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Today I read about Albrecht Durer’s painting of Irish mercenaries and their servants from an Irish Times article . The caption on the work states: “Thus go the soldiers of Ireland, beyond England/Thus go the poor (peasants) of Ireland.” What is most interesting about the piece is that it is unknown what they were doing there at this time? According to the Irish Times piece“While Irish soldiers did find service as mercenaries in the Low Countries in the 16th century, 1521 is relatively early to find them so doing.” There is an interesting book in this me thinks?

Rare home movie footage of JFK arriving in Dallas on the day of his assassination has been released this week:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/feb/17/john-f-kennedy-usa

Ashamed to say I never heard of this story until reading about it in yesterdays Irish Times (Read it here). It is about a group of Irish soldiers who switch sides a la Braveheart to fight against the US for Mexico in the 1846 - 1848 war. The Chieftains and Ry Cooder have written an album telling this story that includes Liam Neeson narrating a song called March To Battle. The best part of the interview in the Irish Times for me is Paddy Moloney's hilarious summation of the entire conflict and another conflict not a million miles from home: "...it really is a typical kind of Irish story ...about the terrible time we had with the neighbours who came to visit and forgot to go back!"

I saw this amazing documentary on BBC4 last night (as part of their

storyville series) on Daniel Ellsberg. He is credited with contributing to the end of the Vietnam war by

releasing secret CIA documents that revealed how successive presidents had lied about

the war. If you get the opportunity check this documentary out! For me one of the most

spine tingling moments was when Nixon proposed dropping nuclear bombs on Vietnam to an audibly

disturbed Kissinger...there was a pause before Nixon asked him "Does that bother you?"

http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2010/02/12/in_dangerous_man_ellsberg_again_powers_moral_drama/