Geography Lesson

Don't shoot off your mouth before your brain is loaded. -- Pug Mahoney

   During his tour of England, Donald Trump noted today that "I have property in the UK -- Scotland, Ireland."
   That will be news to the people of Ireland, which is an independent nation and has been for nearly 100 years. Moreover, one can argue that technically, Ireland has never been part of the United Kingdom, even though it was controlled by the British government.
   Historically, the UK was formed after the death of Queen Elizabeth I, when her cousin King James VI of Scotland united the two kingdoms, becoming King James I of England as well as retaining his Scottish crown.
   The nation then became known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain. This solved the potential problem of which country would come first in the new name, whether the country would be known as the United Kingdom of England and Scotland, or as Scotland and England. Either way, the Scots or the English would not be happy. So they settled on "Great Britain."
   In any case, Trump does indeed own a golf course in the west of Ireland, where he has been arguing with local zoning officials over whether he can build a wall to keep out the tide.
   But this property is in the Republic of Ireland, which gained its independence after the Easter Rising of 1916.
   Perhaps the current president of the United States should review a little history before going on an official visit to another country.