)

His Hare Raising Tale (WB LT Cartoon; 1951)

Hypnotic Eyes (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1933)

Le Freak, by Chic (Song; 1978)

I Left My Heart in San Francisco, by Tony Bennett (Song; 1962)

In This Corner (and Other Corners) of the World (Anime Film; 2017)

The Life of Emile Zola (Film; 1938)

The Magicians, by Lev Grossman (Novel; 2009)

Need You Know, by Lady Antebellum (Song; 2009)

Orphan’s Benefit (Disney Cartoon; 1934)

Party in the U.S.A., by Miley Cyrus (Song; 2009)

Pete’s Dragon (Film; 2016)

Popeye Makes a Movie (Fleischer/Famous Popeye Cartoon; 1950)

Puppet Love (Fleischer/Famous Popeye Cartoon; 1944)

The Psychedelic Experience, by Timothy Leary (Science Book; 1964)

The Ren & Stimpy Show (Animated TV Series; 1991)

The Replacements (Film; 2000)

Rugrats (Animated TV Series; 1991)

Runaway Brain (Disney Cartoon; 1995)

The Screwdriver (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1941)

Step Up (Film; 2006)

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, by Pam Adams (Children’s Book; 1973)

3:47 EST, by Klaatu (Album; 1976)

Two-Headed Giant (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1939)

The View (TV Talk Show; 1997)

A Walk in the Clouds (Film; 1995)

What If…? (Animated TV Series; 2021)

You Beat Me To the Punch, by Mary Wells (Song; 1962)

Today’s Name Days

Klara, Susanna (Austria)

Jasminka, Jasna, Klara, Suzana (Croatia)

Zuzana (Czech Republic)

Herman (Denmark)

Sanna, Sanne, Susanna, Suusi (Estonia)

Sanna, Sanni, Susanna, Susanne (Finland)

Claire, Gilberte, Suzanne (France)

Klara, Susanne (Germany)

Efpious (Greece)

Tiborc, Zsuzsanna (Hungary)

Chiara, Lelia, Susanna (Italy)

Liega, Olga, Zita (Latvia)

Klara, Ligija, Visalgas, Visvilė, Zuzana (Lithuania)

Tarald, Torvald (Norway)

Aleksander, Herman, Ligia, Lukrecja, Włodzimierz, Włodziwoj, Zula, Zuzanna (Poland)

Zuzana (Slovakia)

Clara, Susana (Spain)

Susanna (Sweden)

Susanna (Ukraine)

Laila, Layla, Leila, Leilani, Lela, Lelia, Nayeli (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 224 of 2024; 142 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 7 of Week 32 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Coll (Hazel) [Day 9 of 28]

Chinese: Month 7 (Ren-Shen), Day 8 (Ding-Wei)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 7 Av 5784

Islamic: 5 Safar 1446

J Cal: 14 Purple; Sevenday [14 of 30]

Julian: 29 July 2024

Moon: 41%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 27 Dante (8th Month) [Byron]

Runic Half Month: As (Gods) [Day 4 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 53 of 94)

Week: 2nd Full Week of August

Zodiac: Leo (Day 21 of 31)