Some follow-up thoughts over the past few days.
Story of Ireland
Bob commented on Story of Ireland: 1798, wondering why the last episode of Story of Ireland was rescheduled. It was moved from its regular slot at 1900 on Monday to 1710 on Sunday.
I don’t know either, Bob. There I was thinking “Great! A popular but balanced and fairly detailed history and at prime time!” when – ooops, the rug’s pulled away and it gets stuffed into the wastelands of Sunday afternoon viewing.
The Monday evening slot’s filled by James May and his model railway. Now I know he’s very popular, but this was a repeat – the programme had only been on the night before.
Ironically, the snooze-in-front-of-the-telly 1710 slot was followed by… eek! Richard Hammond and Top Gear and then the first showing of young May’s train tale. Someone was having fun there.
None of which really explains the weird scheduling.
Vinegar Hill
A couple of questions have been asked.
How many rebels/United Irish were there at the Battle of Vinegar Hill?
It’s hard to say. They weren’t regular troops, and there was a large number of women there, many with children (A Rebel Hand pp27-8). And not all the men were armed. But where people have estimated the number, they say it was around 20,000.
Love and marriage
What love affairs did Nicholas Delaney have?
Tricky one, this. I’m sure he wasn’t romantically entangled with Bridget Dolan (Croppy Biddy). If he had been, wouldn’t he have mentioned that when he was on trial for murder and she was the only witness against him?
We don’t know anything about him and women, in fact, until Elizabeth Bayly, his wife, enters the story. And even she’s a mystery. I’ll come back to Elizabeth another time, but you can read about her in A Rebel Hand (pp75 – 80 and more).
