Land of winter

 

Hibernia, the classical Latin name for Ireland, can be loosely translated as the Land of Winter. More poetically, it has been rendered as the island of the eternal winter. And anyone who has stood in a face of a driving Atlantic storm in the far west of the island will understand that description.

Hibernia is a geographical term that is today consigned to the descriptive or poetic. The island of Ireland is rarely referred to by its Latin name and the term is now used in the same way that ‘Anglo’ describes something that is English (e.g. Hiberno-English, Hibernophile).

Greek geographer had labelled it Iouernia (written Ἰουερνία), adapting the old Celtic name Īweriū. The Romans took this root, and noticed its useful similarity to the Latin word hibernus (wintry). Possessing a cooler and wetter climate than that enjoyed to the south, and being a murky, misty and unconquered island the name obviously chimed with the Romans and stuck as Ireland’s Latin name.


And, although sounding entirely dissimilar, this etymology shows the shared roots with the present Irish name for the island - Éire (via the old Irish Ériu). And, far from meaning wintry, this proto-Celtic word is likely to mean the abundant land. One man's winter is another's feast. 

An ill wind blows east

Popbitch is not my usual source for this blog, but this week it had a little gem of a fact:

“The west of cities in the Northern Hemisphere are posher than the east because the winds blow west to east - i.e. back in the Industrial Revolution pollution drifted eastwards.”

The theory was set out in more detail on the Januarist blog. Prevailing winds would blow industrial stink over the slum housing in the east, driving the pollutants away from the upscale areas out west. On closer inspection, this theory doesn’t stack up well when applied across the whole of the Northern Hemisphere. It is especially flawed when applied to the US – think South Central, L.A., Southside, Chicago, the south-east quadrant of Washington D.C.  and the Bronx to the north of Manhatten.

But, there is obviously a grain of truth to the east/west divide. The Pet Shop Boys sang of West End Girls and East End Boys, and comparing EastEnders  with Made In Chelsea shows which side is the salubrious end of town.

London is the most obvious example of an east/west wealth divide. Heading east past the City brings you to Whitechapel, Poplar, Stratford and Canning Town. Going to the west end might take you to Mayfair, Knightsbridge, Marylebone or Notting Hill.

But it is not the only example. Glasgow has its own East End, almost as infamous in poverty and standing in stark contrast to Hillhead, Dowanhill, Kelvingrove, Kelvinside, Hyndland to the west of the city. Manchester and Leeds also have an east end of sorts – Manchester East and East End Park respectively.

In Bristol, grimy St Paul's, Easton, Eastville face Clifton, Cabot, Stoke Bishop to the west. In Sheffield the Peak District embraces westerly Hallam whilst east of the city lie the decidedly dicey Burngreave and Nether Edge. In Birmingham, Sparkbrook, Sparkhill, Duddestone are east, Edgbaston and Harbone are west.  The rule even applies to my home city of Preston, with Frenchwood, Deepdale and Ribbleton stretching east from the city centre and comprising some of the poorest parts of town.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Some of London’s poorest areas are in the south, and north Kensington has historically been rough as docker’s palms. In Leicester the rule is reversed, with Leicester West being poorer than Leicester East and in Edinburgh the poorest areas are to the north.

I decided to investigate whether the historical rule applied today by inspecting the Guardian’s impressive data set mapping poverty in England. Set out in forensic and colourful detail, a patchwork quilt of deprivation and wealth emerges, stretching down to ward level and revealing stark patterns across the country. And it confirms that the ‘east is poor’ rule still, by and large, applies to the UK’s major cities.

One recent trend is to promote east end urban development and regeneration through major sporting events. The London Olympics in 2012 are the most obvious example, centred on Stratford and encompassing some of London’s poorest (and easterly) boroughs. But it is preceded by East Manchester's successful hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and the regeneration of Sports City and New Islington that accompanied it. It will be followed by Glasgow hosting the same event in 2014, with events and developments centred on its own East End.

So, as far as the UK goes, east is east and west is west. But, increasingly, the two do meet and often end up living in a brand spanking new apartment near a sports complex in a previously derelict side of town. 


If you liked that, try http://bitofhistoryrepeating.blogspot.com/2011/08/panic-on-streets-of-london.html for a historical view of the London riots. 

Patriotic carrots

Most people know that carrots have not always been orange. The original cultivars were purple, with some white and yellow mutations. So why is the modern carrot ubiquitously orange?

The orange strain was finally developed and stabilised by Dutch growers in the 16 - 17th centuries. A nice story has it that they were bred in the appropriately patriotic hue to honour William of Orange, the stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands.

Like many historical anecdotes, there is no documentary evidence to back this story. But it is a nice idea!

Fight them on the beaches

One of the best known speeches given in the English language is Churchill's "We Shall Fight on the Beaches", the common title given to a speech delivered to  the House of Commonson June 4, 1940.

The most quoted section is "we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." It consists of words entirely derived from Anglo-Saxon roots except for one; surrender (which comes, somewhat unsurprisingly given the context, from old French).

What is less well known is that on sitting back down he whispered to a fellow MP  “I don’t know what we’ll fight them with – we shall have to slosh them on the head with bottles – empty ones, of course.”

Back to square one

 There are two main theories explaining the origin of the phrase 'back to square one':

1. Returning back to the beginning in children's games such as hopscotch and snakes and ladders; or 

2. The first live radio commentary featured a Division One match between Arsenal and Sheffield United, broadcast on January 22, 1927. A grid of a football pitch divided into eight numbered squares had been printed in the previous week's Radio Times so the commentator could describe the ball's location. Square one meant the rear left quadrant of the defender's side of the field.

Olympic makeover

After the flame is extinguished, the flags lowered and the last medals awarded the Olympic roadshow will move on from London to focus on Rio de Janeiro. But the organisers of London 2012 are hoping that the games will leave more than memories - the legacy of the spectacle has been at the heart of the project since the bid's inception.

From 2013 the Olympic Park will be renamed the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The whole site covers 513 acres, making it a little larger than the Regent's Park (410 acres) and slightly smaller than Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens (whose combined area is 625 acres). The area of new open space in the Olympic Park will be 250 acres, which is 37 acres more than its close neighbour to the west, Victoria Park.  

Between the Olympic Park and Stratford lies the vast hulk of Westfield Stratford City. Although the development features housing, offices and leisure, the main feature is some 1,900,000 sq ft (177,000 m2) of new retail space. It will be the UK's largest shopping centre - beating its sister centre in Shepherd's Bush (1,614,600 sq ft), close rivals Bluewater (1,675,955 sq ft), Lakeside (1,434,000 sq ft) and even the UK's previous current title holder the Metro Centre (1,818,000 sq ft).

It is, however, a tiddler compared to the world's biggest mall. The South China Mall in Dongguan, China is a whopping 6.4m sq ft but has become a symbol for excess - it stands largely empty, with only 1% of space let.

Red alert

This week the Japanese nuclear authorities announced that the partial meltdowns at four of Fukushima I's reactors would be raised to a 'category 5' incident. I had never come across this scale before and, whilst it clearly relates to the seriousness of the incident, I didn't know what it was out of, or what the criteria were. 

The scale is the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). It was introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is designed to enable clear communication on nuclear incidents. The scale has eight levels from level 0 to level 7. There has only been one level 7 incident (Chernobyl) and one level 6 incident (Kyshtym) (both in the former Soviet Union). 

Fukushima joins Three Mile Island (USA), Windscale (UK) and Chalk River (Canada) on the list of level 5 incidents at nuclear power plants.

Japan in 'battle against time' says IAEA