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Colchester

Colchester is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 Census. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colchester therefore claims to be Britain's first city. It has been an important military base since the Roman era, with Colchester Garrison currently housing the 16th Air Assault Brigade.

On the River Colne, Colchester is 50 mi northeast of London. It is connected to London by the A12 road and the Great Eastern Main Line railway. Colchester is less than 30 mi from London Stansted Airport and 20 mi from the port of Harwich.

Attractions in and around the city include St Botolph's Priory, Colchester Zoo, and several art galleries. Colchester Castle was constructed in the eleventh century on earlier Roman foundations; it now contains a museum. The main campus of the University of Essex is located between Colchester and Wivenhoe. Local government is the responsibility of the City of Colchester and Essex County Council.

Name
There are several theories about the origin of the name Colchester. Some contend that is derived from the Latin words colonia (referring to a type of Roman settlement with rights equivalent to those of Roman citizens, one of which was believed to have been founded in the vicinity of Colchester) and castra, meaning fortifications (referring to the city walls, the oldest in Britain). The earliest forms of the name Colchester are Colenceaster and Colneceastre from the 10th century, with the modern spelling of Colchester being found in the 15th century. In this way of interpreting the name, the River Colne which runs through the area takes its name from Colonia as well. Cologne (German Köln) also gained its name from a similar etymology (from its Roman name Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium).

Other etymologists are confident that the Colne's name is pre-Roman, sharing its origin with several other rivers Colne or Clun around Britain, and that Colchester is derived from Colne and Castra. Ekwall went as far as to say "it has often been held that Colchester contains as first element [Latin] colonia ... this derivation is ruled out of court by the fact that Colne is the name of several old villages situated a good many miles from Colchester and on the Colne. The identification of Colonia with Colchester is doubtful."

The popular association of the name with King Coel has no academic merit.

Prehistory
The gravel hill upon which Colchester is built was formed in the Middle Pleistocene period, and was shaped into a terrace between the Anglian glaciation and the Ipswichian glaciation by an ancient precursor to the River Colne. From these deposits Palaeolithic flint tools, including at least six Acheulian handaxes, have been found. Further flint tools made by hunter gatherers living in the Colne Valley during the Mesolithic have been discovered, including a tranchet axe from Middlewick. In the 1980s an archaeological inventory showed that over 800 shards of pottery from the Neolithic, Bronze Age and early Iron Age have been found within Colchester, along with many examples of worked flint. This included a pit found at Culver Street containing a ritually placed Neolithic grooved ware pot, as well as find spots containing later Deverel-Rimbury bucket urns. Colchester is surrounded by Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments that pre-date the town, including a Neolithic henge at Tendring, large Bronze Age barrow cemeteries at Dedham and Langham, and a larger example at Brightlingsea consisting of a cluster of 22 barrows.

Celtic origins
Colchester is said to be the oldest recorded town in Britain on the grounds that it was mentioned by Pliny the Elder, who died in AD 79, although the Celtic name of the town, Camulodunon appears on coins minted by tribal chieftain Tasciovanus in the period 20–10 BC. Before the Roman conquest of Britain it was already a centre of power for Cunobelin – known to Shakespeare as Cymbeline –  king of the Catuvellauni (c. 5 BC – AD 40), who minted coins there. Its Celtic name, Camulodunon, variously represented as CA, CAM, CAMV, CAMVL and CAMVLODVNO on the coins of Cunobelinus, means 'the fortress of [the war god] Camulos'. During the 30s AD Camulodunon controlled a large swathe of Southern and Eastern Britain, with Cunobelin called "King of the Britons" by Roman writers. Camulodunon is sometimes popularly considered one of many possible sites around Britain for the legendary (perhaps mythical) Camelot of King Arthur, though the name Camelot (first mentioned by the 12th century French Arthurian storyteller Chrétien de Troyes) is most likely a corruption of Camlann, a now unknown location first mentioned in the 10th century Welsh annalistic text Annales Cambriae, identified as the place where Arthur was slain in battle.

Roman period

Soon after the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, a Roman legionary fortress was established, the first in Britain. Later, when the Roman frontier moved outwards and the twentieth legion had moved to the west (c. AD 49), Camulodunum became a colonia named in a second-century inscription as Colonia Victricensis. This contained a large and elaborate Temple to the Divine Claudius, the largest classical-style temple in Britain, as well as at least seven other Romano-British temples. Colchester is home to two of the five Roman theatres found in Britain; the example at Gosbecks (site of the Iron Age royal farmstead) is the largest in Britain, able to seat 5,000.

Camulodunum served as a provincial Roman capital of Britain, but was attacked and destroyed during Boudica's rebellion in AD 61. Sometime after the destruction, London became the capital of the province of Britannia. Colchester's city walls c. 3,000 yd. long were built c.65–80 A.D. when the Roman town was rebuilt after the Boudicca rebellion. In 2004, Colchester Archaeological Trust discovered the remains of a Roman Circus (chariot race track) underneath the Garrison in Colchester, a unique find in Britain. The city reached its peak in the second and third centuries AD. It may have reached a population of 30,000 in that period.

In 2014 a hoard of jewellery, known as The Fenwick Hoard, named for the shop it was found beneath, was discovered in the town centre. The director of Colchester Archaeological Trust, Philip Crummy, described the hoard as being of "national importance and one of the finest ever uncovered in Britain".

Sub-Roman and Saxon period
There is evidence of hasty re-organisation of Colchester's defences around 268–82 AD, followed later, during the fourth century, by the blocking of the Balkerne Gate. John Morris suggested that the name Camelot of Arthurian legend was probably a reference to Camulodunum, the capital of Britannia in Roman times.

The archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler was the first to propose that the lack of early Anglo-Saxon finds in a triangle between London, Colchester and St Albans could indicate a 'sub-Roman triangle' where British rule continued after the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. Since then excavations have revealed some early Saxon occupation, including a fifth-century wooden hut built on the ruins of a Roman house in present-day Lion Walk. Archaeological excavations have shown that public buildings were abandoned, and is very doubtful whether Colchester survived as a settlement with any urban characteristics after the sixth century.

The chronology of its revival is obscure. But the ninth-century Historia Brittonum, attributed to Nennius, mentions the town, which it calls Cair Colun, in a list of the thirty most important cities in Britain. Colchester was in the area assigned to the Danelaw in c.880, and remained in Danish hands until 917 when it was besieged and recaptured by the army of Edward the Elder. The tenth-century Saxons called the town Colneceastre, which is directly equivalent to the Cair Colun of 'Nennius'. The tower of Holy Trinity Church is late Saxon work.

Medieval and Tudor periods
Medieval Colchester's main landmark is Colchester Castle, which is an 11th-century Norman keep, and built on top of the vaults of the old Roman temple. There are notable medieval ruins in Colchester, including the surviving gateway of the Benedictine abbey of St John the Baptist (known locally as "St John's Abbey"), and the ruins of the Augustinian priory of St Botolph (known locally as "St Botolph's Priory"). Many of Colchester's parish churches date from this period.

Colchester's medieval town seal incorporated the biblical text Intravit ihc: in quoddam castellum et mulier quedam excepit illum 'Jesus entered a certain castle and a woman there welcomed him' (Luke 10.38). This is a commonplace allegory in which a castle is likened to Mary's womb, and explains the name of Maidenburgh St, neighbouring the castle.

In 1189, Colchester was granted its first known royal charter by King Richard I (Richard the Lionheart), although the wording suggests that it was based on an earlier one. It granted Colchester's burgesses the right to elect bailiffs and a justice. The borough celebrated the 800th anniversary of its charter in 1989.

Colchester developed rapidly during the later 14th century as a centre of the woollen cloth industry, and became famous in many parts of Europe for its russets (fabrics of a grey-brown colour). This allowed the population to recover exceptionally rapidly from the effects of the Black Death, particularly by immigration into the town. Rovers Tye Farm, now a pub on Ipswich Road, has been documented as being established by 1353.

By the 'New Constitutions' of 1372, a borough council was instituted; the two bailiffs who represented the borough to the king were now expected to consult sixteen ordinary councillors and eight auditors (later called aldermen). Even though Colchester's fortunes were more mixed during the 15th century, it was still a more important place by the 16th century than it had been in the 13th. In 1334 it would not have ranked among England's wealthiest fifty towns, to judge from the taxation levied that year. By 1524, however, it ranked twelfth, as measured by its assessment to a lay subsidy.

Between 1550 and 1600, a large number of weavers and clothmakers from Flanders emigrated to Colchester and the surrounding areas. They were famed for the production of "Bays and Says" cloths which were woven from wool and are normally associated with baize and serge although surviving examples show that they were rather different from their modern equivalents. An area in Colchester town centre is still known as the Dutch Quarter and many buildings there date from the Tudor period. During this period Colchester was one of the most prosperous wool towns in England, and was also famed for its oysters. Flemish refugees in the 1560s brought innovations that revived the local cloth trade, establishing the Dutch Bay Hall for quality control of the textiles for which Colchester became famous. The old Roman wall runs along Northgate Street in the Dutch Quarter.

In the reign of "Bloody Mary" (1553–1558) Colchester became a centre of Protestant "heresy" and in consequence at least 19 local people were burned at the stake at the castle, at first in front, later within the walls. They are commemorated on a tablet near the altar of St Peter's Church. (Sources: John Foxe, Book of Martyrs; Mark Byford, The Process of Reformation in a Tudor Town)

17th and 18th century
The town saw the start of the Stour Valley riots of 1642, when the town house of John Lucas, 1st Baron Lucas of Shenfield was attacked by a large crowd. In 1648, during the Second English Civil War, a Royalist army led by Lord Goring entered the town. A pursuing Parliamentary army led by Thomas Fairfax and Henry Ireton surrounded the town for eleven and a half weeks, a period known as the Siege of Colchester. It started on 13 June. The Royalists surrendered in the late summer (on 27 August Lord Goring signed the surrender document in the Kings Head Inn) and Charles Lucas and George Lisle were executed in the grounds of Colchester Castle. A small obelisk marks the spot where they fell.

Daniel Defoe mentions in A tour through England and Wales that the town lost 5259 people to the plague in 1665, "more in proportion than any of its neighbours, or than the city of London". By the time he wrote this in 1722, however, he estimated its population to be around 40,000 (including "out-villages").

