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That Time Irish Separatists Invaded Canada · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to the show Ridiculous Historians, and hello to you and
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: whatever neck of the global would you find yourself today.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I gotta tell you this episode and this topic for
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: today's episode is calling up some memories for me of
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: a very strange weekend. There was one time where circumstances
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: found me in Dublin for like twenty six hours. You
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: do that from time to time, don't you. Man. Things happen,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the old things happened. We were just before we went
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: on the air, asking our super producer, Casey Pegrum, who
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: is probably the most well traveled of the three of us,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: if he had ever been to Ireland. And Casey you said,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: you said no, Right. I don't know if I'm the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: most traveled in terms of countries visited or if I'm
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: just the most frequently traveled, because I keep going to
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Paris every year, because I actually I kind of made
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: my tour of Europe and then I just stayed in
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Paris after that, and every time I get ready to go,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I should see some more places, and then
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: I'm just like, no, I'm not. I was gonna stay here.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: What was amazing about Ireland, the very small amount of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: time I spent there was everybody had these amazing musical accents.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: And this might not seem like a big deal to
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  Speaker 1: a lot of US listening in Europe or maybe Australia
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  Speaker 1: or other places. But here in the US, North Americans
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  Speaker 1: and probably this includes Canadians as well, love the Irish accent.
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  Speaker 1: I heard two guys getting into a street fight at
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  Speaker 1: like two in the morning, and I thought they were
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  Speaker 1: just being very kind to each other. One of them
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  Speaker 1: was like, I'll be seeing you then, and the other
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  Speaker 1: one said, oh no, I'll be seeing you. It's like
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  Speaker 1: he was like, oh no, I'll and he's like yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And this is the line the guy used. He said,
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  Speaker 1: I'll see you very well. And I turned around. I
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  Speaker 1: see I turned around and the police force, uh like
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  Speaker 1: Alreadia they're called. They were holding these guys back, and
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  Speaker 1: one of them had a bottle that he was like
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  Speaker 1: brandishing at the other one. It sounded like this very polite,
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  Speaker 1: maybe slightly drunken conversation between friends, right, who are just
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  Speaker 1: trying to like one up their bromance. But no, those
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  Speaker 1: guys were going to beat the tar out of each other.
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  Speaker 1: We've we've we've probably sounded that way to passers by before,
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  Speaker 1: slightly in our cups on the porch of the old Local.
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  Speaker 1: This is the bar that we frequent, Yes, our local
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  Speaker 1: bars called the Local. It's very true. Chicken wings great
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: chicken wing is really easy to remember. Ben, want to
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: take an opportunity here at the top of the show,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: real quick. Yeah, we You and I had a very
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: interesting texts exchange to the other night where um, you
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: mentioned the fact that you had uh an add amount
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: of pictures of a mutual friend of ours on your
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: phone and you asked me if I want to subscribe
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  Speaker 1: to a service called nick Picks Nicks and you just
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  Speaker 1: send me this email as though it were from a boss,
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  Speaker 1: saying you've you have subscribed to nick Pick. Press F
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  Speaker 1: in the chat renamed for good luck unsubscribed by being lame,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and then I hit F and then Ben proceeded to
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: send me like a dozen screenshots of the iTunes reviews
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: for this show, and my response was, what the hell?
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: That was brutal? I avoid these reviews like the plague.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Explain yourself, sir. Oh. Also, don't forget that you did
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: get along with that some top notch Nick pick picks,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: which a friend of ours ni Nick Benson, Admiral Turbot.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: He goes, but but I bring it up because I
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: wanted to read. Most of these were quite good, and
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Ben has a good point that a lot of our
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: tunes reviews are either Apple podcast or either one star
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: or five stars, depending on where you fall in the spectrum.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: But this is one I quite enjoyed. The subject is
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: such a waste of resources, and here's the review, so
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: one star. The topics and headlines of the new podcast
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: episodes are great, but when you listen, you realize they
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: aren't there to cover it, but to go off on
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: nerd tangents and dialogue that is completely irrelevant. No offense,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: But I don't want to listen to your side convos
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: and inside jokes. Stay on topic and present the story.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: One of the guys is the worst and always takes
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: it off topic all caps. No one cares stick to
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the content. He didn't identify who which one of us
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: was the worst, but I would conjecture that if you're
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: listening to the show now, and you're still listening, then
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: you're one of those people who likes the side convos
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: in the nerd chat at the top of the show.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I remember that when and I don't know who that is.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I feel like they're naming all three of us. There
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: was one There was one review I can't remember if
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I sent this to that that made me laugh and
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: it made me think of you, Casey, because a lot
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: of it was telling us not not to They were like,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: we don't understand. I don't understanding of this, Casey Pegram
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: is why are these guys fawning? That's the word they use, fawning,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: great word f a w N. Why are they fawning
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: over this person? We don't know? And I thought, wow,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: you have not listened to the show ever, because, uh,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: super producer Casey Pegram has been there since day one.
