Denis Law
Denis Law is a Scottish former footballer who played as a forward. His career as a football player began at Second Division Huddersfield Town in 1956. After four years at Huddersfield, he was signed by Manchester City for an estimated transfer fee of £55,000, which set a new British record. Law spent one year there before Torino bought him for £110,000, this time setting a new record fee for a transfer involving a British player. Although he played well in Italy, he found it difficult to settle there and signed for Manchester United in 1962, setting another British record transfer fee of £115,000. Law spent 11 years at Manchester United, his goals tally places him third in the club's history, behind Bobby Charlton. He was nicknamed The King and The Lawman by supporters, Denis the Menace by opposing supporters, he is the only Scottish player to have won the Ballon d'Or award, doing so in 1964, helped his club win the First Division in 1965 and 1967. He missed their European Cup triumph in 1968 through injury.
Law left Manchester United in 1973 to return to Manchester City for a season, represented Scotland at the 1974 FIFA World Cup. He retired at the start of the 1974–75 season. Law played for Scotland a total of 55 times and jointly holds the Scottish international record goal tally with 30 goals. Law holds a United record for scoring 46 competitive goals in a single season. Law was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, to George Law, a fisherman, his wife, Robina; the Law family lived in a council flat at Printfield Terrace in Aberdeen. He wore handed-down shoes throughout his adolescence, he supported Aberdeen and watched them when he had enough money to do so, watching local non-league teams when he did not. His obsession with football led to him turning down a place at Aberdeen Grammar School, because he would have had to play rugby there. Instead, he attended Powis Academy in Aberdeen. Despite having a serious squint, he showed great promise once he was moved from full back to inside-left, was selected for Scotland Schoolboys.
In the 1954–55 season, he was spotted by Archie Beattie, a scout for Huddersfield Town, who invited 14 year-old Law to go for a trial. When he got there, the manager said, "The boy's a freak. Never did I see a less football prospect – weak and bespectacled." However, to Law's surprise, they signed him on 3 April 1955. While he was at Huddersfield, he had an operation to correct his squint, which enhanced his self-confidence. Huddersfield's relegation to what was the Second Division made it easier for Law to get a game, he made his debut on 24 December 1956, aged only sixteen, in a 2–1 win over Notts County. Manchester United's manager Matt Busby shortly offered Huddersfield £10,000 for Law, a substantial amount of money for a teenage footballer at that time, but the club turned the offer down. Bill Shankly was manager of Huddersfield between 1957 and 1959, when he left for Liverpool he wanted to take Law with him, but Liverpool were unable to afford him at that time. In March 1960, Law signed for Manchester City for what was a British record transfer fee, estimated to be £55,000, although Law's share of the fee was "precisely nothing".
Once again, Matt Busby had attempted to sign Law for Manchester United, but United's cross-city rivals beat them to Law's signature. City had narrowly avoided relegation from Division I the previous season, Law genuinely felt that Huddersfield had a better team at the time, he made his debut on 19 March, scored in a 4–3 defeat to Leeds United. In April 1961, he scored two goals in a 4–1 win over Aston Villa that ensured City's survival in Division One. Although he had thought about leaving, he was playing well and in 1961 Law scored an incredible six goals in an FA Cup tie against Luton Town. For him, the match was abandoned with twenty minutes to go, so his six goals didn't count. To make matters worse for him, Luton won the replay 3–1, City were knocked out of the Cup. Although he enjoyed his time at City, he wanted to play in a more successful side and was sold to the Italian club Torino in the summer of 1961. Law moved to Torino for a fee of £110,000, was accompanied by Joe Baker who had signed from Scottish side Hibernian.
Law's time in Italy did not go according to plan. Another Italian club, tried to prevent him becoming a Torino player as soon as he arrived, claiming he had signed a pre-contract agreement with them, although they dropped this claim before the season started. Players in the UK were not treated well at the time, the maximum wage for footballers had only been abolished there, so he was pleasantly surprised to find that pre-season training was based in a luxury hotel in the Alps. However, Torino took performance-related pay to something of an extreme, giving the players bags full of money when the team won but little, if anything, when they lost. Like many British footballers who have gone to play in Italy, Law did not like the style of football and found adapting to it difficult; the ultra-defensive catenaccio system was popular there at the time, so forwards did not get many chances to score. On 7 February 1962, he was injured in a car crash when his teammate Joe Baker drove the wrong way around a roundabout and clipped the kerb as he tried to turn the car around, flipping it over.
