Re: Ransome and Race


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Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on August 13, 2009 at 19:47:48 user ACB.

In Reply to: Re: Ransome and Race posted by Adam Quinan on August 13, 2009 at 17:36:23:

I choose to think that Ed is winding us up.

After all, I am myself a Black Protestant.

The meaning is that by descent I am of Irish Protestant stock. This Irish-English use of the word "black" meaning "extremely" is a carry over from the Erse "dubh", where the word carries both meanings.

Thus the Black Institution is at the "most respectable" end of the Orange Order.

All clear now?

It got a bit muddled in American English, where you will find Catholics of Irish descent being referred to, by, eg., John Wayne, as "Black Irish" - a contradiction in terms - only a Protestant Irishman can be Black!


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