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  Speaker 1: I did see that review and it cracked me up.
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  Speaker 1: Just somebody coming in the middle and be like, what,
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  Speaker 1: who is this guy? Why do they keep mentioning this guy? Well,
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you we we we at. We don't we
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  Speaker 1: fawn for a good reason. I mean, it's a fund
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: that comes honestly because Casey Pegram is one of both
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: of our favorite people. And if you can't get on
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: board with that, listener, then maybe you need to find
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: yourself a different podcast. We literally have a T shirt
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  Speaker 1: with Casey's face on it, thanks again for letting us
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  Speaker 1: pull that one off it right now, and Noel is
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  Speaker 1: wearing one of them. Yeah, so folks on is baffled
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  Speaker 1: by all of this, as as you are said, well, well,
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  Speaker 1: they don't know the backstory of how I spent the
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  Speaker 1: better part of what seven months trying to talk you
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  Speaker 1: into letting me get a shirt with your face on it,
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  Speaker 1: and you politely told me it was weird. But now
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  Speaker 1: we're doing it for a show. Yeah, that's that's. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: that was a severely I'll tolerate you've been response from
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  Speaker 1: our good friend Casey. I'm fine with that. I think
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  Speaker 1: Casey held it together delightfully. Uh. Speaking of holding it
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  Speaker 1: together delightfully, we should probably do an actual show right right. So,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not mentioning the beautiful lilt of the how do
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  Speaker 1: we get to the reviews, I'm not mentioning the beautiful
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  Speaker 1: lilt of the Irish accent for nothing. Today's show does
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  Speaker 1: concern the Irish, but not necessarily Ireland. We're talking about
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  Speaker 1: a time when the Irish invaded our fair country to
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  Speaker 1: the north of the US. Canada did we do another
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  Speaker 1: Canada invasion story pretty recently. We did. It was a
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  Speaker 1: Fort Blunder, which was built on the wrong side of
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  Speaker 1: the border. That's right, because we were concerned about an
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  Speaker 1: invasion from Canada. This episode concerns an invasion of Canada
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  Speaker 1: by the Fenians, who were members of a nineteenth century
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  Speaker 1: movement that was all about Irish independence from Britain Um.
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  Speaker 1: They were a secret organization, They were outlawed in the
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  Speaker 1: British Empire um and they were also known in Britain
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  Speaker 1: as the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Is this a precursor to
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  Speaker 1: the IRA? A, Ben, I believe. I believe that is correct,
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  Speaker 1: at least in terms of concepts, right, So the IRA
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  Speaker 1: would be thematically descended or ideologically descended, if not directly descended.
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  Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about those roots, then,
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  Speaker 1: Ben of the Fenians shut. The Finian Brotherhood was founded
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  Speaker 1: in the United States in eighteen fifty eight, and it
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  Speaker 1: was a precursor to things like the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
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  Speaker 1: The members were known as Finnians and Mahoney John Mahoney,
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  Speaker 1: that is, one of the founders, was a Gaelic scholar
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  Speaker 1: who named his organization after the Fianna legendary band of
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  Speaker 1: Irish warriors. So they trace their origins back to the
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  Speaker 1: seventeen nineties when there was a rebellion seeking to end
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  Speaker 1: British rule in Ireland, first for self government and then
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  Speaker 1: later to establish an Irish Republic. When John O'Mahoney had
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  Speaker 1: founded this, he did it after he had traveled to
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  Speaker 1: the continent to avoid rest in Ireland, and then he
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  Speaker 1: had lived in France for a little bit, still planning
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  Speaker 1: to overthrow British rule in Ireland, and in eighteen fifty
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  Speaker 1: six he came to the United States to found the
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  Speaker 1: Finian Brotherhood. And in some ways the Finian Brotherhood was
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  Speaker 1: aiming to become a replacement Irish government. They had adopted
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  Speaker 1: a constitution, rules for general governance and so on, and
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  Speaker 1: this was it's important to know this was an American
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  Speaker 1: branch of this larger Finian movement, and the main thing
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  Speaker 1: that they did originally was to raise funds and obtain
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  Speaker 1: weapons to send to Ireland. The mission of the Finians
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  Speaker 1: was always ultimately to overthrow and drive out the British forces.
