It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever. More
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The Dharma Bumis a feature-length, partially animated documentary film that tells the tantalizing true story of Dubliner Laurence Carroll, who became Venerable Dhammaloka.
Any relation to Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland? Of course not, because "Lewis Carroll" is the nom de plume (pen name) for Irish-connected Oxford don Dodgson, the author of classic literature for little Alice Liddell.
Laurence Carroll was born in Dublin in 1856 and spent his early life as an alcoholic hobo drifter bumming his way across the United States of America.
This freethinking, un-Catholic, un-Christian, atheist activist worked the shipping route from San Francisco, California, to Japan.
I'm glad I became a Buddhist and did so much to spread freethinking against the British Empire.
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Ven. U Dhammaloka: First Westerner to ordain as a Buddhist monk
(Belfast Buddhist, 4/1/16) Venerable Dhammaloka was ordained in Theravada Buddhist Burma (Myanmar) prior to 1900, making him one of the very earliest attested Western Buddhist monks. He was a celebrity preacher, vigorous polemicist, free thinker, and prolific editor in Burma and Singapore between 1900 and his conviction for sedition and appeal in 1910–1911. Drawing on Western atheist writings, he publicly challenged the role of imperial Christian missionaries and by implication the British Empire. His Irish name was Laurence Carroll or Larry O'Rourke or Willam Colvin from Cork and Munster.
UK-occupied Northern Ireland
They gave him the new Buddhist name U Dhammaloka,* and that is just the beginning of the story!
[*In Burmese U (pronounced "oo") is an honorific that signifies "sir," Dhamma is the Pali spelling of "Dharma," loka means "world." Interestingly, aloka means "light" or "bright whiteness" -- so his name, if pronounced with a long a, signifies suggests "Dharma Light or even White Dharma."]
U Dhammaloka was erased from history. His existence lay dormant for over 100 years. Why? The reasons are explored in the film.
Teach those Brits not to mess with the Celts
This Irishman caused quite a stir in his life, as he singlehandedly took on the might of the Christian British Empire in colonial Burma.
In the film we discover why he was under constant police surveillance and ultimately had to fake his own death as he transformed himself from an alcoholic bum to the original Dharma Bum.More
Saint Patrick (Gaelic Pádraig, Latin Patricius, "father of the people") was a 5th-century Romano-British anti-pagan, Christian missionary, and patriarch named bishop of Ireland by an outside entity.
Known as the "Apostle of Ireland," he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints being Brigid of Kildare and Columba. Patrick was never formallycanonized [2], having lived before the current laws of the Catholic Church on these matters.
Nevertheless, he is venerated as a "saint" in the Catholic Church, which also venerates the Buddha as a Catholic saint (St. Josaphat), the Lutheran Church, the Church of Ireland (part of the Anglican Communion), and in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where he is regarded as equal-to-the-apostles and Enlightener of Ireland [3, 4].
He was a slave in Ireland for years, escaped back to England then seems to have returned to extract his revenge as a patriarch to impose Roman church law on the Emerald Isle.
Patrick is credited with forcing Christianity on Ireland, converting a pagan society in the process, despite evidence of an earlier Christian presence [7].
We defend Catholicism b/c the British don't like it
In Patrick's autobiography, Confessio, when he was 16, he was captured at home in Britain by Irish pirates and taken as a slave to Ireland. He writes that he lived here for six years herding animals before escaping and returning to his England.
After becoming a cleric, he returned to spread Christianity in northern and western Ireland. In later life, he served as a bishop, but little is known about where he worked.
By the 7th century, he had already become the "patron saint of Ireland." His feast day is observed on March 17th, the date of his death not his birth. It is celebrated in Ireland and among the worldwide Irish diaspora as a cultural holiday celebrating all things Irish.
It is hardly as a religious observance nowadays, but in the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation, even if pagans mourn the genocide he wrought upon the island.
The Irish are so much like the Mexicans in this regard, taken over and thoroughly saturated by the Holy Roman Empire, as if the Church liberated the people when it enslaved them and still tries to rule every aspect of their lives and exact tribute for Rome.
So much is this connection felt that there are Los Patricios("The Patricks" not Patricians), who were US mercenaries ordered to fight Mexico, but when they understood the fight, led by John Riley, they took the side of Mexico and fought against the US, as anyone who champions the underdog might well have done. More
LEEDS, United Kingdom – The normally peaceful Irish city of Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, has made the news.
This is due to the polemical decision of its city council to build a monument to Cuban freedom fighter Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
Could a Latinx hippie be a freedom fighter?
The decision has been based on the fact that Che, a descendant of the Lynch clan, was himself partly Irish, Cuban, and Argentinian.
This attempt to celebrate Guevara’s Irish heritage has been met with resistance in some conservative quarters within Ireland and subsequently in the United States.
Revolutionary hero Che (Alberto Korda, 3/5/60)
First, Irish businessman and campaigner Declan Ganley suggested the monument would drive away tourism from Galway – an unlikely outcome, as it is well-known that Che Guevara’s image is found among the most popular merchandise in the world.