Baker was killed, but Law's injuries were not life-threatening. By April, he had put in a transfer request, ignored
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was a state established in 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. That treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between the forces of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic, the Irish Republican Army, British Crown forces; the Free State was established as a Dominion of the British Commonwealth of Nations. It comprised 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland. Northern Ireland, which comprised the remaining six counties, exercised its right under the Treaty to opt out of the new state; the Free State government consisted of the Governor-General, the representative of the King, the Executive Council, which replaced both the revolutionary Dáil Government and the Provisional Government set up under the Treaty. W. T. Cosgrave, who had led both of these governments since August 1922, became the first President of the Executive Council; the Oireachtas or legislature consisted of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann known as the Senate. Members of the Dáil were required to take an Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution of the Free State and to declare fidelity to the king.
The oath was a key issue for opponents of the Treaty, who refused to take the oath and therefore did not take their seats. Pro-Treaty members, who formed Cumann na nGaedheal in 1923, held an effective majority in the Dáil from 1922 to 1927, thereafter ruled as a minority government until 1932. In 1931, with the passage of the Statute of Westminster, the Parliament of the United Kingdom relinquished its remaining authority to legislate for the Free State and the other dominions; this had the effect of making the dominions sovereign states. The Free State thus became. In the first months of the Free State, the Irish Civil War was waged between the newly established National Army and the anti-Treaty IRA, who refused to recognise the state; the Civil War ended in victory for the government forces, with the anti-Treaty forces dumping their arms in May 1923. The anti-Treaty political party, Sinn Féin, refused to take its seats in the Dáil, leaving the small Labour Party as the only opposition party.
In 1926, when Sinn Féin president Éamon de Valera failed to have this policy reversed, he resigned from Sinn Féin and founded Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil entered the Dáil following the 1927 general election, entered government after the Irish general election, 1932, when it became the largest party. De Valera abolished the Oath of Allegiance and embarked on an economic war with the UK. In 1937 he drafted a new constitution, passed by a referendum in July of that year; the Free State came to an end with the coming into force of a new constitution on 29 December 1937 when the state took the name "Ireland". The Easter Rising of 1916 and its aftermath caused a profound shift in public opinion towards the republican cause in Ireland. In the December 1918 General Election, the republican Sinn Féin party won a large majority of the Irish seats in the British parliament: 73 of the 105 constituencies returned Sinn Féin members; the elected Sinn Féin MPs, rather than take their seats at Westminster, set up their own assembly, known as Dáil Éireann.
It passed a Declaration of Independence. The subsequent War of Independence, fought between the Irish Republican Army and British security forces, continued until July 1921 when a truce came into force. By this time the Ulster Parliament had opened, established under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, presenting the republican movement with a fait accompli and guaranteeing the British presence in Ireland. In October negotiations opened in London between members of the British government and members of the Dáil, culminating in the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921; the Treaty allowed for the creation of an independent state to be known as the Irish Free State, with dominion status, within the British Empire—a status equivalent to Canada. The Parliament of Northern Ireland could, by presenting an address to the king, opt not to be included in the Free State, in which case a Boundary Commission would be established to determine where the boundary between them should lie. Members of the parliament of the Free State would be required to take an oath of allegiance to the king, albeit a modification of the oath taken in other dominions.
The Dáil ratified the Treaty on 7 January 1922. A Provisional Government was formed, with Michael Collins as chairman; the Treaty, the legislation introduced to give it legal effect, implied that Northern Ireland would be a part of the Free State on its creation, but in reality the terms of the Treaty applied only to the 26 counties, the government of the Free State had neither de facto nor de jure power in Northern Ireland. The Treaty was given legal effect in the United Kingdom through the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922; that act, which established the Free State, allowed Northern Ireland to "opt out" of it. Under Article 12 of the Treaty, Northern Ireland could exercise its option by presenting an address to the King requesting not to be part of the Irish Free State. Once the Irish Free State Constitution Act was passed on 5 December 1922, the Houses of Parliament of Northern Ireland had one month to exercise this option during which month the Government of Ireland Act continued to apply in Northern Ireland.
Realistically it was always certain. The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Sir James Craig, speaking in the Parliament in Octob
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. It competes in the three major professional tournaments, the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Nations League and the UEFA European Championship. Scotland, as a constituent country of the United Kingdom, is not a member of the International Olympic Committee and therefore the national team does not compete in the Olympic Games; the majority of Scotland's home matches are played at Hampden Park. Scotland is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872. Scotland has a long-standing rivalry with England, whom they played annually from 1872 until 1989; the teams have met only seven times since most in June 2017. Scotland have qualified for the FIFA World Cup on eight occasions and the UEFA European Championship twice, but have never progressed beyond the first group stage of a finals tournament.
The last major tournament they qualified for was the 1998 World Cup. The team have achieved some noteworthy results, such as beating the 1966 FIFA World Cup winners England 3–2 at Wembley Stadium in 1967. Archie Gemmill scored what has been described as one of the greatest World Cup goals in a 3–2 win during the 1978 World Cup against the Netherlands, who reached the final of the tournament. In their qualifying group for UEFA Euro 2008, Scotland defeated 2006 World Cup runners-up France 1–0 in both fixtures. Scotland supporters are collectively known as the Tartan Army; the Scottish Football Association operates a roll of honour for every player who has made more than 50 appearances for Scotland. Kenny Dalglish holds the record for Scotland appearances, having played 102 times between 1971 and 1986. Dalglish scored shares the record for most goals scored with Denis Law. Scotland and England are the oldest national football teams in the world. Teams representing the two sides first competed at the Oval in five matches between 1870 and 1872.
The two countries contested the first official international football match, at Hamilton Crescent in Partick, Scotland, on 30 November 1872. The match ended in a goalless draw. All eleven players who represented Scotland that day played for Glasgow amateur club Queen's Park. Over the next forty years, Scotland played matches against the other three Home Nations—England and Ireland; the British Home Championship began in 1883. The encounters against England were fierce and a rivalry developed. Scotland lost just two of their first 43 international matches, it was not until a 2–0 home defeat by Ireland in 1903 that Scotland lost a match to a team other than England. This run of success meant that Scotland would have topped the Elo ratings, which were calculated in 1998, between 1876 and 1904. Scotland won the British Home Championship outright on 24 occasions, shared the title 17 times with at least one other team. A noteworthy victory for Scotland before the Second World War was the 5–1 victory over England in 1928, which led to that Scotland side being known as the "Wembley Wizards".
Scotland played their first match outside the British Isles in 1929. Scotland continued to contest regular friendly matches against European opposition and enjoyed wins against Germany and France before losing to the Austrian "Wunderteam" and Italy in 1931. Scotland, like the other Home Nations, did not enter the three FIFA World Cups held during the 1930s; this was because the four associations had been excluded from FIFA due to a disagreement regarding the status of amateur players. The four associations, including Scotland, returned to the FIFA fold after the Second World War. A match between a United Kingdom team and a "Rest of the World" team was played at Hampden Park in 1947 to celebrate this reconciliation; the readmission of the Scottish Football Association to FIFA meant that Scotland were now eligible to enter the 1950 FIFA World Cup. FIFA advised that places would be awarded to the top two teams in the 1950 British Home Championship, but the SFA announced that Scotland would only attend the finals if Scotland won the competition.
Scotland won their first two matches, but a 1–0 home defeat by England meant that the Scots finished as runners-up. This meant that the Scots had qualified by right for the World Cup, but had not met the demand of the SFA to win the Championship; the SFA stood by this proclamation, despite pleas to the contrary by the Scotland players, supported by England captain Billy Wright and the other England players. The SFA instead sent the Scots on a tour of North America; the same qualification rules were in place for the 1954 FIFA World Cup, with the 1954 British Home Championship acting as a qualifying group. Scotland again finished second, but this time the SFA allowed a team to participate in the Finals, held in Switzerland. To quote the SFA website, "The preparation was atrocious"; the SFA only sent 13 players to the finals though FIFA allowed 22-man squads. Despite this self-imposed hardship in terms of players, the SFA dignitaries travelled in numbers, accompanied by their wives. Scotland lost 1–0 against Austria in their first game in the finals, which prompted the team manager Andy Beattie to resign hours before the game against Uruguay.