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  Speaker 1: So here's the thing too. Most of the Finians had
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  Speaker 1: been made super battle weary and hardened rugged even by
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  Speaker 1: the American Civil War where they had fought. They were experienced,
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  Speaker 1: they had seen plenty of brutal and bloody battle, and
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  Speaker 1: they were very, very skilled. Right. Out of all these
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  Speaker 1: immigrants who had fought in the Civil War, ten thousand
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  Speaker 1: joined the Fenians after the war ended in eighteen sixty five.
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  Speaker 1: That's the U s Civil War, under the leadership of
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  Speaker 1: a Brigadier General Thomas William Sweeney. They also elected that
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  Speaker 1: government in exile when we're talking about New York, and
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  Speaker 1: they changed their strategy. They said, instead of just moving
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  Speaker 1: money and soldiers and weapons to Ireland, let's do something else.
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  Speaker 1: Let's take the fight for Irish freedom to British Canada.
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  Speaker 1: Here's how it came about. In eighteen sixty an American
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  Speaker 1: ship called Errand's Hope E R I N S was
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  Speaker 1: intercepted by the British Navy on the way to Ireland.
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  Speaker 1: The ship was loaded with soldiers and ammunition bound for
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  Speaker 1: this planned Finnian revolt. The mission failed and the Finnian
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  Speaker 1: branch in America held an emergency convention in Philadelphia. A
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  Speaker 1: guy named William Randall Roberts, who was a radical fire brand,
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  Speaker 1: was elected president. Of the Fenians, and he said, let's
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  Speaker 1: invade the British North American colonies of Canada. And they
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  Speaker 1: thought this was maybe not a good idea. They thought
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  Speaker 1: it was something they could pull off. They thought it
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  Speaker 1: was possible and plausible. Because even then, I mean, the
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  Speaker 1: Canadians probably have the same reputation they have now is
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  Speaker 1: being pretty chill, agreeable folks. Right. It's interesting because the
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  Speaker 1: Fenians already had some support politically in the US and
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  Speaker 1: the government didn't really mess with their meetings or gatherings
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  Speaker 1: and stuff, and Canada's borders were virtually unsecured. The only
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  Speaker 1: guards they had were citizen volunteers. So all these veterans
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  Speaker 1: who have military experience and are armed because they were
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  Speaker 1: able to get this I didn't know this. After the
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  Speaker 1: Civil War. They were able to purchase their rifles and
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  Speaker 1: AMMO at a super deep discount, like, hey, congratulations on
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  Speaker 1: surviving this usual lead cost you know, but we'll give
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: it to you for two just because of like as
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: a as a reward almost for their service. Congratulations, you
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  Speaker 1: are alive. Here's a deep discount for you. Let's you
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  Speaker 1: know better than nothing. I guess I know. The next
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  Speaker 1: thing you want is another, another gun, and more stuff
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  Speaker 1: to do, that's right, and more and more people to
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  Speaker 1: kill and uh, protect yourself from from being killed by.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, if there was anyone I wanted to
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  Speaker 1: do that with, it would be the Canadians. But that
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  Speaker 1: could be entirely incorrect. That reputation could be absolutely um
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  Speaker 1: a fabrication, and Canadians could actually be bloodthirsty killers. But
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  Speaker 1: we don't really have that information here in this story right. Well,
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  Speaker 1: we do know is that the idea for the invasion
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  Speaker 1: or the seeds were planted as far back as eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty five when the Fenians in the us UH split
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  Speaker 1: up into two factions. One was headed by William Roberts,
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  Speaker 1: the other by a guy named John o' mahoney um
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  Speaker 1: who was a member it was one of the founding
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  Speaker 1: members of the Brother Right, and the Robert's wing is
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  Speaker 1: actually the one that suggested doing this invasion of Canada. Um.
