Have I ever mentioned that I am of Irish decent?.. Yeah.... that's what I thought.Yes, Begosh and Begorrah, (a phrase that a real Irishman would never use) my maiden name is one you would recognize as infinitely IRISH. As my blog is "somewhat" anonymous, I will just say that the name traces back to a royal Gaelic family that can be researched as far back as the 3rd century BC. Another nugget of info associated with my name is the fact the Gaelic translation is son (I am assuming that you understand that the Mac, Mc or O in the front part of an Irish name means son or grandson) of "a unique choice". So my name is a variation of "son of an oddball". I can only assume that 2300 years ago give or take a century, one of my ancient relatives said "Sweet Jaysis, laddie, the lass is a odd one she is." (Be sure to read that with the best possible brogue you can muster. You will know you have it right when no one on earth could possibly understand what you are saying.)
My best guess is that there have been plenty of other odd choices within my ancestry since the 3rd century BC. Actually, the word "plenty" might be an understatement. How about the word "plethora"?
That might, also, explain how my peeps managed to travel so far away from being royal. ( I am assuming that being a royal PITA doesn't count ?)
Thought Number One: I Learned Something New About My Ancestry
Yesterday, I happened to be watching the movie, A Thing Called Love. The movie, itself, isn't anything to write home about but it was the last movie that River Phoenix made prior to his death. Oh and it has Sandra Bullock in it...which is usually a good thing. She couldn't save this particular movie.
There is a scene in that movie that River asks Samantha Mathis (who was his real life girlfriend) to marry him by telling her about an old Irish custom. The custom was that one could marry for a year and a day and if things weren't working out they could come back to the place they got married and UNDO the marriage. Easy-Peasy..no questions asked...no papers to file. DONE!
Now why hadn't I heard about this before? Going into a marriage with an idea that it doesn't have to last more than a year and a day if you should have a change of heart. I realize, that by today's celebrities' standards maybe a year and a day is a long lasting marriage but the "no lawyer needed" part is a bonus if you are looking to bail. Plus, I am going out on a limb here, but don't most marriages start with the idea that it will last for more than a year. (OK, maybe not if your are Britney Spears or any of the Kardashians.)
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| Who knew Crabby Pants could Irish Step dance? |
Has anyone heard of this fall festival? Maybe not because there are so many spellings and names for this August 1st festival...Lughnasdh, Lunasa, Lammas.... it gets quite confusing. Historically, around the time of early Christianity, my Irish (Gaelic) ancestors were busy hooking up for copiously short periods of time through a ceremony called handfasting. Couples could go to this festival on August 1st and participate in the handfasting ceremony and try things out for a year and a day. If they weren't feeling the love after the year and a day, they just went back to where they got handfasted...and got unhitched.
As long as I was reading about my Irish heritage, I came across some other interesting facts.
Did you know:
- That in 1878 John Holland invented the submarine. (How odd that a man named Holland was an Irishman...don't you think? He would of had a lot more fun had he moved to Holland and passed himself off as someone important.)
- That in 1661 Robert Boyle came up with the foundation of modern chemistry with his book Sceptical Chymist. (Was he a bad speller? Was he a skeptic?...These things I am not sure about.)
- That in 1680 Sir Hans Sloan, an Irish physician was in Jamaica and discovered that mixing cocoa with milk developed a tasty beverage. He brought his recipe back to Europe and sold it as a medicine to pharmacies. (probably wasn't marketed as the first weight loss drug)
AND the most famous of all Irish products...that's right Guinness.
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| Graphic is from GoIreland.com |
Thought Number Two: Stereotypes Need Not Apply Here
Speaking of Guinness...there are certain stereotypes that go with being Irish. While some are generally OK, some are less than complimentary. For example: Curly hair, freckles, and being able to drink your weight in alcohol.
Yes, my heritage has short-changed me. Oh, I got the curly hair and even a few freckles but the ability to drink myself into a situation that would require a Paddy Wagon...a conveyance specifically designed to haul rowdy Irishmen to jail, has escaped me.
This is the greatest cosmic joke ever played on a person. I am an Irishman that can't drink a drop of alcohol.
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| Yes, my liver absolutely wears a bow. |
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50 comments:
Actually, Leonardo da Vinci drew designs for a submarine in the Fifteenth century and a sub named The Turtle was employed during the American Revolutionary War. Please forgive me for correcting you, Miss Crabby Pants. You know I'm afraid of you.
No worries, correct away. I got my information off the Internet and we all know that doesn't make it so. The articles say that Holland invented the first modern submarines that were commission into both the British and U.S. Navies and he held the patents on the technology he used. Too bad da Vinci wasn't around to hire a good Intellectual Property Lawyer.
