Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
References

 BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names (Oxford UP, 1971)

Other websites 
 Jethou Homepage 
 Free Gutenberg Project book, a Crusoe-like novel on Jethou
 Stamps from Isle of Jethou 
 Island of Jethou at Britlink 

Islands of the Channel Islands
Guernsey
The following is a list of the 403 communes of the Eure-et-Loir département, in France.

 (CAC) Communauté d'agglomération de Chartres, created in 2000.
 (CAD) Communauté d'agglomération du Drouais, created in 2003.

Eure-et-Loir
Not to be confused with Lihou Reef National Nature Reserve

Lihou () is a small tidal island (95 vergées; 38½ acres; 15.6 hectares) that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, Channel Islands. It lies off the west coast of Guernsey and is the most westerly point in the Channel Islands. Coordinates: . The island was bought by the States of Guernsey in January 1995. Lihou is connected to Guernsey at low tide by an ancient stone causeway between the island and L'Eree headland. It is part of the Parish of St. Peter's. Lihou's bird and marine life makes it an important conservation area.

History

Like many other Channel Islands, Lihou's name contains the Norman language suffix "-hou" of Old Norse origin.
The island has the ruins of the priory of St. Mary which is believed to have been set up by Benedictine monks in the 12th century. The monks of the priory were not very popular with the local people, who thought they were devil worshippers.  This animosity may be due to the monks' insistence on rights of wreck.  Until 1415 it was under the control of Mont Saint Michel and then Eton College until the Reformation when it was closed and fell into disrepair.

The house on Lihou was used for target practice by heavy artillery during the German Occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II.  It has now been rebuilt as accommodation for school groups, and is used as an educational resource.

Vraic (seaweed) was harvested and dried on frames set up on the beach. A 1927 factory building produced iodine from seaweed. All traces of the industry disappeared during the German Occupation.
The Lihou family name is included in parish records which go back as far as the early 15th century and there are a number of groups who study the ancestry of the Lihou's. More recently a group was set up using the social networking site 'Facebook' which links Lihou's around the world.

Other websites 
 Lihou Island
 "History of Little Lihou" 
 Archeology on Lihou

References

 BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names (Oxford UP, 1971)

Tidal islands
Islands of the Channel Islands
Guernsey
-hou is a suffix (part added to the end of a word) found in many Channel Islands and Norman names. It is the Norman language version of the Old Norse holmr, meaning a small island, and often found anglicised elsewhere as "holm". It can still be found in modern Scandinavian languages, e.g. Stockholm.

The Norman hommet/houmet also comes from this suffix.

In Parisian French, the equivalent is îlot, which is the same as the English "islet".

Bailiwick of Guernsey 
 Off Guernsey
 Lihou
 Les Houmets including - Houmet Benest/Benet, Houmet Paradis & Houmet Hommetol (Omptolle).
 Off Alderney
 Burhou
 Off Herm
 Jethou
 Le Plat Houmet
 Off Sark
 Brecqhou

Bailiwick of Jersey 

 Les Écréhous
 Le Plat Hommeit
 Le Hommet du Ouaisné
 Les Hommets
 La Rocco (from rocque-hou)
 Icho (from ic-hou)

Normandy 
 Tatihou
 Quettehou
 Néhou
 Tribehou

References 
 
 

Romance languages
Channel Islands
A vergée, or vergee, is a unit of area, a quarter of the French acre. Other spellings include vergie and vrégie. It is not an SI unit. The SI unit of area is the square metre.

The term derives from Latin virga (rod). Compare French verge (yard).

In the Channel Islands, it is a standard measure of land, but the statutory definition differs between the bailiwicks.

 In Guernsey, a vergée (Guernésiais: vergie) is 17,640 square feet (1,639 m²). It is 40 (square) Guernsey perches. A Guernsey perch (also spelt perque) is 21 feet by 21 feet.
 In Jersey, a vergée (Jèrriais: vrégie) is 19,360 square feet (1,798.6 m²). It is 40 (square) Jersey perches. A Jersey perch (also spelt pèrque) is a square 24 pied de perche on each side (i.e. a square 22 imperial feet on each side).

In France a vergée was 12,100 square Paris feet (1,276.8 m²). It was 25 (square) perches. The surveying perch measured 22 French feet. the royal perch was 18 French feet.
Conversions
1 vergée (Guernsey) is equivalent to:
1 638.809 63 m²
0.404958678 acres

1 vergée (Jersey) is equivalent to:
1,798.60285 m²
0.444444444 acres

References

Related pages
French units of measurement (to 1795)
Virgate

Channel Islands
Units of area
Derby Silk Mill, formerly known as Derby Industrial Museum, is a museum of industry in Derby, England. The museum is housed in a historic former silk mill which is part of Derwent Valley Mills. Between 1717 and 1721 George Sorocold built Britain’s first mill beside the River Derwent. This mill was built to produce silk threads using machines powered by a water wheel. The museum re-opened with the new name, the Museum of Making on 21 May 2021.

John Lombe copied the design for the machines used for spinning large quantities of silk, when he was working within the Italian Silk Industry. This may be the first example of industrial espionage.
Traditionally the spinning wheel had been used for producing small quantities of silk thread at the homes of local spinsters. But these new, large machines were able to produce far greater quantities of silk and came to compete with the Italians. However, these machines required large buildings and a huge power source. An undershot water wheel turned by the mill fleam on the west side of the new Silk Mill drove these large spinning machines.

John Lombe unnaturally died in 1722. It was believed that he was killed with poison by an Italian as the revenge for stealing trade secrets. His half brother, Sir Thomas Lombe Knt., died on 2 June 1739 leaving his estate to his widow and their two daughters.

Dame Elizabeth advertised the lease of the building and machinery in 1739, and the remaining 64 years of the lease were assigned to Richard Wilson junior of Leeds for £2,800.
Richard Wilson stayed in Leeds and took a proportion of the profits. The mill was conducted by William and Samuel Lloyd (both London merchants) and Thomas Bennet as salaried manager.

A description of the mill by William Wilson dating from sometime between 1739 and 1753 is left as follows:

These circular spinning machines (also known as 'throwing machines'), were the most progressive feature of the factory. Also, they used the single source of power (water), and employed many organized workers (200-400, according to recent sources). Due to these total process of production from raw silk to fine quality thread, the Lombes' silk mill is regarded as the first successful use of the factory system in Britain.
The Silk Mill was visited by many tourists. For example, Boswell visited there in September 1777. Not all visitors thought that the mill was in good condition. Torrington commented on the "heat, stinks and noise". In 1835, Fairholt was shocked at unhealthy poor children. Foreign visitors also visited the mill during their trips.

William Hutton was once the employees and he later recalled the long hours, low wages and beatings. Work only stopped in time of extreme dryness or frost, or lack of silk supply. But in August 1748, unofficial holidays were taken during elections and Derby races.

The partnership of Wilson and Lloyd ended in 1753 due to quarrel and legal suits. Lloyd remained in possession of the building and machinery.

In 1765 Thomas Bennet bought the mill from Lloyd subject to a mortgage to the Wilson family but the mill was neglected for years, because other mills in Derby and Cheshire had grown to become competitor, and silk trade itself had declined.
Lamech Swift became the sub-tenant in 1780. He paid £7 to the Corporation and £170 to Thomas Wilson (brother of Richard and William) per year respectively. He conflicted with the corporation on repairs to dams in 1781, he remained in occupation until the lease expired in 1803.

The Corporation advertised the lease in 1803 to run for 60 years. The advertisement said that the "Italian works" was still used for throwing silk.
During the 1920s the building passed ownership to the Electricity Authority. They used it partly as stores, workshops and a canteen. Hidden from the road by the power station, the mill's existence was largely forgotten by the general public until the power station was removed in 1970. It was then converted into Industrial Museum which Derby had proposed for a long time. The museum opened on 29 November 1974.

Closure and mothballing in 2011 
Derby City Council closed the museum on 3 April 2011 in order to free funds for the redevelopment of the Silk Mill museum and other museums in the city. The Report of the Strategic Director of Neighbourhoods (Item 7 put before the Council Cabinet meeting held on the 26 October 2010) indicated that 8.6 full time jobs would be lost but on the contrary £197,000 would be saved to offset the loss of "Renaissance Programme" funding. No date for the re-opening of the museum is given in the report, although a period of two years has been reported.

Sources
Sources 

Sources of information:
 Derby Industrial Museum, Derby Evening Telegraph and Derby Library Service. (1999)
 The Derby Lock-Out and the origins of the labour movement Bill Whitehead (2001)
 Struck out! Derby in Crisis: the Silk Mill Lock-Out 1833-4, Derby, H. E. Butterton (1997)

Other websites 
 

Grade II listed buildings
Museums in Derby
1974 establishments in England
Auch (Gascon: Aush or Aux) is a commune in southwestern France, in the region of Occitanie. It is the prefecture (capital) of the Gers department. It is also the capital of 3 cantons: Auch-1, Auch-2 and Auch-3.

Auch is the historical capital of Gascony and the people of this city are known, in French, as auscitain (women: auscitaines).

History

Auch is an ancient town. The name of Auch comes from the people that inhabited the area at the time of the Roman conquest. The name of this tribe was Ausci, singular Auscus.

The Romans named the town where that tribe lived as Augusta Auscorum (or Augusta Ausciorum), which means "Augusta of the Ausci". Eventually, Augusta was dropped, and the name changed into modern Gascon Aush, and modern French Auch.

Geography

Auch is in the southwest of France, in Armagnac (Gascony), in the valley of the Gers river. It extends along the sides of the river that gives its name to the department.
The river splits the city in two parts:
 The Upper Town (), on a small hill on the right side of the river. It is a medieval city with narrow streets with stairs and where most of the old monuments are found.
 The Lower Town (), on a plain on the left side of the river.

The commune is, in straight line, at  from the Pyrenees,  from the Bay of Biscay,  from Bordeaux,  from Toulouse and  from Pau.

It has an area of  and its average altitude is .

Auch is surrounded by the following communes, all of them part of the arrondissement of Auch: Roquelaure to the north, Preignan and Montaut-les-Créneaux to the northeast, Leboulin and Montégut to the east, Pessan to the southeast, Pavie to the south, Lasséran and Barran to the southwest, Ordan-Larroque and Duran to the west and Castin and Castillon-Massas to the northwest.

Climate
The climate of the department is an oceanic climate with template summers, Cfb (Marine West Coast Climate) in the Köppen climate classification.
The average temperature for the year in Auch is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .

The highest recorded temperature in Auch is , which was recorded in August. The lowest recorded temperature in Auch is , which was recorded in January.

The average amount of precipitation for the year in Auch is . The month with the most precipitation on average is May with  of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is February with an average of .

Population
The city of Auch has a population, in 2014, of 21,807; its population density is of  inhabitants/km2.

Evolution of the population in Auch
Administration 
Auch is the prefecture of the Cantal department, the capital of the arrondissement of Auch and the administrative centre () of three cantons: 
 Auch-1 : 5 communes + part of Auch with 11,098 inhabitants  (2014)
 Auch-2 : 13 communes + part of Auch with 10,298 inhabitants (2014)
 Auch-3 : 9 communes + part of Auch with 11,390 inhabitants (2014)

It is part of the intercommunality Le Grand Auch ().

Sister cities 
Auch is twinned with:
   Memmingen, Germany
   Calatayud, Spain

Places of interest
A city founded by the Romans, Auch had its period of power during the Middle Ages, when it was the capital of the old province of Gascony. The high quality of the limestone is an important component of its monuments and buildings, such as its cathedral.
Some of these places of interest are:
 Cathédrale Sainte-Marie d'Auch (St Mary's Cathedral). This cathedral took 200 years to build; from the 15th – 17th centuries.
 Hôtel de ville (City hall).
 Tour d'Armagnac (Tower of Armagnac). An ancient prison from the 14th century
 Escalier monumental (Monumental Staircase). 370 steps built in 1863
 Musée des Jacobins
 Pont de la Treille

Gallery

Related pages
 Arrondissement of Auch
 Communes of the Gers department

References

Other websites

 Ville d'Auch - Official website 
 Le Grand Auch 
 Office de Tourisme de Grand Auch 

Communes in Gers
Departmental capitals in France
Crevichon is an islet off Herm, immediately to the north of Jethou, in the Channel Islands.

According to Dr S.K. Kellett-Smith, the name "Crevichon" means "island of crabs, crayfish or cranes".

Like many names in the Channel Islands, it is Norman language in origin. A thousand years ago, the water level was ten feet lower (3 m), so there were many more of the animals the island was named after.

Geography 
The island is about 212 by 168 metres (696 by 551 ft) at its widest.  Its area is less than . The distance to Jethou is about 215 metres (705 ft).

History

A 16th-century drawing of the islet, now in the British Museum, shows Crevichon as apparently a wooded islet.
Prof. John Le Patourel, in The Building of Castle Cornet said that in 1566, iron and hammers were taken to "Creavissham", and the island quarried for the castle. The quarry has been used since then, but this has made the island much smaller, and less visible. As a result, a fifteen-foot () marker was built on the top. Crevichon may have provided the granite for the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

It is said that in earlier times, pirates were hanged on it with chains, like nearby Jethou.

Compton Mackenzie, former owner of Herm called Crevichon "Merg" in his book, Fairy Gold, which is a fictionalised version of the islands.

Wrecks
In 1953, Victor Coysh says that he saw the remains of a German bomber, from the time of the occupation.

Other wrecks include:
 Courier, a Guernsey steamer, beached in 1905 with 80 passengers.

References
 Channel Islets - Victor Coysh

Other websites 
 Pictures of Crevichon by the Faeds of Jethou 
 Faed Family WebSite with pictures of Jethou and Crevichon
This is a list of the 353 communes of the Gard département, in France.

 (CAN) Communauté d'agglomération Nîmes Métropole, created in 2002.
 (CAC) Communauté d'agglomération du Grand Alès en Cévennes, created in 2000.
 (CAA) Communauté d'agglomération du Grand Avignon, created in 2001, most of which is located in the Vaucluse  département.

Gard
"Houmet" redirects here, for further information on the placename element, please see "-hou"

Les Houmets are to the east of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Their name comes from hou, a Norman/Guernésiais word meaning islets. They are tidal islands.

Amongst the islets are Houmet Benest/Houmet Benêt, Houmet Paradis and Houmet Hommetol (Omptolle). Although Victor Hugo suggests that they were heavily eroded by quarrying (which was certainly true in the case of Crevichon off Herm), Victor Coysh disagrees saying:

"While much work of this nature was in progress in the parishes of the Vale and St. Sampson in the last century [i.e. 19th], quarrying was not responsible for any marked alteration in the coast off which Les Houmets lie. In fact, they have been islets for a very long time, as ancient maps reveal. Did the author ever visit them, I wonder."
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo who wrote about many of the Channel Islands in his books, described Les Houmets, in The Toilers of the Sea (Les Travailleurs de la mer). Gilliat, the main character lives on Houmet Paradis:

"This house was called the Bû de la Rue. It was on the point of a tongue of land, or rather of rock, that made a little separate harbour in the creek of Houmet Paradis. The water was very deep here. This house was all alone on the point, almost off the land, with just enough land for a small garden. The high tides sometimes inundated the garden. Between the port of St. Sampson and the creek of Houmet Paradis rises a steep hill, surmounted by the block of towers covered with ivy, and known as Vale Castle, or the Chateau de l’Archange; so that, at St. Sampson, the Bû de la Rue was shut out from sight..."
"The country people told how, towards the close of the great Revolution, a woman, bringing with her a little child, came to live in Guernsey. She was an Englishwoman; at least, she was not French. She had a name which the Guernsey pronunciation and the country folks’ bad spelling had finally converted into 'Gilliatt.'...the house of the Bû de la Rue was haunted at this period. For more than thirty years no one had inhabited it. It was falling into ruins. The garden, so often invaded by the sea, could produce nothing. Besides noises and lights seen there at night-time, the house had this mysterious peculiarity: any one who should leave there in the evening, upon the mantelpiece, a ball of worsted, a few needles, and a plate filled with soup, would assuredly find in the morning the soup consumed, the plate empty, and a pair of mittens ready knitted. The house, demon included, was offered for sale for a few pounds sterling
. The stranger woman became the purchaser, evidently tempted by the devil, or by the advantageous bargain.
"She did more than purchase the house; she took up her abode there with the child; and from that moment peace reigned within its walls. The Bû de la Rue has found a fit tenant, said the country people. The haunting ceased. There was no longer any light seen there save that of the tallow candle of the newcomer. 'Witch’s candle is as good as devil’s torch.' The proverb satisfied the gossips of the neighbourhood...

"Today it would be useless to look for the cove of Houmet Paradis, for Gilliat's house and for the creek where he sheltered the boat. The Bû de la Rue no longer exists. The little peninsula where this house stood has fallen under the pick-axe of the destroyers of the sea-cliffs and has been loaded, cart-load, by cart-load, on the vessels belonging to the dealers in rocks and granite... All this ridge of rock has been long ago taken to London."

The novel was written in the 1860s and set in the 1820s when the islands were still inhabited.
The islets
Houmet Benest/Benêt is about two hundred yards (180 m) from the shore. It is triangular, and 80 × 50 yards (73 × 45 m). There is an 18th century gun battery here, to defend against the French. The German occupation added their own, and the British another after the Germans left. The steamer Clarrie sank off Houmet Benêt in 1921, in the Great Roussel. Heathery Brae in 1952 tried to salvage it, but ended up being wrecked itself, and there are also the wrecks of Vixen (a brig), Rescue (a tug) and Romp (a cutter) went ashore here. It is covered in grass and brambles.
Houmet Paradis, the fictional Gilliat's home, was originally known as Houmet de l'Eperquerie, as it was used for fish gutting, and drying on stands known as perques (perches). It was formerly owned by the Collas family, whose estate at Paradis, gave the islet its new name. In the 1920s, it was used for quarrying, and it was also used for grazing cattle, and has a lot of grass. In 1951 it was sold to James Watson of Newcastle upon Tyne for £500 who placed the island under the stewardship of the National Trust of Guernsey. It remained within the family until 2004 when it was sold at auction by James Watson's grandson (also called James Watson who live on Alderney) to a local consortium to keep the island as a nature reserve.

Hommetol, more commonly called Omptolle by the Ordnance Survey etc., is used for gathering ormer. It is mostly covered in thrift.

References
 Coysh, Victor Channel Islets
 Hugo, Victor The Toilers of the Sea (Les Travailleurs de la mer)
Other websites 
 Houmet Paradis site, Guernsey National Trust 

Uninhabited islands of the Bailiwick of Guernsey
Tidal islands
Phoenix Park () is a park in the middle of Dublin, Ireland. It lies about  west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. The wall around it is 16 km long. The area within the wall is . It is one of the largest walled city parks in Europe. It has large areas of grassland and wide roads with trees on both sides. A herd of wild Fallow deer have lived in the park since the seventeenth century. The English name (Phoenix) comes from the Irish fionn uisce meaning "clear water".

History
A Royal Hunting Park was created in 1662 by the English Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at the time, Lord Ormonde. The park contained pheasants and wild deer, and a wall was built around the whole area to stop them escaping. The Park originally included more land which was to the south of the River Liffey. But when they started to build the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham in 1680, the Park was made smaller to the size it is today. It was opened to the people of Dublin by Lord Chesterfield in 1745.
Two people were killed in the park on 6 May 1882. This became known as the Phoenix Park Murders.

Things to see in the park

Áras an Uachtaráin
Áras an Uachtaráin is Irish for the house of the President. The President of Ireland lives here. It was built in 1754. It was first called the Viceregal Lodge, as it was where the English Lord Lieutenant of Ireland lived.

Chief Secretary's Lodge 
The Chief Secretary's Lodge was the former house of the Chief Secretary for Ireland. It has been the official house of the United States Ambassador to Ireland since 1927.

Phoenix Park Visitor Centre and Ashtown Castle
The oldest building in the park is Ashtown Castle. It is a medieval tower house from the 15th century. It was restored in 1989. It is located beside the Visitor Centre which has information on the 5,500 years of park and area history.
Magazine Fort 
The Magazine Fort in the south east of the Park is the location where Phoenix Lodge was built by Sir Edward Fisher in 1611. In 1734 the house was knocked down when the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset wanted a powder magazine (a building to store gunpowder) for Dublin. An extra wing was added to the fort in 1801 for troops. The Christmas Raid of 1939 happened here.

Dublin Zoo
Dublin Zoo has more than 600 animals and tropical birds from around the world. It was founded in 1830 and opened to the public on 1 September 1831, which means it is the third oldest zoo in the world. It received animals from the Zoological Society of London. Within a year the zoo housed 123 different kinds of animals.

Monuments
The Wellington Monument is a  tall obelisk. It remembers the victories of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. It is the largest obelisk in Europe and would have been even higher if the public funding had not run out.
The phoenix monument is a Corinthian column with a Phoenix bird rising from the ashes at the top. Lord Chesterfield had it made in 1747.

The Papal Cross is a large cross that was placed in the park for the visit of Pope John Paul II on 29 September 1979. Over one million people attended an open-air mass in the park at the time. The large white cross is  high and is made of steel.

Nature
There are 351 plant species in the Park; three of these are rare and protected. The park has kept almost all of its old grasslands and woodlands. It also has rare examples of wetlands. The current 400–450 fallow deer descend from the original herd.

A Birdwatch survey in 2007-8 found 72 species of bird including buzzard, sparrowhawk, kestrel and jay.

The park also has several streams that flow into the River Liffey.
People's Gardens
These gardens were created in 1840 as the "Promenade Grounds" (grounds for talking a walk in). It has small lakes, a children's playground and a picnic area. The gardens are located close to the Parkgate Street entrance.

Furry Glen
The south western corner of the park is known as the Furry Glen. It has a number of short walks around a small lake with birds, plants and wildlife.

Events
The park has sports grounds for football, hurling, soccer, cricket and polo.

Phoenix Cricket Club
Phoenix Cricket Club is located in the park. It was founded in 1830 by John Parnell, the father of Charles Stewart Parnell. It is the oldest cricket club in Ireland. During the 1930s, 1940s and 1970s, it was the most important club in Leinster cricket.
Motor racing events
Motor racing first took place in the Phoenix Park in 1903. The Irish Gordon Bennett Race Speed Trials were held on the main straight road for both cars and motorcycles. This was followed in 1929 by the Irish International Grand Prix; the first of three Irish motor racing grands prix.

Racing took place between 1932 until the beginning of World War II in 1939. It was started again after the War in 1949 with a sprint on the Oldtown circuit.  Over the years seven different circuits have been used, two of which are named after the famous Ferrari World Champion racing driver Mike Hawthorn.

Great Ireland Run
The Great Ireland Run is a 10 km running competition. It has been held every year in April since 2003. It includes races for professional runners and the public. In 2010 over 11,000 people joined in.

Bloom
A large gardening, food and family event called "Bloom" is organised in the park every year since 2006. It had nearly 90,000 visitors in 2011.
Concerts
Musical acts like U2, Coldplay, Duran Duran, Robbie Williams, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kanye West have played concerts in the park.

Popular culture
The park plays a big role in James Joyce's novel, Finnegans Wake.

Further reading
The Phoenix Park: Conservative Management Plan: Consultation Draft , Office of Public Works, March 2009. Retrieved 12 August 2010. Contains detailed history and description of the Phoenix Park, its amenities, landscapes, fauna and flora, archaeology, architecture, and other Park matters.

References

Other websites

Map of greater Dublin showing the placement and size of the Phoenix Park. 
Satellite Photo of the Phoenix Park
Detailed map (pdf) of the park 

Parks in Europe
Dublin
Thylacosmilus is a extinct genus of carnivorous sparassodont. found as fossils in deposits dated from about 10 million to 3 million years ago (late Miocene to late Pliocene epoch) in Argentina, South America. 

Thylacosmilus was sabre-toothed and was about as large as a modern jaguar. To a remarkable degree, Thylacosmilus paralleled the evolution of felid sabre-toothed cats like Smilodon. Its canine teeth were long and powerfully developed; they were used for stabbing prey. Its killing method was to hold its prey, and make deep bites into the soft tissue driven by powerful neck muscles. The canine teeth were protected by a well-developed flange, or projecting edge, in the chin region of the lower jaw. The canines continued to grow during adult life, which they do not in marsupials or placental mammals.
Thylacosmilus died out during the late Pliocene, whereas saber-toothed cats did not get to South America until the middle Pleistocene epoch. As a result, the last appearance of Thylacosmilus is separated from the first appearance of Smilodon by over one and a half million years.

References 

Mammals of South America
Fossils
Metatheria
Sabretooth cats
(), more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (Guards), is the police force of the Republic of Ireland. The service is headed by the  Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are located in Phoenix Park in Dublin.

Terminology 

The old English language name of the force was the Civic Guard, but this title is no longer used. Garda Síochána na hÉireann is usually rendered as the "Guardian of the Peace of Ireland" or the "Guardians of the Peace (of Ireland)".

The full official title of the force is rarely used in speech. It is known, in decreasing order of formality, as  ( pronounced ); the ; the  (in the preceding names,  "guard" is a collective noun, like police); the   ( [GAR-DEE]; "guards", plural); or the Guards.
An individual officer is also called a  (plural ), or, informally, a guard. A police station is called a  station.  is also the lowest rank within the force, also used as a title (e.g. " John Murphy"), analogous to the British term "constable" or the American "officer" ("deputy/trooper/etc.").  "Guard" is the most common form of address used by members of the public speaking to a garda on duty. A female officer was once officially referred to as a  (; "female guard"; plural ). This term was abolished in 1990, but is still used colloquially in place of the now gender-neutral .

Organisation
Organisation 

The force is headed by the Commissioner. Immediately below him are two Deputy Commissioners, one in charge of "Operations" and the other "Strategy and Change Management".  The Chief Administrative Officer has responsibility for resource management (personnel, finance, ICT and accommodation) has the same rank as a Deputy Commissioner. There are twelve Assistant Commissioners: one for each of the six geographical Regions, and the remainder dealing with various national support functions. At an equivalent or near-equivalent level to the Assistant Commissioners are the positions of Chief Medical Officer, Executive Director of ICT and Executive Director of Finance.

The six geographical "Assistant Commissioners" command the six "Garda Force Regions", which are currently:
Dublin Metropolitan
Eastern
Northern
Southern
South-Eastern
Western
Reporting to the Assistant Commissioners are about 50 Chief Superintendents, about half of whom supervise what are called Divisions. Each Division contains a number of Districts, each commanded by a Superintendent assisted by a team of Inspectors. Each District contains a number of Subdistricts, which are usually commanded by Sergeants.

Usually each Subdistrict contains only one Garda station. A different number of  are based at each station depending on its importance. Most of these stations employ the basic rank of Garda, which was referred to as the rank of Guard until 1972. The most junior members of the force are students, whose duties can vary depending on their training progress. They are often have clerical duties, as part of their extra curricular studies.
The Garda organisation also has over 2,500 civilian support staff covering areas such as human resources, occupational health services, finance and procurement, internal audit, IT and telecommunications, accommodation and fleet management, scenes-of-crime support, research and analysis, training and general administration. The figure also includes industrial staff such as traffic wardens, drivers and cleaners. It is ongoing government policy to bring the level of non officer support in the organisation up to international standards - thus enhancing its capacity and expertise in a range of specialist and administrative functions, and releasing more of its police officers for core operational duties.

Reserve Gardaí 

The Garda Síochána Act 2005 provided for the establishment of a Garda Reserve, consisting of 4,000, to assist the force in performing its functions, and supplement the work of members of the Garda Síochána.
The job of the Garda Reserve is "to be a source of local strength and knowledge". Reservists carry out duties decided by the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. With reduced training, these duties and powers must be operated under the supervision of regular members of the Force, and are also limited from those of regular members.

As of November 2010 there are 850 graduated Garda Reserve, and another 148 in further training, the first batch of 36 Garda Reserves graduated on 15 December 2006 at the Garda College, in Templemore.
Sections 
Bureau of Fraud Investigation
Central Vetting Unit
Criminal Assets Bureau
Garda Emergency Response Unit
Regional Support Unit
Garda Information Services Centre
Garda Síochána College
Garda Síochána Reserve
Garda Traffic Corps
National Bureau of Criminal Investigation
Garda National Immigration Bureau
Garda National Drug Unit
Garda National Surveillance Unit
 Operational Support Unit that consists of:-
Garda Air Support Unit
Garda Dog Unit
Garda Mounted Unit
Garda Water Unit
Organised Crime Unit
Garda Public Order Unit
Garda Regional Support Units
Special Detective Unit
Garda Technical Bureau
Unarmed Gardaí 
Most uniformed members of An Garda Síochána do not usually carry firearms. It is a tradition of the service that standard policing is carried out in both rural and urban areas by uniformed officers equipped only with a wooden truncheon. From March 2007 all new Gardaí have been issued with ASP extendable batons, with existing members trained in time. In addition, the Garda Commissioner announced in October 2008 that all Gardaí are to be issued with Pepper Spray. As of December 2009, all Gardaí have been trained and issued with this Spray.

The force, when originally created, was armed, but the Provisional Government reversed the decision and reconstituted the force as an unarmed police force. This was in contrast to the attitude of the British Dublin Castle administration, which refused appeals from the Royal Irish Constabulary that that force be disarmed. In the words of first Commissioner, Michael Staines, TD:
According to Tom Garvin such a decision gave the new force a cultural ace: "the taboo on killing unarmed men and women who could not reasonably be seen as spies and informers."

Armed Gardaí 

Although a mostly unarmed force, certain units of the Gardaí, such as detective units, the regional support units, and the Emergency Response Unit are commissioned to carry firearms. The original stock of Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolvers are being replaced by the Sig Sauer P226 and Walther P99C semi-automatic pistols. Regional Support Units have Heckler & Koch MP7 sub-machine guns in addition to issue pistols and non-lethal weapons such as tasers and pepper spray. They serve as a first response to back up regular Garda officers in critical situations due to a rise of incidents that involve firearm use. In order to be issued with a firearm, or to carry a firearm whilst on duty, a Garda must be in possession of a valid gun card.

Vehicles
Vehicles 

Garda patrol cars are mainly white, with yellow and blue fluorescent livery whereas traffic unit vehicles adopt the battenburg pattern. The Garda crest is also present on vehicles. An Garda Síochána also use unmarked patrol cars in their duties and use of such vehicles is increasing becoming a matter of cost rather than the need to hide the vehicles, as the amendments to the exterior of the vehicle such as LED strobes, Tetra aerials and bumper LEDs in particular are extremely visible.

History 

The Civic Guard was formed by the Provisional Government in February 1922 to take over the responsibility of policing the fledgling Irish Free State. It replaced the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and the Irish Republican Police of 1919-1922. In August 1922 the force accompanied Michael Collins when he met the Lord Lieutenant in Dublin Castle.
The Garda Síochána (Temporary Provisions) Act 1923 enacted after the creation of the Irish Free State on 8 August 1923, provided for the creation of "a force of police to be called and known as 'The Garda Síochana'". Under section 22, The Civic Guard were deemed to have been established under and to be governed by the Act. The law therefore renamed the existing force.

During the Civil War of 1922-23, the new Free State set up the Criminal Investigation Department as an armed, plain-clothed counter-insurgency unit. It was disbanded after the end of the war in October 1923 and elements of it were absorbed into the Dublin Metropolitan Police.
In Dublin, policing remained the responsibility of the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP, founded 1836) until it merged with the Garda Síochána in 1925. Since then the Garda has been the only police force in the state now known as the Republic of Ireland, with the exception of the Military Police within the Irish Defence Forces, the Airport Police, and Dublin Port and Dún Laoghaire Harbour police forces.

Scott Medal 
First established in 1925, the Scott Medal for Bravery is the highest honour for bravery and valour awarded to a member of the Garda Síochána. The first medals were funded by Colonel Walter Scott, an honorary Commissioner of the New York Police Department. The first recipient of the Scott Medal was Pat Malone of St. Luke's Cork City who - as an unarmed Garda - disarmed Tomás Óg Mac Curtain (the son of Tomás Mac Curtain).
To mark the United States link, the American English spelling of valor is used on the medal. The Garda Commissioner chooses the recipients of the medal, which is presented by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

In 2000, Anne McCabe - widow of Garda Jerry McCabe, who was killed by armed Provisional IRA bank robbers, accepted the Scott Medal for Bravery that had been awarded posthumously to her husband.

The Irish Republican Police had at least one member killed by the RIC 21 July 1920.
The Civic Guard had one killed by accident 22 September 1922 & another was killed March 1923 by Frank Teeling. Likewise 4 members of the Oriel House Criminal Investigation Department were killed/Died of wounds during the Irish Civil War.  The Garda Roll of Honour lists 31 members of the Garda killed between 1922 and 1999. {See Below}
The first Commissioner, Michael Staines, who was a Pro-Treaty member of , held office for only eight months. It was his successors, Eoin O'Duffy and Éamon Broy, who played a central role in the development of the force. O’Duffy was Commissioner in the early years of the force when to many people’s surprise the ability of the force to succeed despite being unarmed was established. O'Duffy later became a short-lived political leader of the quasi-fascist Blueshirts before heading to Spain to fight alongside Francisco Franco's Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. Broy had greatly helped the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Anglo-Irish War, while serving with the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP). Broy's fame grew in the 1990s when he featured in the movie Michael Collins, in which it was misleadingly suggested that he had been murdered by the British during the War of Independence, when in reality he lived for decades and headed the Garda Síochána from 1933 to 1938
. Broy was followed by Commissioners Michael Kinnane (1938–52) and Daniel Costigan (1952–65).  The first Commissioner to rise from the rank of ordinary Garda was William P. Quinn, who was appointed in February 1965.
One later Commissioner, Edmund Garvey, was sacked by the Fianna Fáil government of Jack Lynch in 1978 after it had lost confidence in him. Garvey won 'unfair dismissal' legal proceedings against the government, which was upheld in the Irish Supreme Court This outcome required the passing of the Garda Síochána Act 1979 to retrospectively validate the actions of Garvey's successor since he had become Commissioner. Garvey's successor, Patrick McLaughlin, was forced to resign along with his deputy in 1983 over his minor involvement in a political scandal. The current Commissioner, since December 2010, is Martin Callinan.

Past reserve forces 

During the Emergency (as World War II was known in Ireland) there were two reserve forces to the Garda, An Taca Síochána and the Local Security Force.
An Taca Síochána had the power of arrest and wore uniform, and were allowed to leave the reserve or sign-up as full members of the Garda at the end of the war before the reserve was disbanded. The reserve was established by the Emergency Powers (Temporary Special Police Force) Order, 1939.

The Local Security Force (LSF) did not have the power of arrest, and part of the reserve was soon absorbed into the Irish Army Reserve under the command of the Irish Army.

Policing abroad 
Since 1989, the Garda has been part of United Nations peace-keeping forces. Its first mission was when a 50 strong force was sent to Namibia. Since then the force has acted in Angola, Cambodia, Cyprus, Mozambique, South Africa and the former Yugoslavia. The force's first fatality abroad was Garda Sergeant Paul M. Reid, who was fatally injured while on duty with the United Nations UNPROFOR at "Sniper's Alley" in Sarajevo on 18 May 1995.
Members of the Garda also serve in the Embassies of Ireland in London, The Hague, Madrid and Paris. Members are also seconded to Europol in The Hague, Holland and Interpol in Lyon, France. There are also many members working directly for UN and European agencies such as the War Crimes Tribunal.

Garda officers also co-operate with members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland to combat cross-border crime. They have also accompanied politicians from the Republic, such as the President on visits to Northern Ireland.

Under an agreement with the British Government and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Garda and the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland are allowed to inspect the Sellafield nuclear facility in Cumbria, England.
Controversy and allegations involving the force 
Like every police force in the world the Gardaí have had many complaints against them including allegations of discourtesy, harassment and perjury (lying to a court). A total of 1,173 complaints were made by the public against the Gardaí in 2005, while over 2000 complaints were made in 2009.

Some incidents involving the Garda have attracted wide scale attention—such as those that led to the Morris and Barr Tribunals—and have resulted in broad reform initiatives. Other reports suggest that people who frequent gay and lesbian establishments feel that the Gardaí are not doing enough to tackle reported homophobic crime in Ireland. In 2007 there was also some debate when a potential Sikh applicant of the Garda Reserve requested that he be allowed wear a turban in place of a standard uniform cap - Ultimately the provision was not made as it was stated that the force had the same uniform requirements for all members.

Mishandling of cases and complaints
The Gardaí were criticised by the commission of investigation into the Dean Lyons case for their handling of the investigation into the Grangegorman killings. In his report, George Birmingham said that the Gardaí had used leading questions in their interviews with Lyons, and had failed to act on a suspicion that Lyons' confession was unreliable. For a period, the gardaí involved in the case failed to act on the knowledge that another man, Mark Nash, had confessed to the crime. They were also criticised for failing to keep adequate records of their interviews with Lyons.

Allegations resulting in Tribunals of Inquiry
In the 1990s and early 2000s there were a series of allegations, including suggestions of corrupt and dishonest policing in County Donegal. This became the subject of a judicial inquiry: the Morris Tribunal. The tribunal found that some gardaí based in County Donegal had invented a Provisional IRA informer, made bombs and claimed credit for locating them, and attempted to frame Raphoe publican Frank McBrearty Junior for murder– the latter case involving a €1.5m settlement with the State. In a report to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the Morris Tribunal expressed grave concern about "organised insubordination" within the force that "proper discipline has been lost from Garda", suggesting that a few mischief-makers abused their positions within the Garda and used the disciplinary process to damage the force
. The tribunal also expressed concern that recruits were brought into an undisciplined culture that had the potential to do great damage in the longer term, and warned that a "terrible and costly" waste of talent would occur if the situation continued. These scandals damaged the reputation and standing of the force in County Donegal.
On 20 April 2000, members of the Emergency Response Unit shot dead, from behind, 27-year-old John Carthy at the end of a 25-hour siege as he left his home in Abbeylara, County Longford with a loaded shotgun in his hands. There were allegations made of inappropriate handling of the situation and of the overuse of armed force by the Gardaí. This led to a Garda inquiry, and later a Tribunal of Inquiry chaired by Mr Justice Robert Barr. This inquiry was established on 1 July 2002, and the hearing of evidence was completed on 7 December 2004. The final report was expected within six months, but publication of the report was delayed until 20 July 2006. The official findings of the tribunal were that Sgt Michael Jackson made 14 mistakes in his role as negotiator during the siege, and that he failed to make real efforts to achieve resolution during the armed stand-off. It further stated however that Sgt Jackson was limited by lack of experience and resources (psychologists, solicitors, dogs)
. The tribunal recommended that there be an urgent review of Garda command structures, and that the ERU be with stun guns and other non-lethal options, including "non-compliant firearms support police dogs".
The Barr tribunal also recommended a formal working arrangement between Gardaí and State psychologists, and improvements in Garda training (especially for the ERU in siege situations, including those with mental illness as a factor). This included a recommendation that local Garda superintendents undergo refresher training for one week every year as scene commanders and a similar refresher course for ERU officers of the rank of inspector or superintendent. Garda Commissioner Conroy, in a letter to the family of John Carthy, stated that the force was 'truly apologetic' for his death. Former Superintendent Joe Shelley, whose failure to interview John Carthy was cited in the Barr Tribunal Report as "extraordinary", and who was also severely criticised in the Report of the Morris Tribunal into the controversial death of Richie Barron, was awarded a top-up bonus of €110,000 when he took early retirement in July 2005
. Mr Justice Morris described Shelley's probe as "prejudiced, tendentious, utterly negligent in the highest degree".
Allegations involving abuse of powers 
One of the first charges of serious misconduct against the force came from the handling of the Sallins Train Robbery in 1976. This case eventually led to a serious miscarriage of justice and accusations that a "Heavy Gang" within the force intimidated and tortured accused. This eventually led to a Presidential pardon for one of the accused.

In 2004, an RTÉ Prime Time documentary accused elements within the Garda of abusing their powers by physically assaulting people arrested. A retired Circuit Court judge  (W. A. Murphy) suggested that some members of the force had committed perjury in criminal trials before him but later stated that he was misquoted, while a Minister of State (Dick Roche, a junior government minister) accused Gardaí in one instance of "torture". The Garda Commissioner accused the television programme of lacking balance.