Between 1797 and 1815 Colchester was the HQ of the Army's Eastern District, had a garrison of up to 6,000, and played a main role in defence against a threatened French or Dutch invasion, At various times it was the base of such celebrated officers as Lord Cornwallis, Generals Sir James Craig and David Baird, and Captain William Napier. It was in a state of alarm during the invasion threat of 1803/4, a period well chronicled by the contemporary local author Jane Taylor.

Victorian period
Significant Victorian landmarks include Colchester Town Hall, the Jumbo Water Tower and the Albert Hall.

In 1884, the area was struck by the Colchester earthquake, estimated to have been 4.7 on the Richter Scale causing extensive regional damage.

The Paxman diesels business has been associated with Colchester since 1865 when James Noah Paxman founded a partnership with the brothers Henry and Charles Davey ('Davey, Paxman, and Davey') and opened the Standard Ironworks. In 1925, Paxman produced its first spring injection oil engine and joined the English Electric Diesel Group in 1966 – later becoming part of the GEC Group. Since the 1930s the Paxman company's main business has been the production of diesel engines.

20th century and later
In the early 20th century Colchester lobbied to be the seat for a new Church of England diocese for Essex, to be split off from the existing Diocese of Rochester. The bid was unsuccessful, with county town Chelmsford forming the seat of the new diocese.

In the 2nd World War Colchester's main significance lay in its infantry and light-anti-aircraft training units, and in the Paxman factory, which supplied a large proportion of the engines for British submarines and landing craft. Occasionally hit by stray single German aircraft in 1940 and 1941, in 1942 more serious attempts to bomb its industries were made by the Luftwaffe. None of these attacks hit their targets, but a raid on 11 August bombed Severalls Hospital, and killed 38 elderly patients. In February 1944 a single raider caused a huge fire in the St Botolph's area which gutted warehouses, shops and part of Paxman's Britannia Works. The total wartime bombing death toll in the borough was 55.

The University of Essex was established at Wivenhoe Park in 1961. The £22.7M 8 mi A120 Colchester Eastern Bypass opened in June 1982.

Colchester and the surrounding area is currently undergoing significant regeneration, including controversial greenfield residential development in Mile End and Braiswick. At the time of the 2011 UK Census, Colchester and its surrounding built up area had a population of 121,859, marking a considerable rise from the previous census and with considerable development since 2001 and ongoing building plans; it has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. The local football team, Colchester United, moved into a brand new stadium at Cuckoo Farm in 2008.

On 20 May 2022, it was announced that as part of the Platinum Jubilee Civic Honours, what was then the Borough of Colchester would receive city status. It was slated to receive the status formally by letters patent on 12 September 2022, however following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the ceremony was postponed. On 29 September 2022, the letters patent was made public, with Colchester receiving city status dated 5 September 2022 by the late Queen. Colchester officially received city status on 23 November 2022. Colchester was visited by King Charles III on 7 March 2023, in order to congratulate Colchester on receiving city status.

Climate
Colchester is in one of the driest regions of the United Kingdom with average annual precipitation at 635 mm, although among the wetter places in Essex. Colchester is generally regarded as having an Oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) like the rest of the United Kingdom. Its easterly position within the British Isles makes Colchester less prone to Atlantic depressions and weather fronts but more prone to droughts. This is because, like most areas in southeast England, Colchester's weather is influenced more by Continental weather patterns than by Atlantic weather systems. This leads to a dry climate compared to the rest of the UK all year round and occasional (relative) extremes of temperatures during the year (occasional high 20 °Cs/low 30 °Cs during the summer) and quite a few nights below freezing during the winter months (daytime high temperatures are seldom below freezing). Any rainfall that does come from Atlantic weather systems is usually light, but a few heavy showers and thunderstorms can take place during the summer. Snow falls on average 13 days a year during winter and early spring.

The highest temperature recorded in Colchester was 36.1 °C in August 2003 (during the 2003 European heat wave), and the lowest was -9.4 °C in December 2010.

Garrison
Colchester has been an important military garrison since the Roman era. The Colchester Garrison is currently home to the 16th Air Assault Brigade. The Army's only military corrective training centre, known colloquially within the forces and locally as "The Glasshouse" after the original military prison in Aldershot, is in Berechurch Hall Road, on the outskirts of Colchester. The centre holds men and women from all three services who are sentenced to serve periods of detention.

From 1998 to 2008, the garrison area underwent massive redevelopment. A lot of the Ministry of Defence land was sold for private housing development and parts of the garrison were moved. Many parts of the garrison now stand empty awaiting the second phase of the development.

Since 2006, Colchester has been one of 12 places in the UK where Royal Salutes are fired to mark Royal anniversaries and visits by foreign heads of state. From 2009, these salutes have taken place in Castle Park.

BFBS Radio broadcasts from studios on the base on 107.0FM as part of its UK Bases network

Governance

Colchester City Council is the local authority.

The Member of Parliament for Colchester is Pam Cox of the Labour Party. The former MP, Liberal Democrat Sir Bob Russell, has held the ceremonial role of High Steward of Colchester since 2015.

Museums
Colchester houses several museums. The Castle Museum, found within Colchester Castle, features an extensive exhibit on Roman Colchester. Nearby are Hollytrees Museum, a social history museum with children's exhibits in the former home of Charles Gray, and the Natural History Museum, located in the former All Saints' Church. The Colchester Archaeological Trust have opened a visitor centre and museum at the former Cavalry Barracks to display finds from the Roman Circus, with replicas and models of the circus, as well as finds from the nearby Roman cemeteries. In 2014 brick and marble columns from the monumental façade of the precinct of the Temple of Claudius were discovered behind the High Street, with plans to make them visible to the public.

Arts
Opened in 1972, the Mercury Theatre is a repertory theatre. Located nearby is Colchester Arts Centre, a multi-function arts venue located in the former St Mary-at-the-Walls church, and home of the Colchester Beer Festival. The Headgate Theatre is also located in Colchester.

Firstsite is a contemporary art organisation, based in the Visual Arts Facility, which was designed by Rafael Viñoly, and opened in September 2011, at a total cost of approximately £25.5 million, £9 million more than the original estimate.

The Minories houses The Minories Galleries, which is managed by Colchester Institute and presents contemporary exhibitions by artists from the region. The building is owned by the Victor Batte-Lay Foundation.

There are several bars with live music.

In 2009, an art collective called 'Slack Space' took up some of the closed-down shops in the centre and converted them into art galleries with the hope of promoting art and design. The Colchester School of Art, opened in 1885, is based in the Colchester Institute, near the centre.

A film festival, showcasing a selection of new feature and short films from around the world and centred at the VAF, was held from to 2012 to 2017 (excluding 2016). There are 12 cinema screens spread across the 8 screen Odeon, 3 screen Curzon and 1 screen in the firstsite gallery.

Sport
Local links with football began with the amateur club Colchester Town, which was formed in 1867 and dissolved in 1937. They were succeeded by professional club Colchester United, who compete in Football League Two (as of season 2023–24) and play home games at Colchester Community Stadium. Founded in 1937, the club entered the Football League in 1950, originally playing home games at their former Layer Road stadium until 2008. The club reached its highest league finish of 10th place in the Championship in 2006-07, and were one of the few teams to win the Watney Cup, in 1971.

Other sports teams based in the area include Colchester United Women Football Club, Colchester School of Gymnastics, Colchester Rugby Football Club, Colchester Swimming Club, Colchester Gladiators American Football Club, Colchester Weight Lifting Club, Colchester Powerlifting Club (ColPower) and Colchester & East Essex Cricket Club. Essex County Cricket Club play some of their home games at Castle Park Cricket Ground, home of Colchester & East Essex.

Sports facilities in Colchester include Colchester Leisure World, Colchester Garrison Athletics Stadium (a co-operative facility used by both the army and civilian population) and a skatepark.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia from the Sudbury TV transmitter. The city's local radio stations are BBC Essex on 103.5 FM, Heart East on 96.1 FM, Greatest Hits Radio East on 100.2 FM and Actual Radio which broadcast online. The local newspapers are Colchester Gazette, Essex County Standard and East Anglian Daily Times.

Other
The commercial centre is home to upmarket department store Fenwick (still referred to by locals by its former name of Williams & Griffin (Willie Gees)), Primark, H&M, Boots, WH Smith and many local independent stores.

Colchester War Memorial
Colchester suffered in the First World War, losing some 1,248 in the conflict. As early as 1918 prominent voices were calling for a war memorial, with Councillor Edgar A. Hunt making the first formal proposition in an open letter to the press published on Christmas Day of that year. Shortly after the publication of the letter, a committee was set up to decide the form of the monument, with several practical schemes favoured by the working class. The committee formed to choose a proposal decided on a sculptural monument on 16 May 1919 with a vote of 7 to 9. Following a visit to the Royal Academy's War Memorial Exhibition, the sculptor Henry Charles Fehr was chosen to undertake the work, for which he was paid £3,000. The memorial consists of three human figures on a sculptural pedestal. The figures are of Saint George, an allegorical representation of peace and the goddess Nike.

Roman walls
Construction of the walls of Colchester took place between 65 and 80 AD, shortly after the destruction of the undefended colonia by Boudicca, and they continued in use until after the Siege of Colchester in 1648. Two large stretches of the wall are still standing on the west and north sides and a number of fragments are visible along the rest of the circuit. A notable survival is the Balkerne Gate, which is the earliest and most complete Roman gateway in the United Kingdom. A circular walk of nearly 2 mi follows the course of the wall and the surviving portions.

"Jumbo" water tower
Completed in 1883 when the Town Council took over Colchester's water supply, the 110 ft water tower was originally called the "Balkerne Water Tower", but soon became known as "Jumbo" because of its large size, which prompted the addition of an elephant-shaped weather vane at its peak. The tower was decommissioned in 1987 and has had several private owners pending redevelopment.

Colchester Town Hall
The town hall is built on the site of the original moot hall, first recorded in 1277 and demolished in 1843. Replacing a Victorian town hall which had become unstable, work on the present building started in 1897 to the design of John Belcher in the Edwardian Baroque style, and was opened in 1902 by former prime minister, the Earl of Rosebery. The building dominates the High Street and the 192-foot (58.5-metre) Victoria Tower is widely visible. The tower was intended to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria and was funded by a donation from James Noah Paxman, the founder of Davey, Paxman & Co. It features four allegorical figures by L J Watts representing engineering, military defence, agriculture and fishery. At the top of the tower is a large bronze figure representing Saint Helena (the patron saint of Colchester) holding the True Cross; a local story says that a councillor was dispatched to Italy to find a statue of the saint, but could only find one of the Virgin Mary, which then had to be modified locally.

Secondary education
As is the case for the rest of Essex, Colchester's state schooling operates a two-tier system. Two of the local secondary schools are selective, Colchester Royal Grammar School and Colchester County High School for Girls, the remainder being comprehensives. Comprehensive secondary schools include The Gilberd School, Colchester Academy, Philip Morant School and College, St Helena School, St Benedict's Catholic College, Thomas Lord Audley School, Paxman Academy and Trinity School.

Private schools
Private schools in Colchester include St. Mary's School, Oxford House School and Colchester High School.

Tertiary
The University of Essex is located to the east of Colchester in Wivenhoe Park, in the civil parish of Wivenhoe. Other tertiary institutions include Colchester Sixth Form College and Colchester Institute.

Buses
Colchester's bus services are operated primarily by First Essex and Arriva Colchester, as well as by Hedingham & Chambers, Beeston's, Ipswich Buses and Panther Travel (Essex). The bus station is located in Osborne Street, on the southern edge of the centre. Key routes include the 371 to Chelmsford and the 74 to Clacton-on-Sea.

Railway
Colchester Town and Hythe stations are on the Sunshine Coast Line operated by Greater Anglia, and linked to the rest of the network at Colchester North station, which lies just outside this area.

Roads
Colchester is linked to London and East Anglia by the A12, which bypasses the town to the north and east, and is the region's main trunk route. The A120 connects Colchester with Harwich in the east and Stansted Airport and the M11 motorway in the west.

Port
Colchester was historically a port, with a regular weekly shipping service to London by 1637, and about 3,000 vessels per year using the port in 1892. The former quay of The Hythe is no longer in use, partly because the river has silted up, although Colchester is still a registered port (code GBCOL).

References in literature
The Roman historian Tacitus mentions Colchester (Camulodunum) in The Annals of Imperial Rome. In Book XIV he describes how '...the Roman ex-soldiers...had recently established a settlement at Camulodunum', later burned down in the Iceni rebellion.

It is the only town in Britain to have been explicitly mentioned in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four as being the target of a nuclear attack during the (fictional) Atomic Wars of the 1950s.

In popular culture
Colchester is reputed to be the home of three of the best known English nursery rhymes: 'Old King Cole', 'Humpty Dumpty' and 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star', although the legitimacy of all three claims is disputed.

Local legend places Colchester as the seat of King Cole (or Coel) of the rhyme Old King Cole, a legendary ancient king of Britain. The name Colchester is from Latin: the place-name suffixes chester, cester, and caster derive from the Latin word castrum (fortified place). In folk etymology the name Colchester was thought of as meaning Cole's Castle, though this theory does not have academic support. In the legend Helena, the daughter of Cole, married the Roman senator Constantius Chlorus, who had been sent by Rome as an ambassador and was named as Cole's successor. Helena's son became Emperor Constantine I. Helena was canonised as Saint Helena of Constantinople and is credited with finding the true cross and the remains of the Magi. She is now the patron saint of Colchester. This is recognised in the emblem of Colchester: a cross and three crowns. The Mayor's medallion contains a Byzantine style icon of Saint Helena. A local secondary school – St Helena's – is named after her, and her statue is atop the town hall, although local legend is that it was originally a statue of Blessed Virgin Mary which was later fitted with a cross.

Colchester is a widely credited source of the rhyme Humpty Dumpty. During the siege of Colchester in the Civil War, a Royalist sniper known as One-Eyed Thompson sat in the belfry of the church of St Mary-at-the-Walls (Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall) and was given the nickname Humpty Dumpty, most likely because of his size, Humpty Dumpty being a common insult for the overweight. Thompson was shot down (Humpty Dumpty had a great fall) and, shortly after, the town was lost to the Parliamentarians (all the king's horses and all the king's men / couldn't put Humpty together again.) Another version says that Humpty Dumpty was a cannon on the top of the church. The church of St Mary-at-the-Walls still retains its Norman tower until the top few feet, which are a Georgian repair.

The third rhyme said to have come from Colchester is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which was written by Jane Taylor who lived in the Dutch Quarter, and published in 1806 with the title "The Star".

Colchester has also been suggested as one of the potential sites of Camelot, on account of having been the capital of Roman Britain and its ancient name of Camulodunum: this is not considered likely by academics, as in Arthurian times Colchester was under Saxon control.

The first part of Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders was set in Colchester.

Colchester was also a named line of lathe machinery.

In the book Nineteen Eighty-Four, Colchester was the scene of a nuclear detonation.

The Doctor Who episodes The Lodger and Closing Time are set in Colchester, although they were filmed in Cardiff.

In the Asterix comic book Asterix in Britain the Camulodunum rugby team wins a game against Durovernum (Roman name for Canterbury). The uniforms worn during the match in the book are similar to the modern kit of Colchester United.

Colchester appears in the video game Assassin's Creed Valhalla, recreated as it was in the early medieval period.

Colcestrians
People of note that have lived in Colchester include:

 * Cunobelin (died before 43 AD), King of the Britons
 * Eudo Dapifer (died 1120), oversaw the building of Colchester Castle and was its first steward.
 * John Ball (died 1381), leader of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381
 * Thomas Audley (1488–1544), Lord Chancellor of England 1533–44, founder of Magdalene College, Cambridge
 * John Beche (died 1539), last abbot of St John's Abbey, Colchester
 * William Gilbert (1544–1603), scientist, pioneer in the field of magnetism and court physician to Elizabeth I and James I
 * Samuel Harsnett (1561–1631), writer and Archbishop of York
 * Charles Lucas (1613–1648), Royalist soldier in the English Civil War and Siege of Colchester
 * Philip Morant (1700–1770), parish priest of St Mary-at-the-Walls, author of The History & Antiquities of the County of Essex
 * Jane Taylor (1783–1824), poet and author of the lyrics to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
 * William Hale (1797–1870), early rocket engineer
 * George Biddell Airy (1801–1892), Astronomer Royal. He attended Colchester Royal Grammar School 1814–1819.
 * William Gull (1816–1890), Physician-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria, and Governor of Guy's Hospital. He researched and named anorexia nervosa.
 * Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892), Particular Baptist preacher, known as the "Prince of Preachers"
 * Thomas Miller Beach, aka Henri Le Caron (1841–1894), spy, who did much to thwart the objectives of the Fenians
 * Laming Worthington-Evans (1868–1931), Secretary of State for War, and Postmaster General
 * Archibald Wavell (1883–1950), senior officer of the British Army and the penultimate Viceroy of India
 * Bernard Mason (1895–1981), businessman, philanthropist and clock collector
 * Gerald Templer (1898–1979), British army officer
 * Edgell Rickword (1898-1982), poet, critic
 * Alfred Lungley (1905–1989), awarded the George Cross after the Quetta earthquake of 1935
 * Hermann Arthur Jahn (1907–1979), scientist. He discovered the Jahn-Teller effect.
 * Mary Whitehouse (1910–2001), Christian morality campaigner
 * Cuthbert Alport (1912–1998), Cabinet Minister, High Commissioner to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and High Steward of Colchester
 * Ken Aston (1915–2001), football referee, responsible for many important developments in football refereeing
 * Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013), Prime Minister
 * Klaus Kinski (1926–1991), actor and director, former German POW in Colchester during the World War II
 * Roger Penrose (born 1931), mathematical physicist and philosopher
 * Bob Russell (born 1946), MP for Colchester, High Steward of Colchester
 * John Cooper Clarke (born 1949), performance poet
 * Helen Mary Jones (born 1960), member of the Welsh Senedd (1993 to 2011 and 2018–2021)
 * Chris Morris (born 1962), English satirical comedian, writer and director
 * Neil Foster (born 1962), cricketer
 * Tony Gardner (born 1964), actor
 * Dave Rowntree (born 1964), musician, drummer for Blur
 * Anne Schwegmann-Fielding (born 1967), sculptor and mosaic artist
 * Darren Day (born 1968), actor and television presenter
 * Jeremy Spake (born 1969), TV personality and presenter
 * Graham Coxon (born 1969), musician and Blur lead guitarist
 * Crispin Bonham-Carter (born 1969), actor and theatre director
 * Will Quince (Born 1982), MP for Colchester
 * Mark Felton (born 1974), author, historian, and YouTuber.
 * Stella Creasy (born 1977), MP for Walthamstow.
 * Ali Carter (born 1979), professional snooker player
 * Sam Pilgrim (born 1990), freeride mountain biker
 * Ben Foakes (born 1993), cricketer

Twin towns
Colchester's twin towns and sister cities are:

 * 🇩🇪 Wetzlar, Germany, since 1969
 * 🇫🇷 Avignon, France, since 1972
 * 🇮🇹 Imola, Italy, since 1997
 * 🇨🇳 Yangzhou, China, since 2015

title: Colchester


text:
Hooper's Store

Hooper's Store is a fictional business and meeting-place on the television show Sesame Street. When the show began, the store was one of the four main locations on the set representing the fictional Sesame Street, with the 123 Sesame Street brownstone, the Fix-It Shop, and the carriage house. In the show, the original owner was Mr. Hooper, a gruff but friendly grocer.

After the death in 1982 of Will Lee, the actor who played Mr. Hooper, the store was managed by other characters, including David, Mr. Handford, and Alan.

History
The fictional store was said to be founded by Mr. Harold Hooper in 1951 as a general store. In canon, the food menu was extensive and suited to the different characters that lived on Sesame Street, a fictional Manhattan street. Along with traditional American diner-type food, the store sold a wide range of goods from dry goods to soap dishes and stranger goods such as empty cigar boxes (in Christmas Eve on Sesame Street) and birdseed milkshakes for Big Bird.

In Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street, Michael Davis notes that the store was one of the early core concepts that producer Jon Stone brought to the show:

"There would be an older proprietor of a neighborhood variety store, the type that had a soda fountain with pedestal stools. At that time in Bronx sociological history, the owner of such a business would likely have been male, Caucasian, and Jewish. Stone asked Rosen to build into the set what ultimately became Hooper's Store. 'It gave us a wonderful location both for comedy and curriculum-driven bits,' Stone said."

Over the course of the show, the store often acts as a gathering spot for the characters. In Sesame Street Unpaved, David Borgenicht writes:

"Hooper's Store is what all good communities and neighborhoods require -- a gathering place. Hooper's Store is to Sesame Street what Cheers was to Cheers, what the Pirate's Cove was to The Love Boat, what Arnold's was to Happy Days: a place where Muppets and humans alike could go to get whatever they needed, whether that be a Figgy Fizz soda or a chocolate egg cream (Hooper's specialty)."

David and Gina
The fictional character David (Northern Calloway), a young African-American who moved to Sesame Street in the early 1970s, was soon hired by Mr. Hooper as an assistant. David was originally conceived as a hip, upbeat singer fresh out of high school who was fond of eccentric hats. Although he appeared in Season 3, he began working at the store in Season 4 while studying law at college.

Upon Mr. Hooper's death, which correlated with the death of his actor, Will Lee, in real life, the store was left to David in-universe. During seasons 16 and 17, a teenaged boy named Piri (played by Eddie Castrodad) worked at the store. Following this, David hired a new resident of the area, Gina (played by Alison Bartlett-O'Reilly) in 1987. This young teenage girl helped David as he himself had helped Mr. Hooper.

Bert was hired to help David in one Sesame Street book. During his employment he accidentally broke a teapot given to David by Mr. Hooper, but was forgiven for the mistake.

Actor Calloway faced health issues in 1989, and left the series. His character moved to a farm, to live with his grandmother. The actor died in 1990.

David's final appearance was the season finale of Season 20 (the birth of Maria and Luis' daughter). Gina continued to work at the store for a couple of years after it was bought out by Mr. Handford. In 1995, she got a new job at the local daycare, until she finished college and remained on the show as a veterinarian.

Mr. Handford and Carlo
The enthusiastic Mr. Handford was a new character brought to the show exclusively to run the store, a change from the previous new managements of David and Gina, who started out as characters before store operators. This African-American man was a retired firefighter who bought the store to keep active.

Although Leonard Jackson played him in Season 21, he was then recast and David L. Smyrl took over the role. While Jackson portrayed Mr. Handford as something of a “grumpy old man” with little patience for his friends’ quirks, Smyrl made the character much more cheerful, friendly, and quite young at heart.

In 1991, Sully and Biff tried to hang a picture frame, but one blow from their hammer caused the entire woodwork of the store to fall apart. No one was hurt, but the store was ruined. Mr. Handford considered forgetting about the store, but everyone convinced him that they needed it, so they all pitched in to rebuild it.

A Hispanic-American teenager named Carlo (played by Carlo Alban) first appeared in 1993 as one of Gordon's students. In 1995, he was hired to work at the store.

These characters ran the store until 1998 when the actors left the show. There was no on-screen explanation to the characters' departures, though it has been stated in canon that Mr. Handford had sold the store to Alan (played by Alan Muraoka) that year.

Alan
Alan Muraoka joined the cast in 1998, as Alan, the new store owner. Muraoka has commented that his casting was atypical for the role, as most of the previous owners "were older and more grandfather-ish."

In season 35, Natalie was hired by Alan as a replacement while he took a vacation. Big Bird and Baby Bear are initially very anxious of the big change, but Natalie gradually assures them things will be fine. Natalie was played by guest star Natalie Portman. Portman was set to star as Natalie in three episodes in the 2004 season, but due to her losing her voice, Sesame Workshop had to film the other two episodes with Gabi in charge.

In Season 38, Chris Robinson joined Alan in running Mr. Hooper's Store. Chris is played by Chris Knowings, and is the nephew of Gordon and Susan.

A 2009 article about the series described the store as becoming a bodega.

In themed entertainment
Various Sesame Place theme parks have featured the store. Originally at the Pennsylvania location, Mr. Hooper's Store was part of a play area.

Japan's Sesame Place included Mr. Hooper's Store, a gift shop.

For the 50th anniversary of the series, in 2019, an Australian pop-up exhibition of Sesame Street named its gift shop "Hooper's Store."

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Hooper's Store


text:
Talk:The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun

'Hols' or 'Horus'?
Well, which is right? The IMDb link at the bottom says 'Horus'. — Mütze 15:45, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

 * I saw what I believe to be an official release under the name "Hols." I am unsure about that though, because 1) it was a company I've never heard of and 2) it was a rather poor subbing job. Snarfies 20:07, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

 * I do believe the official english name is Horus, a quick Google search gives 149K for Horus, vs 30K for Hols, Horus is infact a real word and name (an Egyptian God with connections to the Sun, though not as strong as Ra, but my egyptology is rusty so I might be off), Hols, according to us, on the otherhand chiefly exists as a British slang for Holidays (and this of course). As I recall, not that I pay attention to these things so I might be off, Japanese or Philipian people have a problem with r's, Hols might just be misspronounced Horus. Origional research of course but you don't have any real proof for Hols, IMD says Horus and the origional Japanese title says "Horusu". The Fan Site says Hols but a fansite isn't a reliable source (not that IMD is 100% but there inaccuraccies tend to be with Goofs, Quotes and Credits [for instance someone that one actor in an old Hercules movie looked like John Candy, well before his first appearence in motion pictures]). The answer to this is to have this as the most popular usage (which Horus does appear to be) and have the other as a redirect, took long enough to find this stupid article with the "right" name Horus Prince of the Sun, in the future anyone who knows it by either title should find it). Also for people like the above who wish to find it, as a classic anime it is not difficult to locate on Mininova or Piratesbay, this is hardly the place to go looking or asking for copies. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.137.207.191 (talk) 04:21, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

 * Both translation or adaptation are officially used.
 * "Hols" seems to be the first, of Norse inspiration as the setting was moved from Japan to Scandinavia.
 * "Horus" seems to be a later, more widespread one, possibly inspired by egyptian Horus-Sun mythology, or simply because spelled closer to "Horusu".
 * As for the official movie names I spotted:
 * "太陽の王子 ホルスの大冒険" (Japanese Movie, VHS/LD/DVD)
 * "Taiyo no oji: Horusu no daiboken" (transcription)
 * "The Adventures of Hols/Horus, Prince of the Sun" (translation)
 * "The Little Norse Prince" (English DVD box)
 * "The Little Norse Prince Valiant" (English official page)
 * "Horus, Prince du soleil" (French DVD)
 * "Hols, o Príncipe do Sol" (Portugese DVD)
 * "Hols/Horus, Prince of the Sun" (translation)
 * "La Grande Avventura Del Principe Valiant" (Italian VHS)
 * "The Great Adventure of the Prince Valiant" (translation)
 * "Принц Севера" (Russian DVD)
 * "Prints Severa" (transcription)
 * "Prince of North" (translation)
 * Other variants are probably either translations from other language or fan compositions, possibly as a consequence of lack of official sources and poor distribution.
 * Links of interest: nausicaa.net, official english and japanese Toei page, fan review, ANN, Buta (french fansite). --Musaran (talk) 03:25, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

 * "Hols" is correct, based on the information from the Takahata Miyazaki Research Lab on the Nausicaa.net page. This makes sense given the location of the story setting ("Hols" is a Norse name, and "Horus" is not). ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:37, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Hols, a name of Scandinavian origin, is the correct character name and should appear as such in all recent translations. The "Horus" or "Horusu" confusion has nothing to do with the Greek God Horus - it is just down to the Japanese inability to pronounce "L" sounds, which come out as a flattened "R" sound, and the fact that consonant sounds are usually separated by a partially-sounded vowel. Thus "Hols" sounds like "H o r(u)s(u)", which may lead to it being mistranscribed as Horus in previous translations. Just listen when you next watch the film. For comparison, watch Howl's Moving Castle, and listen to how the name Howl is pronounced by the Japanese voice actors, as a kind of "Hawoorl(u)"!

I have added a plot synopsis to this article. Weasel Fetlocks (talk) 02:07, 18 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Hols isn't a Scandinavian name, as far as I know. It might be inspired by Scandinavian names, but to a Scandinavian ear, it sounds rather weird. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 21:13, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

POV
Description is way too POV. Needs fixing. Lee M (talk) 03:55, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20131203192230/http://www.stonebridge.com/shopexd.asp?id=210 to http://www.stonebridge.com/shopexd.asp?id=210

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Title change
I suggest changing the title of the article to Horus: Prince of the Sun (Little Norse Prince) because it is the official English title by Discotek Media. --YukaSylvie (talk) 00:51, 30 October 2019 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Atari 8-bit computers/Archive 1

Amount of RAM in 400/800
I was sure that the 400 had 16KB ram and the 800 had 48MB ram. Can someone doublecheck this? --209.107.95.230

 * My 800 had 16KB expandable to 48KB. Thought the 400 started at 4KB; not sure. --Williamv1138 11 July 2003

 * Maybe it's because I bought mine later. At the time I made my purchase, the 400 shipped with 16KB and the 800 shipped with 48KB. --209.107.95.230 14 July 2003

 * Originally the Atari 400 came with 8K of ram and the 800 had 16K which allowed upgradable modules to be added. Atari later upgraded the ram in the Atari 400 to 16K and over the years, upgraded the 800 to 48K.

 * The memory module in the Atari 400 is identical to that in the 800 except the 800 had three slots for memory allowing mix and matches of 8k and 16k boards.

 * Also, the Atari 8bits were not 2mhz processors as stated in the article but 1.79mhz.

