[HPforGrownups] Re: Ireland

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 43354

In a message dated 29/08/2002 23:38:30 GMT Standard Time, jferer at yahoo.com 
writes:

> Anna Maria:"So the two teams playing in the World Cup final are 
> Ireland and Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Minister for Magic is in the top 
> box with Fudge. There's no mention of the Irish Minister. 
> Seamus, and presumably other Irish students, attend Hogwarts, in 
> Britain. Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales all have their own 
> national Quidditch teams. Yet students from at least three of these 
> places..."
> 
> Excellent point, and there's no explanation I know of. Did the Irish 
> wizards have more in common with their fellow wizards in other parts 
> of the Isles than with their strife-torn Muggle neighbors? The idea 
> is attractive, anyway.
> 

This question came up earlier this month and I answered it then as follows:

>I suspect that JKR is in part drawing an analogy with Rugby Union. For many 
>years, The Five Nations championship has been fought between England, 
>Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France (it is now the Six Nations and includes 
>Italy). The Irish team is drawn from the whole of Ireland, Northern Ireland 
>as well as Eire.

>I have mislaid my copy of QTTA, but I am sure that Quidditch is much older 
>than the UK and that Muggle politics would have little influence on how 
>Wizards organised their sport. Hence they might well play in the same 
league. 

>WbV:
>> 
>> Related question considers Seamus Finnegan. He is Irish but he studies in 
>> Hogwarts. Does it mean that there are no equivalents in Ireland? If there 
>> is a wizarding school in Ireland, why does he study in Hogwarts? Is he 
from 
>> Nothern Ireland? Does it mean that he (or his parents) might have had 
>> personal reasons for opting for Hogwarts?

>Many Irish people or people of Irish descent live in mainland Britain, 
though 
>still maintaining strong cultural and family ties with Ireland. However I 
>think the explanation more probably is that Hogwarts is *the* (either the 
>only, or the best - pick your interpretation) wizarding school for the 
>British Isles. After all, the foundation of Hogwarts (and presumably of the 
>other major schools) predates the concept of Britain or the UK in any modern 

>political sense.

Eloise
    



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