David Wilkins

I note, though, that the BBC article does not mention Margaret Burbidge, though she was the first director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory not to hold the title Astronomer Royal, notwithstanding her research contributions and standing. Congratulations to Prof. Dougherty.

Greenwich, of course.

It happened to me on the seafront at Sidmouth a few weeks ago. One swooped and made an initial gash, then returned with mates to grab the entire ice cream cone.

Suppose having at least one Irish grandparent no longer enabled Irish citizenship. Given the numbers of naturalized citizens, those intending to stir up trouble and animus towards immigrants could publicise interviews with Irish in Ireland whose grandchildren could no longer obtain citizenship.

Wondering if this observation was prompted by a recollection of Ireland's controversial "economic citizenship" scheme between 1984 and 1998 - memorably giving citizenship to a Saudi businessman investing in Taoiseach Albert Reynolds's pet food business in 1994.

Civil servant. Sir Robert Armstrong. Cabinet Secretary under Margaret Thatcher.

And, by 1986, the Irish pound was no longer pegged to sterling. I recall £5 sterling approximately IR£6 back then. I seem to remember also that the two currencies approached parity shortly before the change to the euro.

And the change to km must have pre-dated the Good Friday Agreement. Once the fences,watch-towers, helicopters etc. disappeared, the only indications of crossing the border on the dual carriageway between Dundalk and Newry were the signs for speed limits in mph and km/h.

Presumably very elderly Irish people. I can recall that, in the '80s in supermarkets in Dublin, loose tea was sold in packets of weights such as 250g, or similar, NOT in quarter-pounds or half-pounds. Milk in litres or half-litres.

Have you visited a pub in Ireland recently?

Your note 48 gave a line of descent from the Connacht dynasty to the Yorkists that I had not noticed. Unless I have overlooked something, you do not mention descent from the Thomond dynasty through the marriage of William de Burgh to a daughter of Domhnall Mór Ua Briain.

Many thanks for this!

Having retired, I have lost institutional access to paywalled journals through a university library.

Out of idle curiosity, I was tracing lines of descent from William Marshal and Isabel de Clare a few weeks ago, including many in the article.

The top looks like a slice of a "muffin" that one might buy in Marks and Spencer or in Waitrose. The bottom looks more like a slice of a "ciabatta roll". Those who do not shop in M&S or Waitrose might not encounter these. Not a crumpet.

To see an example of Google's AI excelling itself, try searching on "naming storm Éowyn". A glorious mishmash of nonsensical, mutually contradictory and misleading twaddle, purporting to answer the questions that the AI thinks might be asked. Beyond hallucinationary.

How does the sequence continue?

Storm Frodo, Storm Galadriel, Storm Hamfast, Storm loreth,...?

[continuing] The flag of the College is flown at half mast following the deaths of Fellows of the College.

The flag of the University of Dublin is flown on days where Commencements (ceremonial awarding of degrees) are held.

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[continuing] The Irish tricolour is flown over Front Gate on St. Patrick's Day, and when various dignitaries come to the College when on official visits to Ireland.

The flag of the College is flown on days important to the College, such as Trinity Monday.

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[continuing] Indeed the President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is currently making a state visit to Ireland. So clearly he was visiting Trinity College on Wednesday.

There are those who express an opinion that the Irish tricolour should be flown above Front Gate every day.

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Irish tricolour flying over Regent House, Trinity College Dublin

Flag of Trinity College Dublin flying at the southern end of the West Front of the College.

Flag of Vietnam flying at the northern end of the West Front of Trinity College Dublin.

Yesterday the Irish tricolour was flying over Regent House, the main entrance to Trinity College Dublin.

Presumably some official visit was about to take place.

The College flag was flying from the flagpole at the southern end of the West Front, and the flag of Vietnam from the northern end.

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In South East England, it would rhyme with "sorry". Is pronunciation different in and around Limerick?

This is where I believe Ireland does it well. The legislature passes an act setting up a referendum on making a specified change to the wording of the Irish constitution. The electorate votes. If passed by a simple majority, the constitution changes, and the mandate of the people is discharged.

Para 97 of Costello J.'s judgment: "This court thus affirms the decision of the High Court. However this Court cannot conclude its judgment without referring to the use of slang or colloquialisms in a formal judgment of the High Court." There follows the objection to 'gaslighting' and 'Mordor'.

Case law of CJEU discussed in paras 60 and 66 of Costello J., notably Wells, where "the CJEU held that Member States are required to 'nullify the unlawful consequences of a breach of Community law", and, in para. 63 "the case of Aqua-Pri, in a judgment of 10 November 2022".

Turning to the judgement of Costello J. in the Court of Appeal, para. 58: "Insofar as the appellants contend that they ought to be permitted to advance this argument, the CJEU has consistently upheld national rules requiring a complaint to be properly pleaded."

[In continuation...] "Examples of gaslighting the decision-maker don't get much better than this."

[Humphreys J., re gaslighting, para. 148.] "Insofar as this complains about failure by the board, this issue is so baroque that there couldn't workably be an autonomous obligation, so the board could not be faulted for failing to do something it was never asked to do. [tbc]

[In continuation ...] "and the written and oral submissions which made it the whole pivot of the applicants' case. But the fragile fragment of language in the pleadings just isn't sufficient to bear the weight now being placed on it."

Regarding "the complaint that Irish law provides defective transposition" Para. 121: "We need to look at what is pleaded very specifically. When we do so, what emerges is a massive contrast between the pleadings, which make one lonely and solitary passing reference to the remedial obligation, [tbc]

Para. 117: The applicants "failed, prior to instituting the proceedings, to properly call on the relevant decision maker [...] to exercise relevant powers within that Minister's competence, failed to specify what powers should be exercised [etc.]. One does not simply walk into Mordor - ..."

[in continuation...] "on which the whole tottering edifice of European argument was erected."

Humpreys J. then quotes "the aphorism offfered by the late Edmund King QC in his post on Essex Court Chambers website [...] 'Every single case is won on the facts, even the ones that supposedly aren't'."