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  Speaker 1: And here are some of the supporting details that they
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  Speaker 1: put forth as a justification for this plan. They pointed
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  Speaker 1: to the fact that there were hundreds of thousands of
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  Speaker 1: these battle hardened veterans that could support this invasion and
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  Speaker 1: if they did it and timed it in the right way,
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  Speaker 1: it could bring about a real revolution in Ireland if
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  Speaker 1: they controlled Canada. It would also force the British government
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  Speaker 1: to be engaged in two different wars separated by an ocean,
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  Speaker 1: which logistically is incredibly expensive. And eventually they realized that
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  Speaker 1: that rebellion they were hoping for, the revolution they were
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  Speaker 1: hoping for in Ireland, was not actually going to take
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  Speaker 1: place or gain the momentum they wanted it to gain.
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  Speaker 1: They kept with the idea of the invasion, but the
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  Speaker 1: goal changed. Instead, they said, let's make sure we can
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  Speaker 1: engineer a border incident between the US and Britain that
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  Speaker 1: will force them into another war. And you know, it's
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  Speaker 1: it's no secret at this point that the US and
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  Speaker 1: Britainer is still very sore at one another. The British
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  Speaker 1: Empire heavily favored the Confederacy during the Civil War, which
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  Speaker 1: is a fact that many people are unaware of. Uh
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  Speaker 1: During the war, in fact, the British government almost granted
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  Speaker 1: diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy. And this kind of tense,
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  Speaker 1: uncool vibe between the US and the Brits was probably
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  Speaker 1: not going to lead to another full scale war, but
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  Speaker 1: it did mean that the US government was certainly not
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  Speaker 1: going to go out of its way to assist British
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  Speaker 1: forces in Canada. As a matter of fact, we have
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  Speaker 1: we have solid proof that President Andrew Johnson was aware
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  Speaker 1: of the Finian's plan for this Irish invasion of Canada,
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  Speaker 1: but he really do anything to stop it. He was
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  Speaker 1: kind of like Gene Wilder playing Willie Wonka in the
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: UH the original and good adaptation of Charlie and Chocolate Factory,
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  Speaker 1: where he says, no, stop, hell please. Yeah it's true. Um,
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  Speaker 1: So let's go a little deeper into what the US
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  Speaker 1: role in this whole thing was. Yeah, why were they
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  Speaker 1: okay with all of this? So, like you said before,
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  Speaker 1: I mean Andrew Johnson was clearly more or less okay
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  Speaker 1: with letting the Finnian Brotherhood kind of poke Britain in
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  Speaker 1: the eye, but he actually had some more strategic, kind
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  Speaker 1: of long term things to gain here. UH. US was
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  Speaker 1: really deep into this idea of manifest destiny of expanding
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  Speaker 1: their territorial holdings UM to the west, and the government
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  Speaker 1: actually participated in this planned rebellion UM. Johnson met with
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  Speaker 1: some of the leaders of the Fenians UH and helped
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  Speaker 1: get them discounts on weapons um that they sold to them,
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  Speaker 1: and he gave them his backing with the understanding that
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  Speaker 1: if the Irish did take over Canada, they would sort
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  Speaker 1: of be in league with the United States. That would
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  Speaker 1: be better than having a territory bordering our country that
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  Speaker 1: was controlled by the British, who, while we were tasked
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: with at the time, we're not, you know, fast friends.
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  Speaker 1: There's a lot of like simmering resentments held over from
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: obviously the Revolutionary War, right uh, and even during the
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Civil War. At the time, Johnson is pressing the British
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: government to pay reparations for different damages incurred during the
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Civil War for which he feels they are responsible. And
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: we've still okay, back to our two competing Finnian factions.
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  Speaker 1: This is the Finnian faction fact check. I got through that,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: all right, thank you, sir, thank you. So these two
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  Speaker 1: different factions launched two different operations in April of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty six. The O'Mahoney Wing tries to seize an island
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  Speaker 1: near New Brunswick, but the US Navy oddly enough disperses them.
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  Speaker 1: They had gathered in Maine, but they were disbanded under
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: the eyes of watchful US troops. No one in the
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  Speaker 1: federal government was super stoked about reigning in these Fenians
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  Speaker 1: because they thought that they might lose the Irish vote,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: which was a huge voting block right. So as a result,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the Fenians were able to organize a much larger campaign. Later,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the other wing, the Robert's Wing, launched its attack on
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Canada under the command of a civil war veteran on
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: June the first, eighteen sixty six, General O'Neill led a
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: force of over one thousand men into Canadian territory near
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Fort Erie and Ontario, and initially they had some some
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: pretty good success. They won two battles, including the Battle
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: of Ridgeway, and they only had about ten people die
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: on their side, same number of people dead, around the
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: same number dead on the Canadian side. But what was
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: is the What was the Battle of Ridgeway? And why
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: it's funny because in our notes here we haven't listed
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: as the so called Battle of Ridgeway. Was it just
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: too small to be a battle or what was it?
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: So this conflict had had several names. There was the
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Battle of lime Ridge or Limestone Ridge, and of course
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: the Battle of Ridgeway. Um and this began this conflict
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  Speaker 1: on the morning of June the second, nineteen sixty six,
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  Speaker 1: and it was near a village called Ridgeway and also
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  Speaker 1: a town in Canada called Fort erie Um, which is
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  Speaker 1: now Ontario, And there were eight hundred Canadian soldiers and
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: they faced off against around the same number a little
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  Speaker 1: less actually Finnians, around eight between seven hundred Finians who
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: had crossed the Niagara River from Buffalo, New York. And
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: it's interesting because historically this is a significant thing for
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Canada because it's the first battle of the Industrial Age
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  Speaker 1: that was fought entirely by Canadians and led exclusively by
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Canadian troops, because they were typically part of a British offensive. Right,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: it's a good point. This also the last battle fought
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  Speaker 1: in Ontario against a foreign invasion force, and in nineteen
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: twenty one it became a national Historic site. So one
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: thing that I think reflects well on the character of
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: the Fenians in this conflict is that the troops were
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: respectful of local civilians and Canadian prisoners of war. In fact,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: one Canadian soldier, Lance Corporal William Ellis, later writing about
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: his experience, remarked that the Fenians treatment of myself and
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the other prisoners, was kind and considerate in the extreme.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: So they've got that contagious Canadian vibe, right, it gets
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: into everything. O'Neill was aware that the Canadian forces overall
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: were much much larger than the team he had put together,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and eventually those forces would come to bear. So on
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  Speaker 1: the third of June he said, Okay, we're gonna take
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: the army back into US territory and we're gonna wait
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: for some friendly reinforcements. But at this point the US government,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: because politics is nothing if not fickle, the US government said,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: all right, maybe this is getting out of control, Like
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: we don't like the Brits either, but come on, guys.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: So once they got back across the border, O'Neill's army
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: was met by American troops who said, nope, no more
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: crossing the border. You can't make any more attacks, and
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: over the next few days, the American forces broke up
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the Finian army. O'Neill was even arrested and temporarily incarcerated. Yeah,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I think the U. S marshals sexually swept through and
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: and did the the arresting and incarcerating in question. There Um,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: there was a smaller incursion um into Canada a smaller
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: contingent of a Finian troops um. But this was pretty
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: much quashed as well. Uh, the second Finian Army UM
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: was broken up by the US forces when they got
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: back to American soil, and by the eighth of June,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: it was all over. That was it. That was it. Yeah,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: there was kind there with a whimper really yeah. So
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: that's why it's a so called battle, right, It's more
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: of a series of skirmishes. About eight hundred and fifty
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Fenians were captured by US authorities, as you have mentioned.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Another one hundred were caught by the Canadian militia. There
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: was another raid, no casualties. A lot of the reason
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: there was no casualties because US federal authorities had taken
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: the Finians guns and ammunition, and the Fenians eventually after
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: these failed attempts are more or less disbanded. Because the
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: entire invasion demonstrated the futility of their strategy. It proved
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: that Canadian forces would fight to preserve their land, and
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: more importantly, they could mobilize thousands of volunteers from their
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: population to fight for it. There wasn't much hope that
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the Finians could get as many people as they needed
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: to first seize Canadian territory, much less hold it against
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: volunteer Canadian forces that far outnumbered them. And the Fineans
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: learned that no matter what the US government might say
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: or how it might feel about the British Empire, they're
