Cristopher Colombia in primary school curriculum

He was a significant explorer but also a person of his time, which was not exactly full of glory for colonial powers searching for riches in the distant lands. Hopefully his significance will be explained in modern terms and not glorified. These people did do amazing voyages into the unknown, but after that it was pretty much a disaster.

The abdication - the King was with an adult women.

Prince andrew was rumoured to be with under age women and to be part of a child trafficking ring. I dont know if they will put that in school history books for children to read.

Almost certainly, the abdication is the subject of many a book and documentary - the Andrew affair will go down in the annals of history without doubt.

sure Elizabeth Bathory was a really nice lady.... just one example

I dont have an Irish nationalist point of view. I was born in England.

I have an Irish mother and an English father. I have lived in both Ireland and England.

I have a neutral point of view.

I have also seen the Irish/ UK conflict written about by non Irish authors in books not printed in Ireland. Every one of those books said that the UK were wrong, and caused huge destruction in Ireland

@Appleday11 what you’ve written on this thread is what historians would call an Irish Nationalist interpretation. That doesn’t make you wrong, and lots of fine
historians have written excellent books with similar perspectives. It’s a perfectly valid point of view. But I hope you and everybody else can see that it’s a partisan interpretation. I could write a version of the same events from an English Tory perspective which would be very different. As long as we both get our facts right, both would be equally “true.”

I fully agree with you that in the case of most old hatreds the productive thing to do is to focus on living in harmony, while discussing and acknowledging our shared and contested histories.

So if someone told you that they discovered a great new resteraunt you'd tell them that they couldn't possibly have discovered it because other people had already been there?

Seems a bit weird.

I wonder in future English history books, will the scandal and downfall of Prince Andrew be taught.

Probably not!

It's so long since I was at primary school that I can't remember how much detail but I knew he had a ship called the Santa Maria. Just having a look at his Wikipedia entry, a lot of it wouldn't be suitable for 10 and unders.

It's pretty standard for all times.

And of course you can't discover inhabited places.

They do. But what they need to learn is that he was a bit thick, he thought he had gone to the west of India until he died. And that he discovered none of the mainland americas, being as he never set foot there.

And that disease, subjugation, slavery, rape and war followed him.

Which was pretty standard for the time

Honestly at primary level, how much detail are they going to go into? Surely it'll be he sailed on this ship to this place, then on this other ship to this other place, he got lost a lot and there's a theory that he brought back x and y things to Europe.

I found this info regarding Columbus Day being celebrated in the US. I knew that it had been renamed in some states.
https://www.officeholidays.com/holidays/usa/columbus-day-state-guide

According to these articles (Oct and Nov 2024), the data has not been published or peer reviewed:

International experts slam alleged Columbus DNA findings.

World leaders in this field condemn the way in which the data on the supposed origins of the explorer has been released and question its validity...

It seems easy to use the power of DNA to claim that Columbus was a Sephardic Jew born on the Iberian Peninsula, but all the experts who spoke to EL PAÍS argue it is impossible to reach such a conclusion. Researchers caution that such an unsubstantiated announcement tarnishes the reputation of the broader scientific community.

Since the documentary aired, Lorente has stated that he will not answer questions until he gives a press conference in November, when he plans to present the results. He has promised that the findings will be published in an international scientific journal, so that they are accessible to all researchers and experts. However, as of now, no one has seen the data.

https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-10-17/international-experts-slam-alleged-columbus-dna-findings-commenting-on-this-is-like-commenting-on-aliens.html

Nov 2024
The controversial forensic scientist José Antonio Lorente, who has spent more than two decades analyzing the DNA of the alleged bones of Christopher Columbus and his relatives without publishing any conclusive data, has indefinitely postponed the presentation of his findings...

Although no comprehensive study has yet been published, the documentary aired on Spanish television last month made world headlines. “Columbus probably Spanish and Jewish, study says,” was the headline of a BBC story...

https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-11-25/presentation-of-analysis-on-christopher-columbus-alleged-remains-postponed-indefinitely.html

No-one's disputing that, but you can't frame him like he's an Amundsen, or like it was the moon landings. He wasn't heading out into the unknown in the spirit of discovery, he was looking for a trade route to existing territories, in order to exploit it. He fully expected to find people, and went armed in order to subdue them.

Where did I write that that was my "only encounter". I've had a lot more encounters and heard a lot more things.

My English cousin went to school in Ireland for a while. He was so badly bullied for being English that his family left Ireland.

As I said, I'm tired of the hatred between the two countries

Interesting that the only encounter you describe is hearsay, based on what a friend told you someone rowing a boat said to him. I spent almost 30 years in England dealing with the prejudices of a minority, and I’m not going to relate them. I’m out of this thread.

He was without doubt a "significant explorer" though wasn't he?

Leif Erikson was the first European to land in America anyway, not Columbus.

He was there 500 years before.

There DEFINITELY is hatred. Probably more in Ireland at this stage, than in England. Ive lived in Ireland. Ive heard Irish people talk about English people with such utter hatred. They hate English people because of what happened. My friend (not english or irish) moved to Ireland. He told me that he went on a boat trip in Ireland. An Irish man was rowing him across.

My friend told me that the whole way there and back, the man spoke about how much he hated English people.