Then, Yale-based academic Carlos Eire and Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lethinen added their voices to Ganley’s and requested that, since Guevara was a murderer and a war criminal, the Irish should scrap the project altogether and, in the words of the latter, build instead a monument to “the enslaved Cuban people.”
“Guevara was much more than a grotesque criminal, as it has been suggested.”
One can only wonder, why this opposition all of a sudden? More importantly, do they have a point?
I've got the rebel "fighting Irish" spirit in me.
Ernesto Guevara, better known simply as “Che,” was a guerrilla ["little war"] fighter and one of the leaders of the Cuban Revolution of 1959.
Soon after coming to power, Guevara was in charge of carrying out a number of executions of people – some accounts mention hundreds – that the new Cuban leadership considered to be “enemies of the revolution.” More
Che Guevara statue spurs controversy in Ireland
An Irish city’s plan to erect a monument to the revolutionary icon has piqued conservatives.
The Dharma Bumis a feature-length, partially animated documentary film telling the tantalizing true story of Dubliner Laurence Carroll.
Any relation to Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland? Of course not, for "Lewis Carroll" is the nom de plume for Irish-connected Dodgson.
Carroll was born in Dublin in 1856 and spent his early life as an alcoholic hobo drifter bumming his way across the USA.
I'm glad I became a Burmese Buddhist monk.
This un-Catholic, un-Christian atheist activist worked the shipping route from San Francisco to Japan.
Then he found himself on the beach, hungover and homeless, after being kicked off the vessel for drunk and disorderly conduct.
He eventually made his way to Theravada BuddhistBurma, where he was helped by local Buddhist monks.
After five years as an apprentice, he became the first white man to ever don the saffron robes of a Buddhist monk.
Ven. U Dhammaloka: First Westerner to be ordained as a Buddhist monk
(Belfast Buddhist, 4/1/16) Venerable Dhammaloka was ordained in Theravada Buddhist Burma (Myanmar) prior to 1900, making him one of the very earliest attested Western Buddhist monks. He was a celebrity preacher, vigorous polemicist, free thinker, and prolific editor in Burma and Singapore between 1900 and his conviction for sedition and appeal in 1910–1911. Drawing on Western atheist writings, he publicly challenged the role of imperial Christian missionaries and by implication the British Empire. His Irish name was Laurence Carroll or Larry O'Rourke or Willam Colvin from Cork and Munster.
UK-occupied Northern Ireland
They gave him the new Buddhist name U Dhammaloka.* And that is just the beginning of the story!
[*In Burmese U (pronounced "oo") signifies "sir," Dhamma is the Pali spelling of "Dharma," loka means "world," and aloka means "light" or "bright whiteness" -- so maybe his name signifies or with a long a suggests "Light or White Dharma."]
U Dhammaloka was erased from history. His existence lay dormant for over 100 years. Why? The reasons are explored in the film.
Teach those Brits not to mess with the Celts
This man caused quite a stir in his life, as he singlehandedly took on the might of the Christian British Empire in colonial Burma.
[George Orwellwas also decrying British colonial crimes against humanityin Burma and England for which he wrote 1984].
In the film we discover why he was under constant police surveillance and ultimately faked his own death as he transformed himself from an alcoholic bum to the original Dharma Bum.More
COMMENT to the comments section: Sunny, what ChatGPT AI wrote this comment? Human don't speak this way. But have you heard of any Nepali Buddhas for sale in the Netherlands? When in Amsterdam, we like to visit nepal-tibet-buddhas.com.
Los Angeles will UNITE on a massive scale to continue to push for the right of We The People! Revolution, worker strike, this is the REAL Labor Day with Maydays united worldwide!
Calling ALL organizations in Los Angeles and surrounding cities: It's time to bring out the masses! There are events that will culminate on May 1st (International Worker's Day). The movement has begun! March and Rally Los Angeles
(The Real News) May Day: Hundreds of Thousands Celebrate International Workers' Day
(TheRealNews) Facing down different manifestations of social and economic injustice, demonstrators across the world rise up for workers' rights on May 1st
(therealnews.com, help support the work of honest reporting: therealnews.com/donate).
Join thousands of SoCal marchers on May 1st. May Day March Los Angeles. Monday, May 1, 2017 at 10:00 AM-4:00 PM. Broadway & Olympic Blvd. Los Angeles, California.
LA May Day March 5-1-18 (Rally List) Los Angeles May 1st march on International Workers' Day! The march will begin...stop the deportations! 2) Legalize Street Vending in Los Angeles NOW! ... Tuesday, 1 May, 2018. Time: 4 PM-7 PM. Address: MacArthur Park 2230 W. 6th Street, Los Angeles, California 90057. City: Los Angeles...
In the film we discover why he was under constant police surveillance and ultimately faked his own death as he transformed himself from an alcoholic bum to the original Dharma Bum.More
A little-known chapter in US-Mexican history is that of El Batallón de los San Patricios or “St. Patrick's Battalion,” a group of Irish who fought alongside the Mexican Army and against the US Army during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). Latino Rebels | The Soldiers of St. Patrick
Aye, not history. Come pipe a tune to dance to, lad!
