Aussie Ryan

The North Sea and South Atlantic are Britain’s spheres of influence

Revenue up across the board. Some will try argue this is a fluke or search for negatives but this is a positive and it doesn’t happen by accident. It gives the state great opportunity and great responsibility; especially in difficult global times.

The goal here, aside from age-verification, appears to be a ban on anonymity in social media accounts. ie To reduce volume of home-grown trolls, bad-faith, disinfo (a real problem). But it also may amount to a government licence to post opinions — a little dystopian?

Today in 1602 the Battle of Kinsale marked a turning point in the Nine Years’ War. This was an epic clash, not just of armies but of ideologies. Gaelic autonomy versus Tudor centralisation, and Catholicism versus Protestantism. The Nine Years’ War began in 1594, when Hugh O’Neill, the second Earl of Tyrone, defied English attempts to dominate Ulster. Central to this resistance was an English effort to install sheriffs in Gaelic territories. O’Neill introduced a religious dimension in November 1599, issuing 22 articles that demanded the open practice of Catholicism throughout Ireland. This appeal to religion aligned O’Neill with Catholic Spain, ruled by Philip II, who had been in contact with O’Neill since 1591. Spanish assistance finally materialised in September 1601, when 3,300 troops under Juan del Águila landed at Kinsale in County Cork. This forced O’Neill and his ally Hugh Roe O’Donnell to undertake a gruelling march south to support their Spanish allies. Meanwhile, Lord Mountjoy, the English Lord Deputy of Ireland, moved swiftly to besiege Kinsale with approximately 7,000 troops. After weeks of manoeuvring, the climactic battle occurred on the 3rd of January 1602. The combined Irish and Spanish forces, numbering about 10,000, faced Mountjoy’s well-disciplined army. Miscommunication between the Irish and Spanish hampered their coordination. The English cavalry shattered O’Neill’s ranks in just two hours, forcing the Gaelic forces into retreat. Realising victory was impossible, the Spanish negotiated terms that allowed them to return to Spain without formally surrendering.

Jason Isaacs’ villain in The Patriot (2000) was written with no redemption on purpose. Isaacs reportedly pushed for the character to be irredeemable, drawing on real documented wartime atrocities rather than movie villain theatrics.