And they've got plenty of reason to but I do wish they could finally one day, just one day, drop the relentless victimhood chase. You'd think they were the most blameless people in history. I've not long since had a word with one Irishman about their involvement in the Badajoz outrage, which had three Irish regiments involved, where they ran riot in an orgy of of looting and rape and murder in Spain. Go tell the people of Badajoz you're a victim. Every despot in Europe had their Irish contingent, fighting in wars that had nothing to do with them and thousands suffered for that. I just wish they could get down from their pedestal of virtue for once.

And they've got plenty of reason to but I do wish they could finally one day, just one day, drop the relentless victimhood chase. You'd think they were the most blameless people in history. I've not long since had a word with one Irishman about their involvement in the Badajoz outrage, which had three Irish regiments involved, where they ran riot in an orgy of of looting and rape and murder in Spain. Go tell the people of Badajoz you're a victim. Every despot in Europe had their Irish contingent, fighting in wars that had nothing to do with them and thousands suffered for that. I just wish they could get down from their pedestal of virtue for once.

If memory serves me, didn't the British military have contingents of Irish serving during their countless wars throughout history? Asking for a friend. 

Ireland was part on the UK then, so the army recruited and raised whole regiments in Ireland. Many joined up for the money and a chance to get away from a dead end life on the land, as they did in other countries too. 

Ireland was part on the UK then, so the army recruited and raised whole regiments in Ireland. Many joined up for the money and a chance to get away from a dead end life on the land, as they did in other countries too. 

Well, isn't that the reason that many poor folks regardless of their ethnicity join the military? The rich may do it for adventure or political opportunity. See Winston Churchill. 

C'mon Art, nothing is the fault of the English. Everybody knows that, perhaps while the British army was trying to make the world a better place, the Irish contingent reverted back to their primal ways. It has happened like that for centuries. 

11 November 1936 - Sir Edward German died.

English composer known for his output of light music and comic opera in the best tradition of Gilbert and Sullivan, most notably Merrie England (1902). On a more substantial theme he wrote the Coronation March and Hymn for the coronation of King George V in 1911. He was knighted in 1928.

12 November 1865 - Elizabeth Gaskell died.

English author, one of the most popular of the 19th century cut short by her early death aged 55.

Born Elizabeth Stevenson and brought up in the Cheshire town of Knutsford she married William Gaskell in 1832. Her most famous novel Cranford (1853) is set in a thinly disguised Knutsford which also doubles as Hollingford in her final unfinished novel Wives and Daughters.    

She died suddenly of a heart attack whilst visiting a house she had recently purchased for her retirement in Hampshire.

13 November 1850 - Robert Louis Stevenson born.

Scottish writer of thrillers and adventure stories. Ill health forced him to abandon early plans for a career firstly in engineering then the law in favour of writing. His most popular works were produced in the three years he lived as a convalescent in Bournemouth - Treasure Island (1883), Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Kidnapped (1886). In 1888 he sailed for the South Pacific settling in Samoa where he died aged 44.

He was born into the Stevenson family of engineers who were famous for constructing lighthouses across the UK, Art has mentioned them before, so naturally he was expected to join the family firm. But he had no aptitude for engineering, so studied for the law instead. He qualified in 1875 but never practised law despite his father adding a plaque to the family house in Edinburgh "R L Stevenson, Advocate".

For someone of ill health he was surprisingly well travelled - France and Belgium where he met an American woman whom he followed to the USA crossing from New York to California by rail. They were married in San Francisco in 1880, they returned to the UK that same year. She accompanied him to Samoa and was with him when he died in 1894.    

14 November 1840 - (Oscar) Claude Monet born.

French artist founder of the Impressionist Movement. He spent most of his life in northern France where his most famous works the water lilies at his home in Giverny were painted. He travelled around Normandy and Brittany creating many paintings of life in that part of France.

15 November 1731 - William Cowper born. 

English poet and writer of hymns, largely forgotten today, but one of the most popular of the 18th century. He suffered from depression and hypochondria all his life attempting suicide several times and being confined in an asylum for a short time. 

He found solace in religion and lived for a while as a lodger with a vicar in Huntingdon, he described himself as all but the vicar's adopted son. He composed the immortal phrase "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform" in his 1773 poem Light Shining out of Darkness. 

16 November 1888 - The first motion-picture camera patented.

Louis Le Prince was born in France and moved to England in 1866. He had an interest in photography which developed into experiments with moving pictures. Most of this work was carried out in the USA where he lived from 1881 to 1887. On his return to England he built a single-lens camera at his workshop in Leeds and on 14 October 1888 shot a short scene in the garden at Oakwood Grange, Roundhay, Leeds. Five weeks later he took out a patent on the camera.

The scene, just three seconds long, is the earliest "film" ever produced. Shown are Joseph and Sarah Whitley of Oakwood Grange, Annie Hartley a friend of the Whitley's and Le Prince's son Adolphe.

Show me moving pictures prior to October 1888 and I'll believe you.  

17 November 1917 - (François) Auguste Rodin died.

French sculptor who brought sculpture back into the mainstream after a century in which it lay second to the art of painting. 

His early career was unspectacular, only after a visit to Italy did he embark on a more liberated style with his first work being bought by the French state. Thereafter he went on to produce such monumental works as The Kiss (1882), The Burghers of Calais (1889) and The Thinker (1904). 

Early in 1917 he married his companion of 53 years Rose Beuret, neither survived the year, 

His patent was issued seven months after Le Prince's, there is no record of him making genuine moving pictures before Le Prince. As for Edison, his first experiments bore fruit in 1891.