Handfasting and the festival of Lughnasa are still living traditions in pagan spirituality. My Rare One and I once attended a beautiful handfasting ceremony here in Edmonton, although the couple also got legally married by a UU minister at the same time. Guess they weren't taking the "test marriage" route, strictly speaking.
Irish and sober? Sux to be you.
I did see that was still a valid ritual in several of the articles I read. I actually had started typing a bit about it but it was getting long winded. (not necessarily unusual in my posts). Most of the articles said that handfasting rituals have been preformed in pagan, Wicca and Christian ceremonies over the years. I hadn't heard of any of this so it was interesting learning something new.
I am married to an Irish lad. With once curly hair, so sadly, mostly gone ;( So, I really enjoyed this one. A famous Irish saying : We'll all be dead in the mor'ng". Really. Which contrasts nicely to "rise and sun, the Good lord loves ya" Both I have heard too many times to mention.
So many Irish songs are depressing beyond description. Like Brendon on the More( aka the bog dunes) Why? Well, Have'n you been to Ireland, lass? If'n you had, well then you sur'n know why- no sun for days at a time! What impresses me most is that you can trace your heritage all the way back to 3rd BC? Roman times? No picture of your "royal' family descendent reclining while being fed grapes by a scantly dressed slave girl? Okay, the Irish dancing one is lovely too, although Irish dancing Destroys feet. Best'n stay away from that, lass.
Ah, do you wear a kilt and participate in any of those Highland games like throwing a telephone pole? We just went to the games here in North Cackalacky and had a blast. Of course there WAS lots of Guiness involved.
Those Irish really have a knack for sayings huh? " We'll all be dead in the morning"..... I swear skepticism is built into the DNA of a lot of Irishmen. Of course, that is unfair to generalize, there are plenty of fun, happy Irish as well. My family is about 50/50. The happy one's tend to drink a bit more than the unhappy ones.
You are right about how many of the Irish songs are depressing which is odd when you contrast it to how "happy" their dances are. While they do destroy the feet, they are so fun to watch while the dancers can still do them. I guess at some point I will have to draw Crabby Pants with orthopedic shoes.
While my family name goes really far back, I can only trace my families lineage back to the 1700's. Who begat who prior to that is anyone's guess. The pictures I have show a lot of surly looking people. (again...the skepticism) Maybe that's why they started drinking.
No my families sport was the drinking part....not the athletic part. We are pretty far removed from Ireland. My great-great grandfather immigrated here so my family has had time to become part of the goo that is the melting pot. My husband is Dutch and we have had closer ties to his ethnic background than mine.
I've got Irish as well (with about seven other things, no blarney) and I appreciate the trivia! Leave it to one of ours to market chocolate milk as medicine... :) I didn't know about the meaning of Mc and Mac.
Oops, hit send too soon. The last part of my post was meant to include: But my family's Irish name (Huggins) has no Mc or Mac, so does that mean we're all bastards? :)
Oh, McCheryl be careful searching on handfasting. A wee bit of typo and you'll be deep in the devil's video clips.
Yer Robert Boyle has beautiful curls, do you think he concocted a special chemical for his do?
My wife is Irish and over the next few days the clan is coming to town. I might suggest riverdancing off a Chicago river bridge.
For the love of all things Irish..................I have no idea why I said that it just popped out..............lol
You didn't mention the Irish temper my mum will say when she is getting mad that we are getting her Irish up..............
Something tells me that if you research hand fasting you would see a lot of things you can't unsee... Just sayin' lol. I think it's really awesome you can trace your heritage so far back! It's a shame you can't drink though.. Wonder if its the alcohol itself or the types....
And seriously... The Irish discovered chocolate milk? And Guinness... Great heritage!
--Trina
I think the Irish must have the market on creating beverages, Irish Whiskey, Guinness and Chocolate Milk. There probably are a few more in there as will.
I am pretty sure that doesn't mean you are bastards. Probably your clan was nice enough people weren't going around saying "those people are real sons of [blank]. You will laugh out loud when I tell you what my last name was. As I still have your email address I am sending it to you. It's just too crazy.
Hi Cheryl,
Tracing you heritage is really neat, mine has been traced back a ways and it's really neat to know that you are family with Lincoln. Lol
Guess an Irish car bomb is out of the question though.
Clicks!
Wolf
I am Irish also! Cheers!
McCheryl...hahaha! You might be right about Googling handfasting but luckily I didn't misspell it and nothing of a questionable nature came onto my screen.
