Hooray for me

played cricket last saturday. scored 62* off about 15 or so overs. hit 8 4s and a 6. we smashed the opposition. it felt good.

on sunday i went to 'kilmainham gaol' (not for drunk & disorderly behaviour). it's an old gaol in dublin, not in use anymore. most significant thing about it is that it is where the 14 leaders of the 1916 easter uprising were executed.

the 1916 easter uprising ultimately led to the establishment of a separate (from britain) irish free state which led to the irish republic that exists today.

the thing about the uprising is that it wasn't very popular with the irish people when it happened (they were more concerned about WW1) and it most likely would have passed un-noticed except that the brits decided to execute the leaders of it. this pissed the people off good and proper and started the ultimately successful push for an irish free state.

this was far from the only uprising in ireland's history but it was the last (because it was a success) although there was a civil war in between the uprising and the establishment of the free state (in 1922) so it was a pretty topsy turvy time in ireland.

another interesting thing about the uprising is that there were actually 15 leaders, but only 14 were executed. the lucky one to escape the firing squad was eamonn de valera. the reason he escaped? he was born in and lived in america until the tender age of three before moving to ireland. in 1916 the brits weren't too keen on executing a yanky so he escaped with a gaol sentance. eamonn de valera went on to become both prime minister and president of ireland throughout his lifetime.

here endeth the history lesson. history is much more interesting when you are in the places that what it was in school.