 * Amazing what rattles around in the head after all these years, huh? --James 15 February 2004

Edit summary re XL models
Forgot to add summary of my edit. The 1200XL did not have a built-in BASIC like the subsequently released 600XL and 800XL did, so I deleted the reference to a buggy BASIC as being a problem of the 1200XL. However, the 1200XL did feature a new OS which was different enough from the OS of the 400/800 such that many programs (mostly games as I recall) were not compatible. To address the problem, Atari released an OS patch called "The Translator", which loaded what was essentially the same OS as the 400/800. --4.7.239.195 28 January 2004

 * The translator disk loaded the older OS ver.B or OS ver.A on the XL/XE computers. Atari only released it on disk, no cassette version was planned or released. The problem with compatiblity was too many illegal calls and jumps were made by the offending programs. Alas, some of Atari's programs did that as well. --Pelladon 03:55, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

Paged 128K memory card for the 800
At least one company (can't recall the name) created a 128 kB memory card for the 800. It paged eight 16 kB pages into one slot's address space using a control register in the I/O space. We used this at NASA to create a proof of concept general aviation cockpit instrumentation suite; the displays could switch in 1/60th of a second, since the Antic display lists were within the paged memory. Does anyone remember the company that made this memory card? Insert non-formatted text here --George F Rice 31 May 2005

800XL expansion
The article does not mention anything about the expansions of the 800XL. I have two Atari 800XLs sitting here. They can be expanded with an MIO (essentially a Active RAM drive that plugs into the wall socket and stays powered). The MIO allows you to boot from memory and even load games and software onto it. I could have my Atari booted and running a game before my screen warmed up. The MIO expanded the RS232 port so that you could hook up to 3 floppy drives stacked, a modem and a printer to it. A guy at HACE Atari computer club in Houston, Texas ran a BBS off of his Atari for YEARS on end. I have the BBS software for it as well, but I never ran it. Called BBS Express. --Kim Nevelsteen 21:34, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Don't forget the 130XE expansion. Wish I had more info on it. Both 800XL and 130XE had expansion cards made but very few came out.--Pelladon 03:51, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Just added info about the Parallel Bus Interface (PBI). Feel free to add, develop, etc. Pelladon 07:14, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

Four controller ports: 400/800 a pioneer?
Just a thought: AFAIK, the 400/800 series is the first home computer/game console range to feature a total of four game controller ports built in. Anyone know if this is correct? And if so, has there actually been a single computer or console between the 400/800 and the Nintendo GameCube—introduced 22 years later—with this many controller ports built in? If these suppositions are indeed facts, they should certainly be prominently mentioned in the article(s)! --Wernher 16:14, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
 * I found a reference to it. I didn't believe it either, but apparently it seems ok. --Kim Nevelsteen 16:35, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

 * The N64 and Dreamcast both had 4 ports as well. And the N64 article says the first one to have it was the Bally Astrocade. Melodia Chaconne

 * Thanks! I learn something new on WKP every day! :-) (Of course I could've scoured all the home computer + console articles myself to find it out, but I thought I'd ask instead, in case someone knew more than what WKP had available. And, as always, it's less of an effort to ask someone else than do the research oneself... *blush*). --Wernher 13:12, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

 * I'm pretty sure that there was no pervious home computer, though, so it's still notable. BTW, the only other home computers with four joystick ports that I know of where the Atari STe and the Atari Falcon. They had two digital, standard Atari joystick ports and two digital/analog, Jaguar compatible joystick ports, the latter of which could each drive two digital, standard Atari joysticks, for a total of six joysticks. --OldSchoolDragon 15:04, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

XE naming
' The X in XE stood for XL-Compatible''. '''

Is this actually true? I always remember it as "XL-Expanded". Source please!

Maury 12:34, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

 * It was me that wrote the original sentence. I just wrote what I recalled from memory. I could not remember at the time what the E stood for. Thanks for pointing this out. I have edited the article to reflect this.
 * Ae-a 06:30, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

The first XE
BTW, the article mentions that the 65XE was the first XE. In the UK the 65XE didn't come out till the end of 1987, long after the 130XE. Was the reference a typo, or did the XE come out earlier elsewhere? If Atari *announced* the 65XE in 1985, perhaps this could be rephrased. Fourohfour 15:29, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

 * The same was true here in Canada as well. I assume they had intended the 130 to replace all models, and then introduced the 65 to hit some sweet spot in the market. Maury 12:12, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

 * If there are no objections in the next couple of days, I will change this so that it no longer implies that the 65XE was the first. If anyone thinks otherwise, can you please provide some evidence? Thank you. Fourohfour 13:14, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

The second generation: XL series
Atari addressed the 1200XL's problems in the hastily-completed 600XL and 800XL, which were largely identical to the original Sweet 16 specifications. These machines also had Atari BASIC built into the ROM of the computer. By the time the new machines replaced it the Commodore 64 had already become the market leader, and Atari was unable to address this.

 * The 600XL and 800XL were NOT hastily completed. They were planned all along because the 1200XL was too expensive to build. The 600XL and 800XL were part of the family of Atari computers that also included the 1400XL and the 1450XLD. The problem was when Atari moved production overseas, manufacturing problems and delays left them with far fewer stock than they wanted for the all important Christmas season. A lot of companies (TI, Coleco) had production problems too. Commodore, however had plenty of computers on store shelves. THAT'S how Commodore jumped ahead of the others. I'm getting sick of the revisionist history that people constantly spew out again and again... This section needs a rewrite to fix facts and to get rid of the POV slant. Pelladon 19:42, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

 * I don't understand how you could consider this to be POV, I'm not exactly who's POV you think it could be -- the C64 really was cheaper than the Atari machines, at least in every store I went to see them in (and as a teenage nerd, that was "a lot"). Likewise the market really was being dragged by Commodore, they were always the first to lower the prices during the "war".
 * Secondly the history is rather suspect. There was a very distinct delay between the introduction of the 1200 and the 600/800/14xx. I have all the promotional materials (although I may have chucked them recently when I moved), there's the 1200 batch, and then the "other" batch. I distinctly remember the 1200 arriving early in the year, and the 600/800 in the winter - by which time the season is over.
 * Finally the 1200 was a single-board machine (IIRC), like the later 600 and 800. As far as I can tell the only real differences were the keyboard and the cases.
 * Perhaps I was too hasty when I used the word "hasty", but I believe the historical record is extremely clear: the 600/800 were introduced in order to replace the 1200, which is not only what it did, but what they said it was supposed to do. Maury 22:32, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

 * That's what I said, the 600XL and 800XL were to replace the 1200XL. They were not hastily completed, actually they were behind schedule. Atari moved engr. resources from the 1400XL and 1450XLD to the 600XL/800XL. I remember because I phoned Atari about the availability of the 1400XL and 1450XLD and their response was always "delayed, don't know when...". Atari moved their production over from domestic factories to overseas. This caused numerous problems that took valuable time and engineering resources. That's what burned Atari during X-mas. Also, Tramiel cut deals direct with retailers, bypassing the computer store owners (and infuriating them) to stock C64 computers. That's why you saw C64 on store shelves. I was there too, pal.
 * The 600XL/800XL did NOT come out "early" 1983. The 800XL barely made it in Christmas in 1983! No 1400XL or 1450XLD at all. A far cry from the 600/800XL in mid 83, 1400/1450XLD in late 83 as Atari advertised! And forget the 1050 drive, that was nowhere to be found :D
 * The 1200XL was a single-board machine, but with tons of parts. It was built in the US. Meaning "Expensive". The 600XL and 800XL were built overseas. Fewer parts, cheaper keyboard. Meaning "cheaper". Get it?
 * The price war was over-rated. How come Apple and IBM didn't get burned?(HINT: they didn't burn their bridges with computer store owners). The real reason was the market was OVERSATURATED. Too many brands of computers, not enought buyers. Remember Spectravideo? How about Osborne? Or MSX? The price war would have happened eventually. Tramiel started it to get at TI, but it snowballed and the rest is history. Pelladon 20:09, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Apple and IBM didn't get burned because they didn't sell into the same market. They sold primarily to business and scientific users, who were primarily interested in their expansion capabilities. It was only those competing with the C46 in the home computer market that got burned.
 * As to the dates, you are correct, I have backed them all off by one year by mistake. Fixing...
 * Apple and IBM had their dealer network and markets. IBM had $$$$$ to spare. The price war really opened IBM's and Apple's markets even further, because companies starting making PC clones and Apple clones instead. And that changed the computer market and eventually drove out Atari, Commodore, TRS-80, etc.
 * Again, their manufacturing problems hurt Atari computers because they were poised to make a profit, for the first time in their history. (separate from their games and home entertainment divisions, their cash cows) Pelladon 22:14, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Re: "Not enough buyers". At the time of the price war, sales were booming. Even TI's sales were booming; the problem was that they lost money on each sale. Apple preferred to cede market share and maintain their prices, which they could do because they were an established standard. IBM wasn't a significant player in the home computer market. Mirror Vax 22:59, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

 * With TI, you're right, they were losing money on each machine. It was their tactic of taking a profit loss in exchange for market share. They finally decided to get out of the home computer market and realign for the business sector. Apple refused to lower prices, true. IBM wasn't a player in the home market until years later. Pelladon 02:06, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

Memory interleaving
Is the middle of this article really the right place to launch into a highly technical discussion of memory interleaving? And why would one possible compare it to the BBC, or a submarine?!? If no one objects, I'm going to remove that portion. Maury 22:32, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

 * He said the BBC *micro*; that's a more valid comparison than a submarine. Whether the interleaving stuff should be there is another question. *I* found it interesting, but this article is specifically about the Atari 8-bits, so... I personally feel that you can't include everything. If the technique is worthy of in-depth description, it should have its own article (if it doesn't already; please check thoroughly first).

 * My vote; note the interleaving technique (or lack of it) in the Atari, and provide a link to a more detailed article. You may wish to use the information in the new article (if creating). Please remember to note its origins if this is decided.

 * You can't include every detail without making the page too unwieldy for a general audience. Good organisation helps, but there comes a time when information has to be separated out, made more concise, or simply removed. I think the "software only" modes section (although of interest to me) is starting to exhibit signs of this bloat. It's great, but.... this isn't a "complete Atari tech manual".

Fourohfour 14:04, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Changed, let me know how it reads now. Maury 21:36, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Joystick ports
The joystick ports on the Atari were definitely NOT serial I/O ports. Although enterprising developers used them for this purpose, one could just as easily modulate the monitor port to the same end. I have removed this comment.