Uruguay were reigning champions and had never before lost a game at the World Cup finals, they defeated Scotland 7–0. The 1958 FIFA World Cup finals saw Scotland draw their first game against Yugoslavia 1–1, but they lost to Paraguay and France and went out at the first stage. Matt Busby had been due to manage the team at the World Cup, but the severe injuries he suffered in the Munich air disaster
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. Donegal County Council Lifford the county town; the population was 159,192 at the 2016 census. It has been known as Tyrconnell, after the historic territory of the same name. In terms of size and area, it is the largest county in Ulster and the fourth-largest county in all of Ireland. Uniquely, County Donegal shares a small border with only one other county in the Republic of Ireland – County Leitrim; the greater part of its land border is shared with three counties of Northern Ireland: County Londonderry, County Tyrone and County Fermanagh. This geographic isolation from the rest of the Republic has led to Donegal people maintaining a distinct cultural identity and has been used to market the county with the slogan "Up here it's different". While Lifford is the county town, Letterkenny is by far the largest town in the county with a population of 19,588. Letterkenny and the nearby city of Derry form the main economic axis of the northwest of Ireland.
Indeed, what became the City of Derry was part of County Donegal up until 1610. There are eight historic baronies in the county: Banagh Boylagh Inishowen East Inishowen West Kilmacrennan Raphoe North Raphoe South Tirhugh The county may be informally divided into a number of traditional districts. There are two Gaeltacht districts in the west: The Rosses, centred on the town of Dungloe, Gweedore. Another Gaeltacht district is located in the north-west: Cloughaneely, centred on the town of Falcarragh; the most northerly part of the island of Ireland is the location for three peninsulas: Inishowen and Rosguill. The main population centre of Inishowen, Ireland's largest peninsula, is Buncrana. In the east of the county lies the Finn Valley; the Laggan district is centred on the town of Raphoe. According to the 1841 Census, County Donegal had a population of 296,000 people; as a result of famine and emigration, the population had reduced by 41,000 by 1851 and further reduced by 18,000 by 1861. By the time of the 1951 Census the population was only 44% of what it had been in 1841.
As of 2016, the county's population was 159,192. The county is, it has a indented coastline forming natural sea loughs, of which both Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle are the most notable. The Slieve League cliffs are the sixth-highest sea cliffs in Europe, while Malin Head is the most northerly point on the island of Ireland; the climate is temperate and dominated by the Gulf Stream, with warm, damp summers and mild wet winters. Two permanently inhabited islands and Tory Island, lie off the coast, along with a large number of islands with only transient inhabitants. Ireland's second longest river, the Erne, enters Donegal Bay near the town of Ballyshannon; the River Erne, along with other Donegal waterways, has been dammed to produce hydroelectric power. The River Foyle separates part of County Donegal from parts of both counties Tyrone. A survey of the macroscopic marine algae of County Donegal was published in 2003; the survey was compiled using the algal records held in the herbaria of the following institutions: the Ulster Museum, Belfast.
Records of flowering plants include Dactylorhiza purpurella Soó. The animals included in the county include the European badger. There are habitats for the rare corn crake in the county. At various times in its history, it has been known as County Tirconaill, County Tirconnell or County Tyrconnell; the former was used as its official name during 1922–1927. This is in reference to both the earldom that succeeded it. County Donegal was the home of the once mighty Clann Dálaigh, whose most well-known branch were the Clann Ó Domhnaill, better known in English as the O'Donnell dynasty; until around 1600, the O'Donnells were one of Ireland's richest and most powerful native Irish ruling families. Within Ulster, only the Uí Néill of modern County Tyrone were more powerful; the O'Donnells were Ulster's second most powerful clan or ruling-family from the early 13th century through to the start of the 17th century. For several centuries the O'Donnells ruled Tír Chonaill, a Gaelic kingdom in West Ulster that covered all of modern County Donegal.
The head of the O'Donnell family had the titles Rí Thír Chonaill. Based at Donegal Castle in Dún na nGall, the O'Donnell Kings of Tír Chonaill were traditionally inaugurated at Doon Rock near Kilmacrennan. O'Donnell royal or chiefly power was ended in what was the newly created County Donegal in September 1607, following the Flight of the Earls from near Rathmullan; the modern County Arms of Donegal was influenced by the design of the old O'Donnell royal arms. The County Arms is the official coat of arms of both County Donegal County Council; the modern County Donegal was shired by order of the English Crown in 1585. The English authori
Ibrox Stadium
Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium on the south side of the River Clyde in the Ibrox district of Glasgow. The home of Rangers F. C. Ibrox is the third largest football stadium in Scotland, with an all-seated capacity of 50,817. Opened as Ibrox Park in 1899, it suffered a disaster in 1902. Vast earthen terraces were built in its place, a main stand, now a listed building, in 1928. A British record crowd of 118,567 gathered in January 1939 for a league match with Celtic. After the Ibrox disaster of 1971, the stadium was rebuilt; the vast bowl-shaped terracing was removed and replaced by three rectangular, all-seated stands by 1981. After renovations were completed in 1997, the ground was renamed Ibrox Stadium. Ibrox hosted the Scotland national football team when Hampden Park was redeveloped in the 1990s, three Scottish cup finals in the same period, has been a concert venue. Rangers played its first match on Glasgow Green; the club played home matches on public pitches across Glasgow, first moving to a regular home ground at Burnbank in 1875.
