Bush In The Old Sod
If you've wondered why President George W. Bush seems to get so lucky so often, Salon has an answer: It's the luck o' the Irish. An article (reg. req.) from the Guardian's Angelique Chrisafis identifies the Prez as a descendant of
Richard "Strongbow" de Clare, "the power-hungry warlord who led the Norman invasion of Ireland, thus heralding 800 years of mutual misery." Says Chrisafis:
The U.S. president's now apparent ancestor, Richard de Clare, earl of Pembroke -- known as Strongbow for his arrow skills -- is remembered as a desperate, land-grabbing warlord whose calamitous foreign adventure led to the suffering of generations. Shunned by Henry II, he offered his services as a mercenary in the 12th century invasion of Wexford in exchange for power and land. When he eventually died of a festering ulcer in his foot, his enemies said it was the revenge of Irish saints whose shrines he had violated.
Bush also claims inheritance from another Hibernian supervillain, Dermot MacMurrough, who first brought the strangers to the emerald shores. What can it all mean? Chrisafis digs toward the bottom of the story:
The jury is out on whether Strongbow had a "conquering" gene that drove him to invade. Michael Staunton, a lecturer in history at University College Dublin, felt Strongbow was simply desperate. "It was a typical colonial situation -- the people who don't have much going for them decided to hop off to another country."
Yeah, I kind of figured the "jury" would still be "out" on that one.
Some views of Strongbow's castle on the Nore.
Wrestling legend Chief Jay Strongbow performing a traditional tribal dance, which is broken up by bad guys "Outlaw" Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis.
