Ten Useless Facts About...

Lestat wrote:

riadach wrote:

It still would make Waterford a city ahead of Dublin only by a very narrow and restricted set of rules.

Those were the rules that applied at the time.

Please look at those rules again, and look at the dates at which the charters were issued. The 1205 charter can be no more a confirmation of cityhood than the 1173 one.

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I got the impression that Dublin was regarded as subordinate to Bristol. In any case Bristol wasn't chartered as a city until 1542.

It wasn't chartered as a city in 1542, you do not need solely be chartered a city apparently, it was deemed such because a cathedral and diocese were founded in Bristol in 1542. However, if you'll recall from your history, there were diocese, an archdiocese in fact, and a cathedral based in Dublin since well before the Norman Invasion, thus Dublin, by 1173, would have had all three elements of traditional cityhood.

[quote="lestat"
A city may be constituted in Ireland under the Local Government Act.[/quote]

Perhaps, but it does alter the point that we can recognise cities historically that are not defined by royal charters. The royal charter therefore, is no longer the be all and end all of cityhood in these islands.

riadach wrote:

Perhaps, but it does alter the point that we can recognise cities historically that are not defined by royal charters. The royal charter therefore, is no longer the be all and end all of cityhood in these islands.

Whatever lights your bulb.

[quote="cactus flower"]

riadach wrote:

Hmm, I think we can dispute the oldest city claim. I've heard it was founded in 914, when the oldest permanent viking settlement in Dublin is from 841. That's not even considering the claims of Derry and Armagh who could claim city status due to their ecclesiastical origins and episcopal pre-eminence.

There are different dates given for Viking settlement in Waterford - 853 and 856 as well as dates in the 10th century.

http://www.waterfordcity.ie/city/walls/index.htm

Would you define a longphort or a dun as a city anyway? I would say it took some time to morph into one. The Woodstown Settlement 5 miles west of Waterford City may be earlier than Dublin.

http://iwn.iwai.ie/v31i3/lastbattlecry.pdf[/quote]

It is a difficult question. One has to analyse what kind of settlement existed in Dublin before the advent of the Vikings. We know for a fact there were two. Initially the Dubh Linn settlement, which was an ecclesiastical settlement and which was eventually taken over by the Vikings, and then there was the Áth Cliath settlement which may have been situated where the Customs House is now. Were these settlements of any importance, thereby insinutating a civilian element to the later Viking Structures? Archaeological evidence hasn't determined much. However, a reconstruction of the ancient roadways of Ireland, through reference to the individual roads, and through plotting the itineraries of pilgrimages has suggested that all, far from traditionally going through Tara as was once thought, went through Áth Cliath instead. The reas for this, no doubt, was because the Eiscir Riada is a firm dividing line between Leath Conn and Leath Mogha, and the only reasonable pass through it was the point at which the Liffey was fordable. Therefore, a high amount of traffic, both in trade as well as in pilgrimages and even military expeditions would have passed through Áth Cliath. This would have allowed for a reasonably large urban population to have taken place, and may have been the reason, as well as dublin's natural harbour, for the Ostmen to settle there and create a rather large urabn environment therein and a civilian nature to the settlement may have been immediate.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Freddie Mercury.

Freddie was born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5th 1946 to Bomi and Jer Buldara, in Stone Town on the East African island of Zanzibar.

At the age of 12, Freddie formed his first band - The Hectics

He attended a private school in India from 1955 until 1963,and moved to England with his family in 1964 moved to Middlesex in 1964, due to political unrest in their country

In 1966, he enrolled in Ealing College of Art to study graphic illustration. From there Freddie joined up with a blues band called Wreckage while studying graphic design courses at Ealing College of Art.

He was a hard core smoker.

Freddie was known for his overbite. He refused to have oral surgery on them because he felt it might change his singing voice

He had a vocal range of 3.5 octaves.

He kept a grand piano beside his bed, in case he thought of something during the night.

Freddie's house is at 1 Logan Place in Kensington, London. It is now the home of Mary Austin, to whom he left his estate

On November 24th 1991 (approximately 7pm London time) Freddie's struggle against AIDS ended when he passed away just over 24 hours after he had publicly announced he had the disease. No one knows exactly how long Freddie knew he had the AIDS virus since he didn't tell anyone, even the band, for a long time. Some people have estimated about five years. Musicians and fans from all over the world paid their highest respects as the passing of rock music's most innovative, flamboyant ambassador signified the end of an era.


Long Live Freddie.

I really wish Freddie had not died. I remember the morning I heard. I was living in London at the time. It was sad. Still is sad for me in a Funny Way. Welcome to the Dreamer's Ball.

Long Live Freddie.

Another interesting fact about Freddie was he was Zoroastrian.

A Zoroastrian ?

A Zoroastrian.

i.e. it's someone who is an immense fan of 19th century fictional robin hood-like popular leaders in Spanish California when they overlap with comics about fictional Gaulish heroes.

Its a fire worshipping religion/cult in the Indian sub-continent where Freddie came from. I don't think you can convert, I think you have to be born into it.

Ah - here we are... 'Also Sprach Zarathrustra!'

It is the oldest 'revealed' religion and is monotheistic

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Their theology has had a great impact on Judaism, Christianity and other later religions, in the beliefs surrounding God and Satan, the soul, heaven and hell, savior, resurrection, final judgment, etc.
It is one of the oldest religions still in existence,
It may have been the first monotheistic religion.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/zoroastr.htm

The religion originated sometime between 6,000 and 600 B.C.

Numbers have declined drastically, but the internet may be the saving of it yet - look !
http://www.zoroastrianism.com/

A zoroastrian religious information site and dating agency.

This, from Zoroastrianism.com, is a rather pleasing aspect of the religion:

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The Fravardin Yasht also says that the Righteous of every nation in this world are present in heaven in the form of Glorious Fravarshis. Thus, the Righteous of every religion go to heaven, all religions are equal, and it is folly to convert. Conversion goes against the Master Law of Ereta (righteousness) itself, because God has given us birth in our respective religions, to adore Him in them, and not to mistrust His Judgement and rebel and go over to another faith. For, each faith leads ultimately to God.

Not so pleasing is the hostility to "Intermarrieds", a bit reminiscent of the bad attitude to Muggles by some characters in the Harry Potter books.

The three Magi were Zoroastrians weren't they? The other thing I know about the religion is that they used to leave thier bodies on the tops of towers to be eaten by vultures rather than bury or cremate them. Fire and earth were too sacred to be defiled by bodies you see.

905 wrote:

The three Magi were Zoroastrians weren't they? The other thing I know about the religion is that they used to leave thier bodies on the tops of towers to be eaten by vultures rather than bury or cremate them. Fire and earth were too sacred to be defiled by bodies you see.

From looking at their website, it seems they still advocate that. Fine up the Himalyas, but awkward in an urban area. Perhaps the tops of tower blocks would be a good spot for it.

905 wrote:

The three Magi were Zoroastrians weren't they? The other thing I know about the religion is that they used to leave thier bodies on the tops of towers to be eaten by vultures rather than bury or cremate them. Fire and earth were too sacred to be defiled by bodies you see.

9 mins of youtube. There is a very interesting explanation of what the three magi really were, what the virgin means among other stuff. It's very interesting if all those egyptian and greek gods were all born on the 25th of December along with Jesus.



A bit of a play on words though...?