Word: irishness
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...Northern Ireland, which sends 17 representatives to Parliament, the election made history. After years of boycotting British ballots, Sinn Fein (Ourselves Alone), the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, picked up a seat. The winner, Gerry Adams, campaigned unashamedly in support of the "armed struggle" against British rule. He ended up polling 16,000 votes in his west Belfast district, 6,000 more than the constituency's highly esteemed Member of Parliament, Gerard Fitt, a Catholic. Adams has no intention of taking his newly won seat at Westminster: his party does not recognize Parliament...
...would be stretching a point, Reader concedes, to claim that the potato set off the Industrial Revolution, but he makes a good case for its role in fuelling it. And what flowed from that revolution is, as they say, history - industrial Europe's global rise (and decline), the catastrophic Irish potato famine and the migrations that took Europe's population surpluses to the New World...
...Moreover, any amendment to the Act of Settlement would likely trigger political unrest among the militant Northern Irish nationalists. Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom following Irish independence in 1920 because of its significant Protestant majority, which wanted to be governed by the predominantly Protestant government of London, rather than the mostly Catholic government of Dublin. Amending the act could be viewed by the Protestants of Northern Ireland as betrayal on the part of London. Northern Irish Protestant extremists, who depended upon Downing Street to represent their interests, might conceivably throw their support behind radical groups such...
...still save seeds today, mostly in national seed banks that often specialize in native crops: pistachios in Iran, rice in the Philippines. When a disaster like the Irish potato blight of the 1840s hits, scientists can search the seed bank for an old variety that might prove resistant. Since pests and pathogens are constantly evolving, a well-stocked seed bank "is our best line of defense," says Geoff Hawtin, director-general of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia...
...Irish Lieutenant General Pat Nash will command the operation from its headquarters near Paris. But the main impetus for the operation, and the dominant power behind it, is France - and a French brigadier general will take charge on the ground...