Maury 12:10, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

 * The 6520 PIA was designed with 2 8-bit bidirectional I/O ports. The Atari allow some access to control the 6520 PIA. The PIA was specifically designed to control peripheral devices through its I/O ports (in the Atari, joystick ports). People found uses for it such as a inexpensive printer port connection, robotics control, home security system control, etc. And NO, you could not modulate the monitor port as it was a analog output only. --Pelladon 07:44, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Early Machines: the 400 and 800
As consumers discovered that the two machines were largely identical, they generally bought the lower-priced 400. All of these problems conspired to force developers to essentially ignore the features of the 800, and develop for the 400 as their target. Expansion cards were already rare, but cartridges for the second slot in the 800 were just as rare.

 * Hey Maury, how could developers focus on the 400 when the majority of software came on floppy?? As for the second cartridge port, I already explained that it became technically obsolete and was dropped (16kB and larger cartridges came out). Pelladon 16:17, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Focussing on the 400 essentially consisted of ignoring those features that existed on the 800 alone. Perhaps I should re-word it that way?
 * The 16k cart was another issue entirely, it required bank switching which means only certain portions of the memory were available at any time. This simply is not as good as having a single, real, 16k cartridge slot. Had Atari done that instead -- which they could have easily -- then Atari BASIC would have been MS (a good thing) for instance, and even early games and other carts could be, well, better. Maury 16:43, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Atari 16kB carts were NOT bank switched, they were 16kB ROMs. The cartridge slot is just a electrical connection, it wasn't limited to 8kB. Where did you get the idea that the cart slot was limited to 8kB??? Go read Mapping the Atari. OSS had 16kB bank switched carts. Later, the 32kB and larger carts were bank switched. MS BASIC didn't have nearly enough commands that supported the Atari's features and it consumed too much memory. Memory was very EXPENSIVE in the early days. Pelladon 19:57, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
 * The cartridge slot is just a electrical connection, it wasn't limited to 8kB. Where did you get the idea that the cart slot was limited to 8kB???'
 * Duh, from the pinout diagram. Notice there are 13 address lines, A0 through A12... 213 = 8096. Yes, it is "just an electrical connection" as you put it, one with enough pins to support 8k. Each of the carts was mapped into a different 8k block, 40959->49151 for the left cart, 32767->40958 for the right. As to why you think Mapping the Atari supports your argument, I can't fathom. This review of the book has a nice ascii chart of the map, and if you look for the words "right cartridge" and "left cartridge" you will note they are mapped into separate 8k blocks, exactly what I have been saying all along.
 * What Atari and everyone else found out was they could map 16kB directly from just the left cartridge slot. That made the right cart slot obsolete. Gee, on page 103 of Mapping the Atari, it says "It is possible to have 16K cartridges on the Atari by either combining both slots using two 8K cartridges or simply having one with large enough ROM chips and using one slot. In this case, the entire area from 32768 to 49151 ($8000 to $BFFF) would be used as cartridge ROM." And I thought this was self-explanatory. Pelladon 21:04, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
 * As to Atari BASIC, having spoken to the author personally, I can say with no hesitation whatsoever that what you claim above is just plain wrong. The authors attempted to use MS 8k BASIC, but when MS supplied it to them it was 12k long (a side effect of the 6502s lower code density) and almost completely undocumented. After trying to get it running for some time they gave up, because they couldn't get it to fit onto an 8k cartridge (direct quote). It was not, as you claim, because it didn't have enough commands (which are trivial to add to BASIC, having done so personally), or because of the ROM costs. It was, very simply, because carts were 8k only.
 * No your just misquoting me. What I said was MS BASIC wasn't popular because one of those reasons was it didn't have a lot of commands that supported Atari's graphics and sounds. No Player/Missile commands, no scrolling, etc. BASIC XL and other programs did. BASIC XL outsold MS BASIC. The buyers decided. Pelladon 21:04, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
 * You go on to say "OSS had 16kB bank switched carts", as if this invalidates what I am saying. You do understand the meaning of the term "bank switching", right? It means that the 16k of code is switched in and out of the 8k space, making it appear as an 8k cart (which is all you can have) at any one time.
 * Atari didn't used bank selection in their 16kB carts because they didn't need it. OSS used bank-selection because their programs were languages and they wanted to save memory for programming. Their carts had additional chips (74LS175, 74LS02, 74LS00) which acted like a 4-bit register to track which bank to use. What's the big deal? Pelladon 21:04, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Frankly I'm equally at a loss as to how you can claim Atari 16kB carts were NOT bank switched and then only a few lines later state OSS had 16kB bank switched carts, thereby invalidating your own statement. Maury 19:36, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I meant to say 16kB carts from Atari Corp. were not bank selected. I used OSS as an example of a company that did use bank selection in their 16kB carts. If it came across that I implied that ALL Atari 16kB carts weren't bank selected, oops for that. So Maury, why don't you just show me, with EVIDENCE, how Atari Corp bank switch their 16kB carts. I would be very interested. Pelladon 21:04, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

Cartridge info
Just so there is NO confusion:

CARTRIDGES A AND B There are two 8K regions reserved for plug-in cartridges. Cartridge B, that is the right-hand cartridge slot found only in the ATARI 800 Home Computer, has been allocated memory addresses 8000 through 9FFF. Cartridge A (the left-hand cartridge slot in the ATARI 800 Computer console, and the only slot in the ATARI 400 Computer console) has been allocated memory addresses A000 through BFFF and optionally 8000 through BFFF, for 16K cartridges. If a RAM module is plugged into the last slot such as to overlay any of these addresses, the RAM takes precedence as long as a cartridge is not inserted. However, if a cartridge is inserted, it will disable the entire conflicting RAM module in the last slot in 8K increments.

Taken from Atari 400/800 Technical Reference Notes: Operating System User's Manual, Section 4, page 31. --Pelladon 06:34, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

 * You failed to quote the very next section. It reads...

''Most cartridges consist of two ROM chips on a single circuit board. Moreover, both chip sockets have identical pin assignments. In other words, the chips can be switched to opposite sockets and the cartridge will still work. The difference is in the chips themselves. On one chip, the A12 pin acts as an active-low chip select. On the other the A12 pin acts as an active-high chip select. Therefore the state of the A12 pin selects between the two chips.''

 * What do you call it when a pin is used to select between two banks of memory? Bank switching. Is this evidence enough to answer your question posted at the end of the last section?
 * Actually the quote you provided is a example of chip-select. Are you being funny or something? --Pelladon 04:21, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Oh and another thing, the next section reads:
 * MAPPED I/O
 * The 6502 performs input/output operations by addressing the external support chips as memory; some chip registers are read/write while others are read-only or write-only (the Atari Home Computer Hardware Manual gives descriptions of all of the external registers). While the entire address space from D000 to D7FF has been allocated for I/O decoding, only the following subregions are used:
 * This is Section 4, page 32. The very top. Right after the CARTRIDGES A AND B section. I don't know where you got that other quote. --Pelladon 06:24, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
 * But wait, don't take my word for it. Just to be sure I wasn't talking out of my ass, I contacted the creator of a cartridge copier for the Atari, and asked his opinion" If you are talking about the Atari 400 800 etc, they have a hi and low that can be accessed. So, in a sense there is a form of "bankswitching".

 * That is NOT bank switching. It describes, if I understand it correctly, using two 4K ROMs to make an 8K cart. The result is identical to using a single 8K ROM chip. Mirror Vax 18:57, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

 * I cannot believe that a person had to contact someone else to determine if the Atari used bank switching or not, given the available documentation which is explicitly clear. --Pelladon 06:42, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for the insult. The reason I contacted the hardware vendor was to find out if he called it that. Otherwise one could get into an endless semantic debate. If people making the cartridges call it bank switching, that's good enough for me. Furthermore, I don't think Vax's comment is correct, note the ATH's description of A13. Maury 12:12, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Just because you don't understand how something works does that give you the right to change something to fit your idea of what it is. This is not a sematic debate. This is a technical description that is clear and well documented. So why did you lie about the quote? That wasn't in the Tech Reference Notes. Wikipedia is about facts, not opinions or personal analysis. --Pelladon 16:08, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Vax's comment is correct for a 8kB Atari ROM cartridge. The 16kB Atari ROM cartridge uses two 8kB ROM chips to make a 16kB ROM space. Picky picky. --Pelladon 16:24, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

I have no idea what quote you claim I am lying about, because you didn't bother to note it specifically. I'm guessing you mean the one here. But basically if you're going to call me a liar, then I have no interest in continuing on this topic. IMHO when both the author of OSS basic and the designer of actual hardware say you wrong, you're wrong. Perhaps you should write to them can call them liars instead of me. Maury 18:59, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
 * My quote came from the "Atari 400/800 Technical Reference Manual:Operating System User's Manual". Part no C016555 Rev. A. Page 31. This is the official documentation for the Atari 8-bit, from Atari themselves. I gave the proper reference for everyone to look it up. Not just you. You go and look up a different site, accuse me of failing to quote the next section from a different site, and then misinterpret that quote as well. I don't know who you are fooling. --Pelladon 20:45, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Here are some documentation about cartridge types, taken from Atari 800win Help:

Type 1: Standard 8 KB cartridge: Standard 8 KB cartridge, that occupies 8 KB of address space between $A000 and $BFFF.

Type 2: Standard 16 KB cartridge: Standard 16 KB cartridge, that occupies 16 KB of address space between $8000 and $BFFF.

Type 3: OSS '034M' 16 KB cartridge: There are two types of OSS cartridges. Both are 16 KB and occupy 8 KB of address space between $A000 and $BFFF. The cartridge memory is divided into 4 banks, 4 KB each. One bank ('main') is always mapped to $B000-$BFFF. The other 3 banks are mapped to $A000-$AFFF. The current bank is selected by accessing a byte in $D500-$D5FF. Only 4 lowest bits of address are significant.

