Posted on 07/07/2007 1:37:47 PM PDT by Enchante
GLASGOW -- Last Saturday afternoon, baggage handler John Smeaton was standing in front of Glasgow Airport smoking a cigarette when a Jeep Cherokee burst into flames nearby. He watched its burning driver emerge. A police officer pursued the passenger.
What happened next has turned Mr. Smeaton, 31 years old, into an unlikely folk hero. When he saw the passenger hitting the officer, Mr. Smeaton ran over and kicked the assailant.
Mr. Smeaton has been interviewed on the BBC, CNN and other networks about his response to the attack in which two suspected terrorists attempted to ram into the airport's main terminal. (See the CNN interview.) In a Glaswegian accent that is at times impenetrable -- Australia's Channel 7 subtitled its interview with him -- Mr. Smeaton voiced a defiance that has turned him into a de facto spokesman for Glasgow's fighting spirit. His message to terrorists: "You come to Glasgow, we don't stand for it," he says. "We'll just set aboot ye." (Translation: "In Glasgow, we'll just deck you.")
By the next evening, an admirer had created a Web site devoted to Mr. Smeaton -- nicknaming him Smeato. It includes links to his media interviews, purported details from his past (he once owned a ferret) and a plea for Britons to buy him a pint in the bar at the airport's Holiday Inn hotel. There is also a picture of Osama bin Laden with the caption: "You told me John Smeaton was off on Saturdays!"
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
They basically lined up and took a number ('here - let me have a go at him!') and when the police arrived the poor guy crawled over and begged them to arrest him . . . .
LOL!! Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time!
I have some Scots-Irish in my background. My maternal grandfather was Italian, and my maternal grandmother was Irish. Not completely sure of the ethnicity of my paternal grandparents, though I know there is some Indian there; some family members say Cherokee. They were hardscrabble Mississippi folks, though, so I'm guessing they were part Scots-Irish, as were many who lived back in the woods.
I've always had an affinity for Celtic music; maybe that 'splains it!
We are some pure Scottish, some pure Irish, and some of the Scotch-Irish (i.e. the Lowland Scots who were sent by Cromwell to colonize Northern Ireland).
I don't look that Irish - I'm one of the "black Irish" - i.e. look more like a Spaniard than a "typical" Irishwoman. My husband is actually half Irish with the other half a grab-bag of French, German, English and lord knows what. But what's really funny is that our daughter got BOTH Irish halves . . . she is a pure Irish red-headed colleen (although her hair has darkened with age, she has bright grey eyes and incredibly fair skin, sunburns on a cloudy day, and her features look like we mail-ordered her from Dublin.) She went to Spain for the summer to live with a local family, and everyone refused to believe she was American -- "No! You MUST be Irish!"
Glasgow - The only place where the police have to protect suicide bombers from the general public.
My karate sensei's wife was a 100-lb slip of a woman, but a third degree black belt. A man twice her size once attacked her as she was putting groceries in her car-- she fractured his windpipe and hyperextended his knee. He was hospitalized for weeks and crippled for life. Yay! Too bad she didn't kill him, but it's the next best thing.
-ccm
I tell my kids don't ever get in a car with a thug. Kick, scream, fight (they're both green belts in Aikido - the dojo has a belt program for the kids) but you might as well die there as off in some remote location.
JOHN SMEATON IS RUNNING FOR A SEAT IN PARLIAMENT!
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090924/tuk-terror-hero-stands-for-parliament-6323e80.html
SET ABOUT 'EM, SMEATO!
lovin’ it!!!
thanks for the update
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