The great Irish writer James Joyce based his magnum opus, Finnegans Wake, on the Irish ditty "Finnegan's Wake" here performed with lyrics by The Irish Rovers.
New York City downplays its illustrious past of anti-Irish racism with a parade (AP)
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Let me tell you what Seamus and I expect.
One lad married a Welsh gal and said to her, “I expect a warm dinner every night, the laundry done, and the house clean!” He didn't notice any change on the first day. And he didn't notice any change on the second day. But by the third day, there was a warm dinner on the table, the laundry was done, and the house was clean.
A second lad married a Scottish gal and said to her, “I expect a hearty lunch, a warm dinner every night, the laundry done, and the house clean!” He didn't notice any change on the first day. And he didn't notice any change on the second day. But by the third day, there was a hearty lunch on the table, a warm dinner, the laundry was done, and the house was clean.
You expect me to do what, husband?
A third lad married an Irish gal and said to her, “I expect three warm meals on the table every day, the dishes washed, the laundry done, the house clean, and I don't want any lip!”
He didn't notice any change on the first day. And he didn't notice any change on the second day. But by the third day, the swelling had gone down and he was able to move his arm enough to make himself a sandwich and load the dishwasher. He still has trouble when he pees.
Tell us another!
Who dares to question?
Happily we live obeying all our rules.
A young man, weary of the foolish world, desiring only peace and solitude, decided to retire to an Irish hermitage. On his first day in the monastery, the abbot welcomed him into the great hall. As he entered, he could not believe his eyes: row after row of bald scribes hard at work.
“What's happening, Father?”
“We're making copies. We do it all day long!”
“Copies, Father, copies of what?”
“Why, copies of the Bible and the rules, of course!”
“But, Father, where are you making these copies from?”
“From earlier copies, of course.”
“You're making copies of copies from copies?!”
“We do it all day long!”
“But, Father, what if someone were to make a mistake?”
“I don't follow.”
“If someone ever made a mistake transcribing, you'd be copying that mistake over and over!”
“Look, smart guy, why don't you make it your job to check the original?”
The library'll help me get to the bottom of this.
“I will,” the young man said, then paid a visit to the monastery's creepy old library. As he arrived, he heard a strange drumbeat, Thump-thump-thump... Hesitantly, he ventured into the dark stacks until he came to a light in the inner sanctum. There he saw an old monk, the librarian, banging his head on a table next to an ancient book.
He dashed in and asked, "What is it, Father?!” The old monk stood up, pointed a trembling finger down at the ancient book, and announced: "Look, the original actually says celibrate! Ce-li-brate!!!”
It's a miracle!
Just plain water, officer.
An Irish priest pulls out of the church parking lot and starts swerving down the road. A policeman pulls him over. He immediately smells alcohol on the priest's breath and notices an empty wine bottle in the car.
The policeman asks, “Been drinking, Father?”
“Just water,” explains the priest.
The cop replies, “Then why do I smell wine?”
The priest looks at the bottle and exclaims, “Good Lord! He's done it again!”
The Dead
One morning Seamus opens the newspaper and is shocked to see his OWN obituary.
In a panic, he phones his friend O'Carrigan and asks: “Did you see the paper?! They say I died!”
His friend replies: “Yes, Seamus, I did see it....So, where ya calling from?”
A last request
After mass one Sunday, a sobbing Biddy Murphy approaches Father O’Grady.
He asks, “What’s bothering you, Biddy?”
She replies, “Oh, Father, I’ve terrible news! My husband, Gilly, he passed away last night!”
The priest says, “Oh, Biddy, that is terrible! Did he have any last requests?”
“That he did, Father,” she replies. “He said, 'Please, Biddy, put down that damn gun’.”
A new life
Bartender, I'll have three shots of whiskey.
An Irishman wakes up one morning and decides to lead a healthy life. He boards a plane and moves to California. But he soon comes down with a terrible case of homesickness. There's no remedy until someone suggests he find an authentic Irish pub to feel more at home.
He finds one. And as soon as he walks in and smells its wonderful odors, he starts feeling much better. He calls to the bartender at the other side of the room, “Barkeep, three whiskeys!”
The barman pours the shots and brings them over. “Oi, did you order three shots?”
“Aye, I did!”
The barman asks, “Why don't you tell me next time that they're just for you, that way I can put all three in one glass?”
The Irishman replies: “No! I have two brothers at home, so every time I come into a pub, I order a shot for each of them.”
“That's a lovely family tradition,” the barman commends. The following week, the Irishman walks in and orders just two whiskeys.
The barman brings them. And with a look of concern asks, “Oi, did something happen one of your brothers?”
“No. Why do you ask?” replies the Irishman.
“It's just that last week, you ordered three...did one of your brothers die?”
“Oh no, no! It's just that I've decided to stop drinking!”
Oi vey, public workers!
Two Irishmen were working for the public works department in the park. One would dig a hole and the other would follow behind him and fill the hole in.
After a while, some amazed onlookers said: “Why do you dig a hole, only to have your partner follow behind and fill it up again?”
The hole digger wiped his brow and sighed, “Well, I suppose it probably looks odd because we're normally a three-person team. But today the lad who plants the trees called in sick.”
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