From Mike:
http://njaohdiv1.org/irish-history/irish-railroad-workers/
This will get you moving!!
Well thanks for that Mike, and thanks Miningman for passing it along!
I tried to find an equally rousing Irish railroad song to add to the collection, but could only find some dismal versions of “Drill Ye Tarriers Drill.”
So, this isn’t railroad related, but it’s Irish and very historic, and rousing too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkpk0-0cfVU
Which reminds me, I have to go dig out my Irish Brigade flag for display tomorrow!
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day all!
Paddy fueled
http://www.hsccmd.org/Documents/Carroll%20County%20Times%20Yesteryears/2009/04-12-2009.pdf
I think those angry Irishmen had a pretty legitimate beef, don’t you?
That’s a great one! [:D] Here’s my favorite rail related song. “Driving the Last Spike” by Genesis 1991. It’s about those who didn’t come back from building the English railways.
It was a good song until they mentioned ole’ George Brinton McLead em’ nowhere! [;)] To quote Comic Book Guy, “WORST GENERAL EVER!” [:D]
Overmod et all – Corned Beef and cabbage, once a year tastes great on this day and a tall glass of Guinness. I will under no circumstances tell my cardiologist.
We are all Irish today regardless… O’Overmod, O’Flintlock, O’Penny, O’Mike and so on.
Boys, I’ve got me a turrible confession t’make…
“Bless me Father, for I have sinned…”
I can’t stand corned beef and cabbage! Thanks be t’ God me mother only made it once a year!
Actually, Mom said over in Ireland they were lucky if they got salt pork! The corned beef didn’t make it into the mix until they made it to New York. And even then the Irish picked it up from the Jewish delis!
Makes me glad I’m half-Italian! It’s been said the Italians saved American cuisine! More than a grain of truth in that!
Makes sense, Saint Patrick was Roman after all! Roma aeterna est!
Good way to end the night.
North Dakota born Lawrence Welk sounding like an immigrant
For what it’s worth, we Orthodox did a St. Patrick’s celebration as well. After the 4:00 PM Vespers, beer was provided at the meal. Ireland, Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Russia were represented as far as the beer goes. None of it dyed green, though.
Quoting Flintlock “Becky, you’ve got to remember the song was written in 1862. Who’d have thought McClellan would bomb so badly at that time?” I have often wondered about McClelland. When he took his army down to Hampton Roads and then marched it up the Lower Neck of Virginia in 1862, intending to take Richmond, he believed his spies who had been given the impression that there were far more Confedrate troops there than actually were present–so he retreated to the Roads, loaded his men and equipment back on the ships, and took them back to Washington. Later, after the second Battle of Manassas, he was reinstated as commander of the Army of the Potomac for President Lincoln said that he did not have anyone else. Then, after the battle at Sharpsburg, he refused to follow the Army of North Virginia, claiming that his men needed a rest.
Johnny, I think McClellan’s problems were as follows…
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He was more concerned about not losing a battle than he was about winning one.
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He loved the Army Of The Potomac. He’d put his heart and soul into organizing and training it, in addition to doing all the other things a commanding general should do, such as making sure it was well-supllied, well-fed, and paid on time. The troops repspected him for that and loved him right back.
Now that being the case, he was extremely reluctant to take out and get damaged the thing he loved. Understandable, but an army does exist to fight after all.
- I’m speculating here, but I think when McClellan did get into combat he was shocked and appalled by what he saw and stunned into inaction and irresolution. He had Lee on the ropes at Antietam and could have destroyed the Army Of Northern Virginia then and there, but never gave the orders that would have made it happen. Remember no American general officer had seen war on that kind of scale before. The sheer amount of battlefield carnage that marked the Civil War would have come as no surprise to a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, but we’d never had anything like that here.
It wasn’t until later in the war that the North would get men in positions of command who could “Remove themselves from themselves” and “tune out,” for lack of a better term, all the carnage going on around them and do what they had to do to win.
Wayne
McClellan is the single greatest example of WHY we need a standing army, which didn’t exist in 1860 as we would think of it today. Scott’s army was very small and mostly concerned with protecting westward expansion. If his army had looked like our modern military, McClellan would have remained as a training officer, as that was his strongest suit. In terms of his war record, I tend to side with those who believe he was more interrested in opposing Lincoln in 64, which he did. There’s a great line in the movie Gettysburg between Lee and Longstreet where Sheen says “To be a good soldier you must love the army. But to be a good commander you must be willing to order the death of the thing you love.” And I think you’re right Wayne, McClellan couldn’t do that.
Sound reasoning Becky, very sound indeed. I concur absolutely.
Wayne
Switching Generals and Wars - we know President Truman and General MacArthur didn’t hit it off, as MacArthur at best chafed against the authority of the President. I seems that MacArthur had trouble complying with the authority of the President long before the Korean War - witness MacArthur’s handling of the Bonus Army situation in the early years of the Great Depression.
There was a colonel who was supposed to handle the Bonus Army dispersal, however MacArthur knew it was going to be a dirty job that in all likelyhood was going to ruin that officer’s career in the long run. So, being the US Army Chief of Staff, and at the pinnicle of his career anyway, he took on the job himself.
Then majors Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton were there as well. They sure didn’t like it either. Not a good episode.
Just to go back and tie together the Army posts and St.Patrick’s Day posts…an interesting stereotype of Civil War or Western movies that’s actually true is the Irish Sergeant. In the early 1800’s the British set up free public grade schools in Ireland (before they had them in England). The catch was the schools were only conducted in English - the Brits thought that was a way to “Anglicize” the Irish, who still largely spoke Gaelic. In the Civil War, and later the West, many of the troops were immigrants who either didn’t speak English or were illiterate…or both. So it often was the Irish immigrant who could read and write English who became the Corporal or Sargeant. Similarly once civil service tests came along, it was easier for the Irish lads to pass the test and be hired as cops.
And what would we be doin’ without fine Irish sergeants in the John Ford movies like this distinguished gent?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL_K072ZJCQ
Well, OK, Victor McLaglan was really English, but you know what I mean!
Here are some green toy trains before we get accused of having no rail content [;)]. Although the first one is Thai not Irish. [(-D]
And some real Irish steam locos:
That should satisfy our thread rail-related requirements eh? [;)]