A year Rangers played at the Clydesdale cricket ground in Kinning Park. This ground was improved to give a capacity of 7,000. After hints by the landlords that they wished to develop the site, Rangers left in February 1887; the club shared Cathkin Park with Third Lanark for the remainder of the 1886–87 season. Rangers first moved to the Ibrox area in 1887, playing on a site to the east of the current stadium; the first match at this stadium was an 8–1 defeat to English side Preston North End on 20 August 1887, watched by a capacity crowd of over 15,000. This inaugural match had to be abandoned after 70 minutes due to a pitch invasion; the first Ibrox Park was a success in the short term, as three Scotland international matches and the 1890 Scottish Cup Final were played at the ground. Celtic Park, built in 1892, was more advanced, however. Rangers opted raising funds by forming a limited company; the last match at the old ground was played on 9 December 1899. The new Ibrox Park was formally opened with a 3–1 victory over Hearts on 30 December.
Ibrox Park, as it was known between 1899 and 1997, is completely different from the Ibrox Stadium of today. It followed the model of most Scottish stadiums of the time, comprising an oval track around the pitch, with a pavilion and one stand along one side; the ground had a capacity of 40,000. Celtic Park and Hampden Park all competed with each other to host Scottish Cup Finals and Scotland matches, one of which could generate up to £1,000 in revenue for the host club. To aid their chances of gaining that revenue, Rangers constructed a large terracing, holding 36,000 people, behind the western goalmouth; the terracing, designed by Archibald Leitch, was formed by wooden planks bolted onto a framework made of iron. A similar wooden terracing was constructed at the eastern end, giving a total capacity of 75,000; the structure was passed by the Govan Burgh Surveyor in March 1902, but there were newspaper reports that it was unstable. A crowd of 68,114 assembled for a Scotland v England match on 5 April 1902, but shortly after the kick-off one section of the terracing "collapsed like a trap door".
A gap of 20 square yards appeared, causing about 125 people to fall to the ground 50 feet below the terracing. Most survived due to the fact they fell on top of other bodies. 517 people were injured. Most people in the stadium were unaware. People re-occupied the damaged area, despite the danger of further collapse. A definite reason for the disaster was not agreed upon because there was no public inquiry held; some experts blamed the quality of wood and the supplier was tried for culpable homicide, but was acquitted. The design was cited as a possible cause. Wooden structures of that size were not trusted. Rangers removed the wooden terraces, reducing capacity to 25,000; the criticism of the design did not deter Rangers from hiring Leitch in the future. He designed an expansion of Ibrox to a 63,000 capacity by 1910. By this point, the city of Glasgow had the three largest purpose-built football grounds in the world; the next major redevelopment occurred in 1928. A new Main Stand, to the south side of the ground, was opened on 1 January 1929.
The Main Stand, which has the familiar Leitch style criss-cross balcony and a red-brick facade, seated 10,000 people and provided standing accommodation in an enclosure. Simon Inglis, a writer on football stadia, commented in 2005 that the Main Stand is Leitch's "greatest work" and is "still resplendent today in its red brick glory under a modern mantle of glass and steel"; the architectural significance of the Main Stand was reflected when it became a Category B listed building in 1987. Original seats in the Main Stand were made of cast oak. One was auctioned in 2011 for £1,080; the banking of the terracing continued to increase in the 1930s. On 2 January 1939, the Old Firm game against Celtic attracted a crowd of 118,567, the record attendance for any league match played in Britain. At this point, Ibrox was the second-largest stadium in Britain. Floodlights were first used at Ibrox for a friendly match against Arsenal; the first floodlit Scottish league match was played at Ibrox, in March 1956.
Covers were built over the east terracing during the 1960s. No structural changes were made to Ibrox, but capacity was cut to 80,000 by safety legislation. Ibrox Park had the worst fan safety record in Britain before its complete redesign and ren
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic off the north-western coast of continental Europe that consist of the islands of Great Britain, the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and over six thousand smaller isles. They have a total area of about 315,159 km2 and a combined population of 72 million, include two sovereign states, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; the islands of Alderney, Jersey and Sark, their neighbouring smaller islands, are sometimes taken to be part of the British Isles though, as islands off the coast of France, they do not form part of the archipelago. The oldest rocks in the group are in the north west of Scotland and North Wales and are 2.7 billion years old. During the Silurian period, the north-western regions collided with the south-east, part of a separate continental landmass; the topography of the islands is modest in scale by global standards. Ben Nevis rises to an elevation of only 1,345 metres, Lough Neagh, notably larger than other lakes in the island group, covers 390 square kilometres.
The climate is temperate marine, with warm summers. The North Atlantic drift brings significant moisture and raises temperatures 11 °C above the global average for the latitude; this led to a landscape, long dominated by temperate rainforest, although human activity has since cleared the vast majority of forest cover. The region was re-inhabited after the last glacial period of Quaternary glaciation, by 12,000 BC, when Great Britain was still part of a peninsula of the European continent. Ireland, which became an island by 12,000 BC, was not inhabited until after 8000 BC. Great Britain became an island by 5600 BC. Hiberni and Britons tribes, all speaking Insular Celtic, inhabited the islands at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. Much of Brittonic-occupied Britain was conquered by the Roman Empire from AD 43; the first Anglo-Saxons arrived as Roman power waned in the 5th century, dominated the bulk of what is now England. Viking invasions began in the 9th century, followed by more permanent settlements and political change in England.
The Norman conquest of England in 1066 and the Angevin partial conquest of Ireland from 1169 led to the imposition of a new Norman ruling elite across much of Britain and parts of Ireland. By the Late Middle Ages, Great Britain was separated into the Kingdoms of England and Kingdom of Scotland, while control in Ireland fluxed between Gaelic kingdoms, Hiberno-Norman lords and the English-dominated Lordship of Ireland, soon restricted only to The Pale; the 1603 Union of the Crowns, Acts of Union 1707 and Acts of Union 1800 attempted to consolidate Britain and Ireland into a single political unit, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands remaining as Crown Dependencies. The expansion of the British Empire and migrations following the Irish Famine and Highland Clearances resulted in the dispersal of some of the islands' population and culture throughout the world, a rapid depopulation of Ireland in the second half of the 19th century. Most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom after the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Anglo-Irish Treaty, with six counties remaining in the UK as Northern Ireland.
The term "British Isles" is controversial in Ireland, where there are nationalist objections to its usage. The Government of Ireland does not recognise the term, its embassy in London discourages its use. Britain and Ireland is used as an alternative description, Atlantic Archipelago has seen limited use in academia; the earliest known references to the islands as a group appeared in the writings of sea-farers from the ancient Greek colony of Massalia. The original records have been lost. In the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus has Prettanikē nēsos, "the British Island", Prettanoi, "the Britons". Strabo used Βρεττανική, Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, used αἱ Πρεττανικαί νῆσοι to refer to the islands. Historians today, though not in absolute agreement agree that these Greek and Latin names were drawn from native Celtic-language names for the archipelago. Along these lines, the inhabitants of the islands were called the Πρεττανοί; the shift from the "P" of Pretannia to the "B" of Britannia by the Romans occurred during the time of Julius Caesar.
The Greco-Egyptian scientist Claudius Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. In his work, Geography, he gave these islands the names Alwion and Mona, suggesting these may have been names of the individual islands not known to him at the time of writing Almagest; the name Albion appears to have fallen out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Great Britain, after which Britain became the more commonplace name for the island called Great Britain. The earliest known use of the phrase Brytish Iles in the English language is dated 1577 in a work by John Dee. Today, this name is seen by some as carrying imperialist overtones although it is still used. Other names used to describe the islands include the Anglo-Celtic Isles, Atlantic archipelago, British-Irish Isles and Ireland, UK
Matt Busby
Sir Alexander Matthew Busby, CBE, KCSG was a Scottish football player and manager, who managed Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 1970–71 season. He was the first manager of an English team to win the European Cup and is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time. Before going into management, Busby was a player for two of Manchester United's greatest rivals, Manchester City and Liverpool. During his time at City, Busby played in two FA Cup Finals. After his playing career was interrupted by the Second World War, Busby was offered the job of assistant coach at Liverpool, but they were unwilling to give him the control over the first team that he wanted; as a result, he took the vacant manager's job at Manchester United instead, where he built the famous Busby Babes team. Eight of these players died in the Munich air disaster, but Busby rebuilt the side and United won the European Cup a decade later. In a total of 25 years with the club, he won 13 trophies.
