Hi there,

Here's your weekly dose of Irish for June 17th 2022...

• Did you know? Puck Fair is one of Ireland's oldest fairs. It takes place annually for three days on the 10th, 11th and 12th of August in Killorglin, County Kerry.  A goat is crowned king for three days and hoisted on a 40-foot pedestal.  
• Also, The oldest hotel in Ireland is in Co. Wicklow. The Woodenbridge Hotel opened in 1608. 

• Irish wisdom: A misty winter brings a pleasant spring, a pleasant winter a misty spring.

Latest updates:

• After the many replies last week, it seems that it was a mix between Friday and Saturday for the weekly dose. So I guess I will play it week by week. I hope you have a great weekend wherever you are! I am still in Spain, back in Ireland next week. