16th November 2017
Oina is a traditional Romanian sport, whose origins appear to be quite ancient. Some believe that the name derives from the Cuman word for “game”, and it does seem to have a linguistic association with many Turkic languages. Other theories place its origins in shepherding, given its closeness to the Romanian word for sheep. While […]
14th November 2017
The story of how the United Kingdom played a central role in the building of the city of Constanta has its origins in the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and the growing realisation that the British Isles were no longer self–sufficient in food. Across Western Europe other governments were grappling with similar challenges of […]
19th April 2011
Last week I went down to Romania’s naval base at Constanta to visit the frigate ‘King Ferdinand’ as it makes its final preparations for ‘Operation Unified Protector’, the NATO led operation to enforce the UN arms embargo on Libya. The ‘Ferdinand’ has a distinguished record of service in similar operations, notably ‘Operation Active Endeavour’ – […]