Busby was born to Alexander and Helen "Nellie" Busby in a two-roomed pitman's cottage in the mining village of Orbiston, Lanarkshire. When he was born, Busby's mother was told by the doctor, "A footballer has come into this house today". Busby's father was a miner, but was called up to serve in the First World War, being killed by a sniper's bullet on 23 April 1917 at the Battle of Arras. Three of his uncles were killed in France with the Cameron Highlanders. Busby's mother was left to raise Matt and his three sisters alone until her marriage to a man called Harry Matthie in 1919. Busby would accompany his father down into the coal pits, but his true aspiration was to become a professional footballer. In his 1973 autobiography Busby described himself as being as football mad as any other boy in Bellshill citing in particular the impression made on him by Alex James and Hughie Gallacher, his mother might have quashed those dreams when she applied to emigrate with Matt to the United States in the late 1920s, but he was granted a reprieve by the nine-month processing time.
In the meantime, Busby got a full-time job as a collier and played football part-time for Stirlingshire side Denny Hibs. He had played only a few matches for Denny Hibs, but it was not long before he was signed up by a Manchester City side, a couple of games away from regaining promotion to the First Division. Aged 18, Busby signed for Manchester City on a one-year contract worth £5 per week on 11 February 1928, with the provision for him to leave at the end of the deal if he still wished to emigrate to the United States with his mother, he decided to stay and made his debut for City on 2 November 1929, more than 18 months after first signing for the Blues, when he played at inside left in a 3–1 win at home to Middlesbrough in the First Division. He made 11 more appearances for City that season, all at inside forward, scoring five goals in the process. During the 1930–31 season, City manager Peter Hodge decided that Busby's talents could be better exploited from the half-back line, with Busby playing the right-half role.
In his new position, Busby built up a reputation as an intelligent player and a finer passer of the ball. In 1930, Manchester United made an enquiry about signing Busby from their cross-town rivals, but they were unable to afford the £150 fee that City demanded. By the 1931–32 season, Busby was established in the first team, missing just one match that season. Indeed and Jackie Bray became such fixtures at wing-half that club captain Jimmy McMullan had to move to forward to keep his place in the team. In the 1930s Manchester City performed in the FA Cup, they reached the semi-finals in 1932, the final in 1933 before winning the tournament in 1934. However, from the second half of the 1934–35 season, Busby's number 4 jersey was worn by Jack Percival with increasing regularity, Busby was sold to Liverpool for £8,000 on 12 March 1936, having made more than 200 appearances for Manchester City, he made his debut for the Reds just two days on 14 March, away to Huddersfield Town. Busby opened his goalscoring account a month – his 47th-minute strike helped his team to a 2–2 draw with Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.
Busby soon made the number 4 shirt his own, ousting Ted Savage in the process. He missed a game over the following three seasons; this consistency earned Busby the Liverpool captaincy and he led the club with great distinction. Along with Jimmy McDougall and Tom Bradshaw, Busby made up what is considered by many to be the best half-back line Liverpool had had. Bob Paisley joined Liverpool from Bishop Auckland in 1939, it was Busby who took him under his wing and showed him the ropes at Anfield; this led to a lifelong friendship between two of the most successful managers in English football history. The Second World War arrived soon after, with it came an end to Busby's playing days. Like many of the Liverpool playing staff, he signed on for national service in the King's Liverpool Regiment. Busby carried on playing football during the war, he turned out for Middlesbrough, Brentford, Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic and Hibernian. Busby made only one official international appearance for Scotland.
Playing opposite Busby in the Welsh half-back line was his future assistant Jimmy Murphy. Busby made seven appearances for Scotland against England during the Second World War, winning just one of them, but these are considered unofficial, he represented the Scottish League XI in an inter-league match in 1941, while he was a guest player of H
Denmark League XI
The Football League XI[note 2]
Irish League XI
Serie A
League of Ireland XI
Scotland (SFA)[37][17][18][28]
Welsh League XI