As for the curls, people that have curly hair normally hate it so if he invented a chemical, I would think he would of gone for a straightener.
Oh, the Irish are coming are they? Sound like a party may be heading your way. Let's not have any Riverdancing of the sort that leads to in-laws going under for the third count.
In my original post before I cleaned it up, I did mention the stereotype of quick tempers. I changed it as I might be insulting half of my relatives. I am not the best example of Irish on that either. I don't have much of a temper.
Lisleman mentioned that in his comment too. Yes, I suppose that could bring up some questionable websites but luckily I only read two that were about the marriage for a year and a day. Wheewww...got lucky that I didn't have to see any more men's private parts pics. They are all over the Internet this week thanks to Weiner.
With some people that have Alcohol Intolerance it's just certain alcohol, usually red wine. With me...I have had reactions to all kinds of things so I choose not to ever drink any. Better safe than sorry.
Was Lincoln Irish? His crazy wife Mary Todd was Irish which is more in the vein of my ancestors, I am sure.
Yes, it is safe to say any drink that has Irish whiskey, Baily's Irish Creme and Guinness would kill me....but then maybe I would be so sick that I would want to die anyway.
Sláinte...I find the Irish history pretty fascinating really. Last year when my Grandmother died, (she was 100 at the time) I did some research about her family and my Grandpa's family. Both were from Ireland. I found out a lot about the first migration of the nearly million Irish during the famine of Ireland. We Irish came from sturdy stock it turns out.
I have more Irish in me than German or Italian... guess the red hair and my daughters red gives that away? Oh and the freckles. :) And curly hair. I once won a tequila shot game with a bunch of guys. But if i tried that today? Forget about it!
You know what I honestly think? The marriage thing? One year and a day? I think couples should be given a free "out" after year three or five. I'm just sayin. :)
You do look Irish with that beautiful curly red hair. I never could drink very much without getting sick but it got really bad by the time I was in my 30s.
HMMM...I am not sure about the free out. Sometimes if people stick it out through the rough patch it all comes together again. Of course, some people just aren't good together and that is a whole other matter. I would never want someone to be stuck in a bad marriage.
Saw this on Facebook today and it seemed relevant:
An Irishman's Philosophy
There are only two things to worry about:
Either you are well or you are sick.
If you are sick,
Then there are only two things to worry about:
Either you will get well or you will die.
If you get well,
Then there are only two things to worry about:
Either you will go to heaven or hell.
If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about.
But if you go to hell,
You'll be so damn busy shaking hands with friends
You won't have time to worry!
Fun post !!!
I love that!!! The fact you found it on Facebook, nearly makes me want to check in over at my FB account that gets woefully ignored most of the time. Oh wait...I'll go check it now...
I'm back, thanks for waiting.
It could be said that you just have some friends that are slightly more discriminating about what they post. This is what my friends post.
Another with Irish background that has not a bit of tolerance for booze... Meh. I had heard of Lammas, but didn't realize it was the year and a day bit. Like you, some would consider that a very long marriage!
Cat
Isn't it amazing how many Irish and part Irish there are. Such a small country in relationship to the world but there seems to be a whole lotta Irish. Irish must be rather good at procreating.
Meh...ditto. I have been told by others how they would be devestated without wine or martinis...or whatever...Nah. I could care less. It hasn't effected my life in any significant way. The worst of it is that being the "sober one" at a party. It isn't as fun as one might think.
Greg jokingly says he is the worst Irishman because he can't take but a couple of sips of alcohol before feeling it. Lol. Gregory Patrick O'Brien, he's Irish alright. My parents recently came back from Ireland. Before they left, Mom did a trace on the family tree and found out we are related to the O'Reilly's. I think it's neat :) I didn't know about the divorce thing - how .. simple! But I did read somewhere that if a couple "states they are married" in Ireland, then they are by law, without the hum drum of a wedding! I thought that couldn't be, but now reading the divorce part, maybe so?
Well as it turns out he isn't alone. I have been bedridden 3 days over one glass of red wine. You definitely have some very Irish names in your family. There are so many interesting stories about Irish families and how they came to be into the U.S.
I hadn't hear about the handfasting ceremony but I guess whether they require a marriage license or not, people can find a way to get un-hitched.
Ah, too bad you can't enjoy the fruit of the vine, or spirits or brew
Especially the fruit of the vine. Wine is the worst. Never fear, I don't miss what I can't have.
That tradition of "handfasting" sounds fascinating. While it sounds like a short amount of time, it can feel never-ending when there's tension. [My marriage only lasted a year and a month -- one of the slowest, most painstaking years of my life.]
