Hi there,

Here's your weekly dose of Irish for Friday, August 13th 2021...

• Today is Friday the 13th! If you have a fear of the number 13 it is known as Triskaidekaphobia. You can thank me if that ever comes up in a quiz haha.
• As you are reading this, I will be returning to Ireland! At long last. I have been unable to return because of Covid restrictions. But I am very much looking forward to seeing my family in Cork!
• I wish you a great weekend!

Five new Irish facts for your Friday

1. You may notice that this week's Irish poem is from W.B Yeats well; his brother Jack Butler Yeats won the first-ever Olympic medal for Ireland in Paris in 1924 for painting. Source Wiki
2. A ‘Standard Drink’ in Ireland has 25% extra alcohol than in the United Kingdom. Although I guess it depends on the bartender, haha. Source Wiki
3. In Ireland, surnames beginning with "Mac" or "O" mean "son of" and "grandson of" in Gaelic.
4. You may have heard of County Limerick, located in Ireland’s southwest. But strangely, there are 10 places in the world also called Limerick! 8 in the United States, one in Ireland and one in Saskatchewan, Canada.
5. Don't believe me? These are the places:

United States:

Limerick - South Carolina

Limerick - Pennsylvania

Limerick - Ohio

Limerick - New York

Limerick - Mississippi

Limerick - Maine

Limerick - Illinois

Limerick - Georgia

Canada:

Limerick - Saskatchewan

Ireland:

County Limerick

Wow!

You can read more Irish facts here.

This week's posts:

☘️ 130+ Unique And Incredible Irish Facts About Ireland From Cork To Belfast

Ireland is an amazing country, and I am sure that these Irish facts will surprise you.

They certainly did for me.

 I update this article weekly and share new Irish …

The post 130+ Unique & Incredible Irish Facts About Ireland From Cork To Belfast appeared first on Irish Around The World.

Click here to read more.

☘️ 25 Uniquely Irish Life Hacks – Flat 7up, Sudocrem, St Anthony

My mother often passed down many Irish life hacks to me.

So I was curious what other people’s Irish life hacks would be.

I posted this post on Facebook, and …

The post 25 Uniquely Irish Life Hacks – Flat 7up, Sudocrem, St Anthony appeared first on Irish Around The World.

Click here to read more.

☘️ 20 Of My Favourite Irish Proverbs And Sayings From Ireland

This is a collection of my personal favourite words of wisdom from old Irish proverbs.

You may have heard some in passing, and you may have heard some for the …

The post 20 Of My Favourite Irish Proverbs And Sayings From Ireland appeared first on Irish Around The World.

☘️ An Irish Drinking Joke…

There is no shortage of Irish jokes on my site.

But this week, I found a lovely clip from Mike Dunafon.

He is a great storyteller, and I love the …

The post An Irish Drinking Joke… appeared first on Irish Around The World.

Click here to read more.

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So what is this week's top Irish poem? 

This week I decided to pick number 2 from the top 100 Irish poems list. Don’t worry; I will keep number 1 until last. If you are new here, I publish a short poem analysis and select a random poem from this list of top 100 Irish poems from the Irish Times. 

This week it is yet another W.B. Yeats poem. I remember learning many of his poems when I was in school. Although I often wished that the school books had an easier to understand analysis. 

I think the first thing to note in this poem is just how much of an impact you can have on the world with such few words. Even my introduction to this poem is longer than Yeat’s poem. 

Many comments from people are that this is one of the most beautiful Irish poems ever written. And, of course, just like anything, it is all subjective. 

So what is the poem “He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven” all about?

Well, if there is one line(or stanza as they call them) I have not forgotten since school, it is the final line in this poem:

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

With a title such as cloths of heaven, you might be thinking this is a poem related to death. But it is essentially a poem about Maud Gonne, a woman he loved for most of his life, although she did not return his feelings.

The poem appeared in the 1984 movie 84 Charing Cross Road. In fact, I managed to find the exact scene from the film. The great Anthony Hopkins reads it.

He starts reading the poem at the 1 minute 10-second mark. As I can't embed the video on email, you can watch it on Youtube here.

Okay, so I have still haven’t described what the poem is about. Don’t worry, I shall explain it. 

So essentially, the “Cloths of Heaven” mentioned in the first line are the main theme of this poem. Yeats is saying that he is poor, and no matter what he has, he feels that he does not have enough to win her heart. A very touching poem where he is terrified that his dream of her love will be destroyed at any time. 

As he says

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

The poem also doesn’t have any rhythm to it, which I imagine is on purpose to put more emphasis on his love for her. 

So let’s get to the poem!

He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven (1899)

W.B. Yeats

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I hope you enjoyed my simple explanation of this incredible poem. No doubt you can do further reading on this. There is plenty out there. 

This week's joke: Buying a ring for a lovely lady

An older, white-haired man walked into a jewellery store one Friday evening with a beautiful young gal at his side.

He told the jeweller he was looking for a special ring for his girlfriend.

The jeweller looked through his stock, brought out a $5,000 ring and showed it to him.

The old man said, “I don’t think you understand; I want something very special.”

At that statement, the jeweller went to his special stock and brought another ring over.

“Here’s a stunning ring at only €40,000,” the jeweller said.

The young lady’s eyes sparkled, and her whole body trembled with excitement.

The old man seeing this, said, “We’ll take it.”

The jeweller asked how payment would be made and the old man stated by check.

“Now I know you need to make sure the check is good, so I’ll write it now, and you can call the bank on Monday to verify the funds. I’ll pick the ring up Monday afternoon,” he said.

Monday morning, a very teed-off jeweller phoned the old man. “There’s no money in that account.”

“I know”, said the old man, “but can you imagine the weekend I had?”

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About the founder of Irish Around The World: 

Okay, some of you might be wondering.

Just who runs this Irish Around The World website?? 

Or maybe you don't care, haha. 

My name is Stephen Palmer from Co. Cork and I have been involved in many Irish related projects over the years. 

While it may seem this website is run by a whole team of highly skilled Irishmen, it is just run by myself. 

So I want to thank you again for taking the time to subscribe and being a part of the community. 

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.

But I felt that the websites out there did not connect the people to the information. Instead, they just published daily articles regardless if people cared about them or not. 

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It expanded to a group also called Irish Around The World, now with over 70k members!

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Have a great day! 

All the best, 

Stephen Palmer

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