I recently read Tim Pat Coogan's Michael Collins and it had a passing mention or two of GAA from a sporting standpoint. Obviously you have the Hogan stand, but I've hear vague accusations over the years of the GAA and IRA being mutually supportive beings. I get the casual cultural connections - and that any athletes among the men would have probably been players themselves - but were there any higher-level links? How about during the Troubles? I know there are clubs like Kevin Lynch's Hurling Club.

In a famous 1992 Simpsons episode, Wade Boggs got in an argument with Barney Gumble at Moe's Tavern over the greatest British Prime Minister. Boggs argued "Pitt the Elder!" while Barney shouted "Lord Palmerston!", with Barney eventually knocking Boggs out for his opinion.

My question, as someone less well-versed in British Prime Ministers and their historical rankings: do either come close to being considered the greatest Prime Ministers by contemporary historians, and why? What changes did they bring about that might make them considered a more effective Prime Minister?

I remember many years ago, my first year of undergrad, learning from a class that much of the folklore, folk stories, and folk songs that are "old" and "traditional" came heavily from the 19th century (or very late 18th century) since that was the time of people gathering together such stories, songs, and so on in Europe (like the Brothers Grimm). The professor of that class had a great article on that that I've since lost. I would love to rediscover that article. But is there any further explanation as to why this occurred?

Also, any good books or articles that expand on this? Any good books or articles that present stories and songs from about 1600-1775 (so before the Revolutionary Era, anything before 1750 is especially appreciated)? I had someone ask me recently "what would be some folklore stories sailors would have been trading around the Atlantic in the late 17th and early 18th century"? I was unable to answer them. I would like to be able to answer them in the future.

Hopefully the flaired members I messages that I thought might be able to help me answer this get my message.

(Sorry for any grammatical errors, I'm on a mobile device)

Are there any historical occurrences of cavalry charging pikes and winning (any and all time periods). I know the general consensus is that pikes usually win against cavalry, however, I remember reading a thread about how 16th-17th century heavy cavalry (So we're talking about full plate for man and horse) could smash into and through pike formations.

Also, if possible, please try to stick to mainly cavalry versus pike formations. I'm aware that combined arms was the most efficient and safest way of dealing with pike formations and the like.

Thanks for any help!

Have paleontologists archeologists recovered any lost viking burials?

By "Middle Ages," I mean somewhere around 600-1600, and I don't just mean Europe but all over the world.

Were catapults and giant crossbows used as anti-personnel weapons? Any other weapons?

I find so many mentions of Nero as the antichrist or Nero as one of the most horrible men who have ever lived. Period. But how much of this is true[the criticism]? Is some of it slander, or did Nero actually set fire to Rome[Or had his agents do it]? Wikipedia is vague on this one, and the Twelve Caesars seems to be based on things which may or may not be propoganda.

I've heard it said many times that "everyone who wasn't Joseph Stalin" could see the German attack on Russia coming a mile away. Is this true? Were the Western Powers aware that Germany was planning to attack Russia? What about Japan? I know that Germany didn't inform Japan until hours before the attack, but did their intelligence service predict it?

And what about within Russia itself? Did members of the government who weren't Stalin see the attack coming? Finally, why did Stalin himself fail to predict the attack?

From what i can tell there are 3 things. The region, the peninsula and Scania. Scania came first(I could be wrong about that though) but then what?

Did:

• The Scanians spread through out the region now Scandinavia, which gave the name to the peninsula because it was inhabited by Scandinavians?

or

• Did Scania give name to the peninsula more or less straight away and that again give the name Scandinavia to the region?

or

• Something completely different?

I realize that it's not clear in the question that I would also be interested in what lead to the impasse and what the public's reaction was to the firings.

In movies we often see spies using awesome equipment from exploding pens to knives on shoe tips. Most of them are obviously made up but cases like the infamous risin poisoning through an umbrella in the 70s prove that there must have been developed some items that have even seen action. I think I can safely assume, that there is only a very limited number of documented cases on this matter, so I would love to hear about any spy gadgets that were in use throughout history.

I've heard this floating around in liberal circles, that this plan was used to keep the working class from revolting against the elite in the English colonies. I wonder what, if any, truth there is to it.

To a Late Modern person like myself, I find it really difficult to wrap my head around what ancient people were thinking when they wrote histories. Why were they so unconcerned with accounting for and remembering events in the way that they actually happened? What was their actual goal in writing histories?

Were they not scared that they would lose memories, or be misled in the future due to inaccurate and biased information about the past?