Your non-drinking habits probably make you the healthiest Irish person in the world.
Be well, Cheryl.
xoRobyn
I wrote a song about how drinking Guiness could turn you Irish. Must revisit that...
I can only imagine how awful it would be to be in a really bad marriage for any amount of time. I know people that tell me the day they got divorced was far happier than the day they got married.
Yes,I am a very healthy person up to this point. [knock on wood] My liver with it's cute little bow owes me.
Hahaha..That would explain why there are so many Irish or part-Irish people out there. I would think the Guiness company would love that song.
It was always intended as a song for St Patrick's Day...
Meanwhile, I'm a thin Spaniard that can drink like an Irishman. I've never been out-drunk. Ever. Not that I really have to try. I just don't get drunk.
Also, not only is Guinness tasty, it's also one of the lowest calorie beers you can get. So put down that Miller Lite next time you think you're doing your body a favor... the Guinness tastes better AND it's better for you.
Even when I was young and could still drink a limited amount of alcohol, I never got drunk either. Getting sick comes before getting drunk.
I will have to take your word about the taste and advantages of Guiness. If I were to drink one, I would look and act pretty much like the girl in the Exorcist. Projectile vomiting doesn't become me so I try to limit it. Nothing says "let's be friendsl" quite like vomiting onto a person.
That sounds like a fun song for St. Patrick's Day. I might be a bit biased as I have a Mc maiden name but St. Pat's Day is a great day for having some fun.
Indeed! In fact, in England, more happens on St Patrick's Day than happens on St George's Day! People keep complaining about it, but nothing happens - typically English! :-)
Kind of disappointed that handfasting wasn't as dirty as I expected. Many years ago, I spent a month working in Ireland and Northern Ireland. I would salute the Guinness truck drivers as they drove by and did my best to improve their sales. Ironically, all of the Irish co-workers drank Budweiser. Guess it was their trendy import. But they did their best to reinforce the drunken Irish stereotype. But then, we were all young, single and stupid at the time.
I don't think you are along on that, Dexter. Seems there is something a bit skeezy about the word that implies something more than living together for a year and a day (that extra day surely has some significance).
As a distant relative of the Guinesses, a whole lotta my family has paid homage to those that have gone before them...in a BIG way. Funny about the Irish drinking American beer....but you are right, of course, to them it's an import. As I can't drink and have no basis of reference, I have no idea what good beer vs bad beer is but it all smells horrible. I am sure if I end up in a place with my dead relatives I am going to be the black sheep of the family. I am hopeful that "blackness" isn't from being charbroiled.
I too have some Irish heritage although certainly not royalty as my Mother's maiden name was Tanner (O'Tanner) in Ireland. Guess what the Tanners did.
I also cannot drink alcohol for I inherited IBS from the other side of the family and alcohol and IBS don't mix well. Can you say "Depends" as in sealed undergarments.
With our similar heritages and both of us being brilliant writers, could we be long lost cousins? I believe its a possibility but, I confess, I'm too lazy to do anything about it.
Take care cousin.
I would like to know how many gallons of vomit I spewed as a young and dumb U.S. Marine. Took me 10 years to figure out that drinking alcohol wasn't the best idea for me.
Aren't all Irish related in some way. I think Ireland started with just a couple of families and they strarted begetting and begatting. There is the slight possiblity that many of our family trees are minus a few branches.
Yes, my maiden name is Mc in front of a very famous brewery product...I am either the son (daughter actually) of a drunk or the son (again daughter) of a brewer who may or may not of been a drunk.
I don't blame you in the slightest for not getting involved in tracking down anything with geneology. I worked on it for a while and it turns out the Irish keep naming their children Andrew, James, John etc. Dozens and dozens of relatives with the same name. Too confusing. But I am sure you are right about our being related, cousin.
10 years isn't so bad. I know some people that haven't figured that out in a lifetime.
As as long time single person - if I ever were to get married I like the "lets see how it goes for a year and a day, and if it's terrible we're free to walk away" maneuver.
"There are certain stereotypes that go with being Irish. While some are generally OK, some are less than complimentary. For example: Curly hair, freckles, and being able to drink your weight in alcohol." - My son's father is Irish and he's ALL OF THOSE THINGS as well!
The curly and hair and freckles, I consider a big plus. You're good looking kid proves my point. As for the being able to drink one's own weight...that can be good or bad depending it the person is a funny drunk or a mean drunk. Then it gets a bit dicey.
True. Luckily, my son's father is a VERY happy drinker but I could NEVER keep up with him!
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