I don't know how it's achieved electronically. But from programmers' perspective, 16K cartridges between $8000-$BFFF _did_ exist. They were not "bank-switching" because both 8K parts were permanently mapped in. Usage of the address lines for this purpose is beyond my knowledge though. --Cyco130 01:10, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Attempt to avoid an edit war
I don't understand why you commented on my last edits as vandalism. All I did was re-arrange existing comments, split the price war into two parts, and add a header. Please, detail exactly what it was you feel was "vandalism" in my edits. Maury 12:21, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
 * You're putting too much focus on Tramiel, Commodore and the price war. This page is about Atari computers. If you want to write about price wars and Tramiel, do so on their respective pages. I commented that it was starting to look like vandalism, I didn't say that it was. I left out Atari's corporate problems because that's a separate topic altogether. --Pelladon 14:56, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Fair enough, but I am going to re-org again. As it stands the benefits and drawbacks of the 1200 are spread across four paras, one only two sentances long.
 * But frankly I disagree about your comment on the price war. In the last version it took up only two paragraphs, and yet is the single overriding reason for what was going on in the market. What, you think Atari lowered the price of the 400 to $79 (a loss on every sale) because they WANTED to cut the profit margins? Without mentioning what was going on -- and note that other articles on machines of the era generally comment on it as well -- you end up with a history that reads like Atari was just introducing a bunch of new machines "just because". That is not the case. As you noted, the reason Atari did so poorly in Chrismas '83 was supply, but without mentioning the market we have no idea WHY Atari ran into these problems. It's like studying biology without evolution, just facts with no narative.
 * I reverted back to the previous version by Maury. I feel the 1200XL section is too large, needs to be trimmed to the essentials. Don't speculate, just stick to facts. The 1200XL is in the same family as the other XLs, so it should not be grouped separately. Finally, details of Sweet 16 should go on a different page, since the 1000 and 1000X were never built. --Pelladon 03:37, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I didn't mention why the Atari did poorly cause no one really knows. Not enough evidence. Just going on price alone isn't giving an accurate picture. Lots of problems at Atari, but no one talking about it. You can't analyse this, not with so little to go on. --Pelladon 04:50, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm not going to add those sections back in for now. Instead I'll ask for thrid party comments first...

Vote
Third party readers: do you believe the section on the price was was out of place for this article? Maury 16:28, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Include. Needs to be there to get the context. --Wernher 21:18, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Separate out "description" section?
I think the article might read better if the technical parts, notably the chip sections, were removed to a separate section. But I can't figure out if it should be above or below the History section. If it's above then we can simply refer to chips by name in the History section, making it smaller and easier to read. However that also has the side effect of making the history, which I think is the fun part to read, get pushed down the page.

Comments?

Maury 12:26, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
 * The chips already have their own pages. The chip descriptions are just summaries. You can't describe the Atari 8-bits without describing the chips. That's like saying we'll leave the technical description of calculus out so we can discuss the history, which is not the main focus. --Pelladon 15:58, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
 * No no, I mean quite the opposite. I'm proposing adding a small section with each of the summaries, along with an overall description of the machine as a whole, all placed in a "Description" major section. Right now there is no real description of the machines, just bits and pieces through the history section. Maury 18:52, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

a paragraph on the 6502
It states "the GTIA had just enough time to read out a line before the processor wanted access again." This is not true, all bus access by ANTIC/GTIA is done when the CPU is halted. Commodore and Apple computers fetched video data and did refresh during the unused portion of the cycle but Atari didn't. Otherwise they wouldn't have been able to get away with using 200ns DRAM. --DamageX
 * That's right. Atari ran the CPU at 1.79Mhz and used cycle-stealing DMA. The Apple II ran the 6502 at 1Mhz and used transparent DMA. Mirror Vax 20:32, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Original Atari 400/800 announcement
"The machines were announced in December 1978 as the 400 and 800, "

Everyone everywhere states this, or Nov. 78, or Oct. '78, or Fall 1978, but where is a copy of this announcement? I'd really like to know!

I accept that the machines were introduced at the January 1979 CES. Anyone know the dates in January of that CES?

If no one can turn up a public announcemnt from 1978, it seems that the proper date of public announcement of the 400/800 may actually be January 1979, at the CES.

-hunmanik

title: Talk:Atari 8-bit computers/Archive 1


text:
Paddy Donegan

Patrick Sarsfield Donegan (29 October 1923 – 26 November 2000) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Fisheries from February 1977 to July 1977, Minister for Lands from 1976 to 1977 and Minister for Defence from 1973 to 1976. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1954 to 1957 and 1961 to 1981. He also served as a Senator for the Agricultural Panel from 1957 to 1961.

He was born on 29 October 1923 at Monasterboice, County Louth, son of Thomas Francis Donegan, a publican and farmer, and Rose Ann Donegan (née Butterly). He was educated at a Christian Brothers School in Drogheda, County Louth and at the Vincentian Castleknock College, Dublin.

Donegan was elected as a Fine Gael TD for the Louth constituency at the 1954 general election. He lost his seat at the 1957 general election, but was elected to Seanad Éireann as a Senator for the Agricultural Panel. He regained his Dáil seat at the 1961 general election. In the Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition government which took power after the 1973 general election Donegan was appointed as Minister for Defence.

In October 1976, Donegan made a speech on an official visit to the opening of new kitchen facilities in an army barracks at Mullingar, County Westmeath in which he described as a "thundering disgrace" President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh's refusal to sign the Emergency Powers Bill 1976. Ó Dálaigh had instead exercised his powers under Article 26 of the Constitution to refer it to the Supreme Court. The Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, refused Donegan's resignation, and instead Ó Dálaigh resigned as President of Ireland. The whole episode badly damaged the government's reputation.

In December 1976, Donegan was appointed as Minister for Lands. In February 1977, this office was restructured as the Minister for Fisheries. He served in cabinet until the government lost office after the 1977 general election. Donegan retired from politics at the 1981 general election, and died in 2000. He was buried in his home town of Monasterboice, County Louth.

title: Paddy Donegan


text:
A Special Sesame Street Christmas

A Special Sesame Street Christmas is a 1978 CBS Christmas special, made the same year as the better-known Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. The special was first broadcast on Friday, December 8, 1978, at 8 PM ET on CBS, pre-empting Wonder Woman that week, starring Leslie Uggams.

The special features only three of the Sesame Street Muppets: Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, and Barkley the dog. Barkley is played by gymnast Toby Towson. The puppet used for the special was different from the one used for the series, making him five feet tall, or higher, at times in the special. Mr. Hooper, David, Bob, and Maria are the only humans from the regular cast to make appearances, while most of the regulars are replaced by a large, somewhat all-star cast.

The special features many plot elements that are very loosely tied together, the most important being Oscar as the "Ebenezer Scrooge" on Sesame Street, as a minor takeoff on Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. They include Leslie Uggams thinking lemonade was hot chocolate, singer Anne Murray and a magic eggnog container, Oscar adopting a kitten with a broken leg, and Ethel Merman calling Imogene Coca an idiot. Also appearing are Dick Smothers (only one half of the Smothers Brothers was hired for the special), Henry Fonda and Michael Jackson.

The special was mainly produced for CBS not by the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop), but by Bob Banner Associates, notable for Perry Como's Christmas specials. The producers paid CTW for the use of the set, some of the adult characters, Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, with everything else, including the script and the Barkley costume, provided by Banner staffers.

This program was nominated in the 31st Annual Emmy Awards (1979) under the category of Outstanding Children's Program, losing to Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. Both specials are now available on DVD.

title: A Special Sesame Street Christmas


text:
Marjorie Harris

Marjorie Harris (born 15 September 1937) is a Canadian writer of non-fiction, particularly in gardening.

Early life
Marjorie Kathleen Harris, nee Stibbards, was born in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, the eldest of three children of Bernard and Kay Stibbards. Her father’s work as a Baptist minister led the family to move to many different places over the years, including Goose Bay, Labrador, and Vancouver, British Columbia. During the Second World War, she lived with her mother and siblings in Winnipeg, while her father was overseas as an air force chaplain. She attended McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and graduated with a B.A. in English in 1959.

Writing career
Harris’s writing career began when she began working for Maclean’s magazine in 1966. She went on to be a freelance journalist for Saturday Night (magazine), Chatelaine (magazine), Weekend, The Canadian, Artscanada, Quest, Toronto Life, Financial Post magazine, Flare, and the Toronto Star, writing on topics including design, art, and feminism. In the 1970s, she was associate editor at Chatelaine for several years.

In 1988, she decided to focus her writing on gardening and plants, and began to write articles on the subject for the Toronto Star and Toronto Life. For her first gardening book, The Canadian Gardener, published in 1990, she and photographer Tim Saunders travelled across Canada, talking to dozens of gardeners to get their best advice.

She was editor-in-chief of Gardening Life magazine and wrote regular columns on gardening for The Globe and Mail. Much of her writing has focused on her own garden in midtown Toronto, a narrow plot that she has cultivated carefully to make the most of the space. She strongly promotes ecological gardening principles and growing native plants that are adapted to Canadian conditions.

Broadcasting career
Harris has written and produced documentaries for CBC radio. She had a radio host job at CBC Radio’s Metro Morning as “The Urban Gardener.” For many years, she was a regular guest on This Country in the Morning hosted by Peter Gzowski, a popular CBC radio program. In 2003, she appeared in the Recreating Eden TV series episode “A Perfect Life.” Harris has also created several short videos for YouTube aimed at home gardeners and contributed gardening advice to CBC Life.

Archives
The McMaster university library acquired Marjorie Harris’s archives in July 2005 and March 2006. She was honoured there in 2007 with an exhibition titled “Marjorie Harris’s Garden of the World.”

Awards
McMaster University Distinguished Alumni Award

Personal life
Her first marriage was to television producer and musician Barry Harris; she has two children, Christopher and Jennifer. Currently, she lives in Toronto with her second husband, writer Jack Batten.

title: Marjorie Harris


text:
Dick Spring

Richard Martin Spring (born 29 August 1950) is an Irish former politician. He was a Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Kerry North from 1981 to 2002. He became leader of the Labour Party in 1982, and held this position until 1997. He served as Minister for the Environment (1982–83), Minister for Energy (1983–87) and Minister for Foreign Affairs (1993–Nov. 1994, Dec. 1994–97).

He served as Tánaiste during those three governments. Prior to his political career, Spring was a successful sportsman who played for the Ireland national rugby union team and the Kerry GAA football and hurling teams.

Early life
Spring was born in Tralee, County Kerry in 1950, the son of Dan and Anna Spring (née Laide). He was educated at Cistercian College in Roscrea, County Tipperary, and at Trinity College Dublin, and qualified as a barrister at King's Inns. He is a descendant of the Anglo-Irish Spring family that settled in County Kerry in the late 16th century.

Sporting career
Spring played Gaelic football and hurling for Kerry during the 1970s. He played his club football with the Kerins O'Rahilly's club in Tralee and hurling with Crotta O'Neill's; he also played underage hurling with Austin Stacks and won a minor county championship in 1967. His father Dan won two All-Ireland Senior Football Championships in 1939 and 1940.

He then won rugby union caps for Munster, and lined out for London Irish in the UK. He also was capped for Ireland three times during the 1979 Five Nations Championship, debuting against on 20 January 1979 at Lansdowne Road, and receiving his last international cap on 17 February 1979 against  at Lansdowne Road.

Early career
Spring's political life began in 1979, when he successfully contested the local elections in Tralee. He replaced his father Dan Spring TD on Kerry County Council that year. Spring senior had been a TD for Kerry North since 1943, mostly representing Labour, but he was briefly a member of National Labour.

He was first elected to Dáil Éireann in the general election of 1981 for the constituency of Kerry North, the seat previously held by his father Dan. The Labour Party formed a coalition Government with Fine Gael and Spring was appointed a junior minister on his first day as a Deputy. When Michael O'Leary resigned as party leader after the February 1982 general election, Spring allowed his name to go forward in the leadership contest. He easily defeated Barry Desmond and Michael D. Higgins, but inherited the leadership of a deeply divided party. Spring was a strong opponent of anti-coalition politics and systematically removed Trotskyist activists from the party. Most notably he expelled the Militant Tendency (later Socialist Party), including Joe Higgins and Clare Daly.

Ministerial appointment
Following the November 1982 general election Labour again formed a coalition government with Fine Gael. Spring was appointed Tánaiste and Minister for the Environment. He was closely involved in the negotiations which led to the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985. In 1987, the Labour Party withdrew from the government on budgetary issues, and Fianna Fáil took power in the subsequent election. Spring himself narrowly escaped losing his seat when he was re-elected by just four votes.

Opposition
Under Spring, the Labour Party selected Mary Robinson as its candidate in the 1990 presidential election. Robinson was elected, and this success enhanced the credibility of his leadership of the party. For Spring, his period in opposition coincided, with the exposure of a number of business scandals and gave him the opportunity to shine as a critic of the Fianna Fáil government, led by the controversial Charles Haughey.

"Spring Tide" and return to power
As a result, in the 1992 general election the party increased its number of Dáil seats from 15 to 33, at the time its largest-ever number, an event which is referred to as the "Spring Tide". After the election, no government could be appointed when the new Dáil met. After some weeks of stalemate, Spring decided to enter negotiations with Albert Reynolds—who had taken over as Taoiseach from Haughey at the beginning of the year—over the Christmas period on a new programme for government. The Labour Party then entered a coalition government with Fianna Fáil, and thus returned Reynolds to power. Spring was appointed Tánaiste for the second time, and also Minister for Foreign Affairs. This was approved by a special party conference of over 1,000 delegates at Dublin's National Concert Hall in January 1993, though there were some Labour Party TDs who dissented from the leadership position and wanted a coalition with Fine Gael.

Labour took six of the fifteen cabinet ministries and had much of its election manifesto accepted by Fianna Fáil. New Departments of Equality and Law Reform, and of Arts and Culture, were established. Ethics legislation was to outlaw conflicts of interest. Male homosexual acts were to be decriminalised. Purchase of condoms without medical prescription was to be allowed. An extensive programme of family law reform and provision for a divorce referendum was to be undertaken. Spring insisted on a formalised system of programme managers, and state-paid advisers to push the new Government's policy platform.

However support for the Labour Party declined, particularly as many voters felt betrayed at Labour for going into government with Fianna Fáil. In 1994 the Labour Party performed disastrously in two by-elections, in Dublin South-Central and in Cork North-Central. In both cases the seats were won by Democratic Left. This had grave implications for the electoral health of the party and therefore for the policy of the Labour leadership. Clearly Labour was not doing well electorally, and needed to assess its role in the coalition.

In late 1994, Reynolds wished to appoint the Attorney General, Harry Whelehan, as President of the High Court, but delayed for over a month. Spring had reservations about Whelehan being suitable, owing to the alleged laxity of his handling of a particular child abuse criminal case, involving a disgraced Catholic priest. Reynolds for his part could not understand why Spring was against Whelehan being nominated to the High Court, and yet had no concerns with Whelehan serving as Attorney General. Reynolds became annoyed with Spring's stance, his failure to communicate his reservations, and decided to proceed anyway, whilst calling Spring's bluff. Spring withdrew with his ministers from the cabinet meeting which proceeded to recommend Mr Whelehan's appointment to the President. Immediately afterward, Reynolds implemented the decision.

There followed a rather heated discussion in the Dáil, concerning the appointment. Fine Gael started asking questions about Whelehan's suitability and objectivity. This was supportive of Spring's position. Democratic Left TD Pat Rabbitte then implied that the Catholic hierarchy were instructing Reynolds to appoint Whelehan. Reynolds became irate with this allegation, and responded angrily. Reynolds now realised that Spring was uncompromising about Whelehan. In an effort to remain in government, Reynolds removed Whelehan; however, Spring refused to go back into government with Reynolds. Whelehan served as President of the High Court for one day.

Spring proceeded to withdraw from government. The minority Reynolds government then lost a vote of confidence in the Dáil. Reynolds resigned as party leader, but continued as a caretaker Taoiseach. Spring entered into negotiations with Reynolds' new successor, Bertie Ahern, the Minister for Finance. They agreed to reform the Fianna Fáil-Labour Government in early December. On the eve of that government being formed, The Irish Times published a report that Ahern knew more about an aspect of the scandal that had brought down Reynolds than had previously been known. Spring broke off negotiations with Fianna Fáil, and instead pursued negotiations to form a coalition with Fine Gael and Democratic Left. In December of that year, Labour together with Fine Gael and Democratic Left formed a coalition government, referred to as the Rainbow Coalition, forestalling the possibility of an election. Spring returned to his positions as Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs. This was the first occasion on which a new Irish government was formed without a general election. The previous Fianna Fáil and Labour Programme for Government was substantially adopted by the new government and in return for making John Bruton the Taoiseach, Ruairi Quinn of Labour became the first-ever Labour Minister for Finance.

During his period as Foreign Minister, Spring along with Reynolds was involved in negotiations leading to the Provisional Irish Republican Army and loyalist ceasefires of 1994 and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. With Albert Reynolds, he received warm applause in the Dáil on the announcement of the Downing Street Declaration in December 1993. He also advanced Ireland's membership of the Partnership for Peace, a sister organization of NATO a controversial issue due to Ireland's policy of neutrality.

Resignation as party leader and defeat as TD
In the 1997 general election the Labour Party returned to opposition, winning only 17 of its outgoing 33 seats. This was considered by some to be a punishment by the electorate for the 1993 decision to enter coalition with Fianna Fáil. By others, it was considered a punishment for changing horses at the end of 1994, in order to remain in power. A front-page article in the Irish Independent on the day prior to the election, entitled "Payback Time" and calling on support for Fianna Fáil, had a direct and severe impact on the Labour Party. The Independent newspaper group had revealed many scandals involving Labour ministers abusing the perks of office in the year leading up to the election. The article was controversial, because Spring had taken decisions in office which went against the broader business interests of the Independent's owner Anthony O'Reilly, who was accused by Labour supporters of having attempted to use his paper's political influence to intimidate the Government into favouring companies linked to O'Reilly. The impact of the article is uncertain but the Labour Party suffered significant electoral losses and the outgoing coalition was defeated. In the presidential election of the same year the Labour Party candidate, Adi Roche, came fourth out of five candidates. Following that defeat, Spring resigned as Labour Party leader, having served 15 years — one of the longest-serving party leaders of Ireland.

He remained a TD, being appointed a director in the formerly state owned recently privatized telecommunications company Eircom in 1999. Its initial flotation led to a stock market bubble which affected a large number of small shareholders. It was later revealed that he did not purchase shares in the company.

Spring lost his seat in a shock result at the 2002 general election. He has not sought political office since.

Political legacy
In Irish political circles, the role of foreign minister was considered a poisoned chalice because of the challenge of resolving the delicate problem of how to de-escalate tensions in Northern Ireland, when both sides were wary of Irish governmental policy. Albert Reynolds, and Dick Spring, placed Northern Ireland at the top of the government agenda. Both were helped considerably by the initiative of John Hume, and the understanding built up between Reynolds, and British Prime Minister John Major. Spring devoted considerable energy and resources towards increasing Ireland's international influence and diplomatic ties in UN, in the post Cold War world.

As Foreign Minister, there was much critical comment in the media on Spring's extensive foreign travel. Spring got even harsher criticism, for using the Government Jet to reduce journey times between his home in Tralee and his office in Dublin. However, he did conduct, for the first time, a public consultative process that involved a wide range of citizenry and social groups as well as members of the diaspora, in the re-shaping of Irish foreign policy through the first ever White Paper on Foreign Policy in 1996.

Critics of Dick Spring have described him as a champagne socialist, owing to his choice of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel when staying in New York as Foreign Minister, instead of staying in the then Irish-owned Fitzpatrick Hotel. Spring brought the Irish Labour Party unprecedented exposure and power in government, at a time when the two significantly larger right-of-centre political blocs had precedence in every election.

Subsequent life
Spring later became involved in the Cyprus dispute as a United Nations envoy.

Spring received a directorship appointment to the Irish state telecom enterprise, Eircom, in advance of the scheduled privatisation. As leader of a left of centre party, this was to endorse the privatization, and gain consent from the labour unions to the privatisation plan. However the privatisation was a financial disaster for members of the public, who became ordinary shareholders in the privatisation process. Spring became the target for much of the discontent. Spring's low work involvement, and generous remuneration package, was openly described as 'scandalous', by shareholder advocate Senator Shane Ross. He continues to hold a directorship, with the Financial Services firm FEXCO, based in Killorglin, County Kerry.

Spring lives in Tralee with his wife Kristi (Hutcheson), an American whom he met while working in New York as a bartender. They have three children. His nephew Arthur Spring was a Labour Party TD for Kerry North–West Limerick until March 2016, having first been a councillor for the Tralee electoral area of Kerry County Council. Spring is a member of Ballybunion Golf Club, and has invited former U.S. President Bill Clinton, amongst others, to visit there.

He is a director of Allied Irish Bank and receives annual pension payments of €121,108.

title: Dick Spring