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: not going to offer any real support, you know what
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: I mean? They were They were kind of doing a
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: proxy war thing exactly, That's totally true. So, um, what
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: happened in eight seventy was that a convention took place
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: within the Brotherhood and that's when they decided to launch
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: another attack on Canada because it worked so well the
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: first let's do this, they're there, they were resolved, and
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: so John O'Neill um was to head up the Finian forces. Um,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and we have John Boyle, John Boil O'Reilly that is,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: who is a journalist, who is who's who's hanging out
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: as well. O'Reilly is the reason that we have a
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: lot of the juicy details from from this these conflicts,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: and uh, this one was particularly disastrous for the concept
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: of Finnianism and these fair United States. Right. What's strange
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: is that they did have an unintended benefit for nationalism
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: it just wasn't Irish nationalism. Those raids in eighteen sixty
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: six didn't do much for Irish nationalism patriotism, but they
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: became a defining moment in Canadian history. In February of
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty seven, various Canadian colonies were combined into the
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Dominion of Canada, while some factions of Fenians continued fighting.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I live the alliteration here. They clearly, if you just
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: look at your closest available world map, did not manage
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: to liberate northern Ireland. Yet a ship full of Irish
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: American fighters landed in western Ireland in May of eighteen
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: sixty seven. In eighteen seventy there was another Finnian raid.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: In October eighteen seventy one, a few dozen Finians marched
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: in Manitoba or towards Manitoba, hoping to join some rebels.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: They got arrested. They just couldn't get the leverage they need.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: But you have to wonder, what do you think those
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: guys would think of Brexit if they heard about it now?
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Because Ireland is Ireland proper is still going to be
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: a member of the European Union. It's a good question.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think it would It seems like I
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, Brexit is more about British Britain
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: for the British, and this one's sort of about Irish
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Ireland for the Irish, or like breaking away from Britain,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: so I think they'd probably be into it, right. Yeah,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I'm wondering because the idea of Northern Ireland gaining independence
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: to retain EU status, you know, I I just wonder
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: these these are new politics to us, but they are
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: politics with a long, long story. Well, Casey, I think
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: you've you've spent the most time out of the three
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: of us in the EU. Do you do you have
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: any insight on what's going to happen? Could breaksit in
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: a way end up reunineteen Ireland reuniting or reigniting the
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: troubles is kind of the fear um that the kind
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: of the very delicate piece that's been worked out there
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: since the height of the troubles sounds like it could
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: be in jeopardy again, and that that border with Northern
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Ireland could become contentious and could be more of like
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: a I think a patrolled border. There could be difficulties
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: with like imports and exports. So it's I don't know.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: It's it's a very like messy and delicate situation. From
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: what I understand, I'm far, far, far from an expert
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: in that region, but that's that's kind of what I've
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: heard Casey on the case. And we want to hear
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: your take, folks, because one thing this show has taught
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: us is that history is chock full of strange attempts
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: at revolution that sort of devolved into a couple of
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: dozen dudes, maybe with guns, maybe not, Yeah, I mean
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: hopefully with guns. It makes for a more interesting story, right,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: What What are your what are your weirdest invasion stories
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: that you've encountered locally or in your travels. Let us know.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: You can find us on Instagram, you can find us
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: on Facebook, you can find us on Twitter. Were ridiculous
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Historians on Facebook where you can meet one of our
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: favorite parts of the show, your fellow listeners if you wish.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: You can find me on Instagram at how Now Noel
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Brown or I just you know, do various and sundry
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: things around the house and a little bit of travel,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: a little bit of kicking it with the kid and
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: going to shows and whatnot. And I think Ben is
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: on there as well, I am. The rumors are true.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: You can find me at ben Boland. You'll see me
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: getting kicked into and out of various places on my
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: quest for the perfect slice of pizza. I'm kidding. When
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: it comes to food, I am. I'm a I'm a
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: garbage fire, I'm a dumpster. Just throw food at me.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: I don't need to plate I will just I'll catch
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: it and eat it. But yeah, you can see some
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: some various, ill informed misadventures there at ben Bowland. We
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: want to give a big thanks to super producer Casey
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: le Bouche peg Room, who want to also thank Christopher Hasiotis,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: eve's Jeff cot Gabe Luzier, our research associate, and a
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: new edition to the show, research pal Ryan Parrish, and
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: of course Alex Williams, who composed our theme. We'll see
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: you next time. Fix For more podcasts for my Heart Radio,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.