Your weekly dose of Irish ☘️✈️
Jan 21, 2022 1:01 pm
Hi there,
Here's your weekly dose of Irish for Friday, January 21st 2022...
Irish Blessing - “May peace and plenty be the first to lift the latch to your door, and happiness be your guest today and evermore.”
Did you know? - There are NO FEMALE Leprechauns! It might sound strange, but throughout Irish history, all images and stories are of male Leprechauns.
Latest updates:
- A much more productive week for me. I just published the incredible story about the two Irish kids aged 10 and 13 who travelled all the way from Dublin to New York on their own in 1985! A crazy story. Read it here.
- I have updated my Celtic Symbols article. You can learn all about the different types of Celtic Symbols here.
- I wish you all a fantastic weekend wherever you are in the world!
It is only 55 days until St Patrick's day 2022! ☘️
This week's posts:
☘️ The True Story Of Two Dublin Boy’s Who Ran Away To New York In 1985
First of all, move over “home alone” I have a unique story to share with you today.
Back in 1985, the two Irish kids aged 10 and 13 managed …
The post The True Story Of Two Dublin Boy’s Who Ran Away To New York In 1985 appeared first on Irish Around The World.
☘️ The World’s Top 10 Most Valuable Passports In 2022
If the last two years have taught us anything, it is that having one of the most valuable passports certainly helps.
Now you might be saying, what do I mean …
The post The World’s Top 10 Most Valuable Passports In 2022 appeared first on Irish Around The World.
☘️ Great Irish Poem: Stony Grey Soil, by Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh is back once again for another top Irish poem.
This one ranks in the top 10. It is coming in at number 9; wow.
The post-Great Irish Poem: Stony Grey Soil, by Patrick Kavanagh, appeared first on Irish Around The World.
☘️ Top 20 Celtic Symbols And Their Meanings Explained – Irish Around The World
For centuries, Celtic symbols and signs held incredible power for the ancient Celts in every way of life.
The word “Celtic” refers to people who lived in Britain and Western …
The post Top 20 Celtic Symbols And Their Meanings Explained – Irish Around The World appeared first on Irish Around The World.
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This week's Irish joke
Sean had long heard of the story of a family tradition. It seems that his father, his grandfather, and his great grandfather, had all been able to walk on water on their 48th birthday. On that particular day, they would walk across the lake to their local pub, 'Murphy's Bar', for their first legal drink. So when Sean's 18th birthday arrived, he and his friend Mick took a boat, rowed out to the middle of the lake, and Sean stepped out of the boat. He immediately sank and nearly drowned. He was only saved by Mick, who managed to pull him back into the boat.
Furious and confused, he went to see his grandmother and said, "Gran 'tis my 18th birthday. So why can't I walk across the water, like my father, me grandfather, and his father before him?" Grandma looked deep into Sean's troubled eyes, looked at him with kind, benevolent eyes and said,
"Because they were all born in January, and the lake was frozen over; you were born in August, ye fecking eejit!!"
So what is this week's top Irish poem?
Patrick Kavanagh is back once again for another top Irish poem. This one ranks in the top 10. Coming in at number 9, wow.
You can read Kavanagh’s other Irish poems on the list here.
You have to admit that Kavanagh is one the greatest of all Irish poets.
Unlike Yeats, who romanticised the Irish peasantry to almost ridiculously patronising heights; Kavanagh, (himself a poor Irish farmer), saw this way of life for what it really was.
As with so many of his other poems, this use of imagery really takes you to the place. The poem “Stony Grey Soil” perfectly reflects what real life was like for the Irish peasantry.
Kavanagh certainly has earned his title as a rural man. After all, he spent the first half of his life farming ‘the stony grey soil’ of his native Monaghan.
The very title, ‘Stony Grey Soil’ suggests a hard and unimaginative world. This, of course, is not an ideal environment for a poet.
But what I like about this poem is that Kavanagh says that the tough life made him who he is today. It was because of this unimaginative world that he became the person he did. And after all, is that not the case for all of us in life?
Enjoy this wonderful Irish poem. Also if you do like this poem then I recommend you also read “Spraying By The Potatoes” by Patrick Kavanagh.
I picked this idyllic picture for this poem:
STONY GREY SOIL
O stony grey soil of Monaghan
The laugh from my love you thieved;
You took the gay child of my passion
And gave me your clod-conceived.
You clogged the feet of my boyhood
And I believed that my stumble
Had the poise and stride of Apollo
And his voice my thick tongued mumble.
You told me the plough was immortal!
O green-life conquering plough!
The mandril stained, your coulter blunted
In the smooth lea-field of my brow.
You sang on steaming dunghills
A song of cowards' brood,
You perfumed my clothes with weasel itch,
You fed me on swinish food
You flung a ditch on my vision
Of beauty, love and truth.
O stony grey soil of Monaghan
You burgled my bank of youth!
Lost the long hours of pleasure
All the women that love young men.
O can I stilll stroke the monster's back
Or write with unpoisoned pen.
His name in these lonely verses
Or mention the dark fields where
The first gay flight of my lyric
Got caught in a peasant's prayer.
Mullahinsa, Drummeril, Black Shanco-
Wherever I turn I see
In the stony grey soil of Monaghan
Dead loves that were born for me.
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Okay, some of you might be wondering.
Just who runs this Irish Around The World website??
Or maybe you don't care, haha.
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So how did you start a website about Irish people around the world Stephen?
Where it all began:
I created a website in 2013 to help Irish people who are moving to Australia and recently a new group to help Irish ex-pats who are returning to Ireland.
I have always enjoyed reading about Irish heritage and how connected Irish people are around the world.
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