Captain William Bligh is known for surviving the mutiny on HMS Bounty, getting his loyal men 4,000 miles to safety, then surviving a SECOND mutiny in Australia cleaning up a corrupt rum trade.

And what'd he survive all this for? To found Dun Laoghaire. We never talk about this🧵 Bligh and 18 loyal crew were set adrift by mutineers who strangely preferred staying in Tahiti to any of rum, sodomy, or the lash. He took their ludicrous seven-metre launch on a seemingly impossible 47-day voyage to Timor, the nearest European settlement. They got there safely.

I just want to take a second to remember a few Irish people who - risking censure at home - did amazing things at Bletchley.

Eileen Greer had earnt a first in German at Trinity and was lecturing at Queens. She went to Hut 3, providing linguistic guidance for codebreakers. This is Richard Hayes. From Abbeyfeale in west Limerick, his day job was director of the National Library of Ireland. His family didn’t know he also ran a team decoding wireless transmissions from a house in north Dublin owned by the German legation, sharing the results with MI5

Someone really needs to write a short play about the meeting between Gráinne Ní Mháille and Elizabeth I. In 1593 at Greenwich Palace.

Ní Mháille - the pirate Queen -spoke no English. Elizabeth spoke no Irish. So they spoke Latin.

Mainly we know about it from English sources. 1/ One source tells us Gráinne was found with a dagger concealed on her person. She explained it was for her own protection. Elizabeth accepted this, unconcerned.

Another tells us Gráinne sneezed, was given a lace handkerchief by a lady in waiting, and threw it into the fire. 2/

So you need to know about John Masefield, author of ‘I must go down to the sea again’.

His aunt sent him to sea age 13 to break his addiction to books.

He jumped ship in New York and lived as a vagrant in the countryside, and eventually a barkeeper’s assistant in New York.

1/ Working there he happened to chance on a periodical which contained a poem called "The Piper of Arll" by Duncan Campbell, that made him decide to become a poet.

He read 20 books a week while working in a carpet factory in Yonkers, returning to England when he was 19. (2/)

Northern Ireland is sleepwalking into an off-script unification, which commands a majority in the north but not in the south, or one which Dublin has failed to prepare for. A late Aug poll says Brexit creates a 52-39 majority for unification in NI. No Brexit, 52-35 favours stay. However, only 31% of voters to the south favour unification if this increases taxes. (This compares with 63% if taxes remain the same - 2015 BBC/RTÉ poll.) NI would lose or displace to Dublin the current £10n annual subvention. Shifted to Dublin, this hits living standards 15%.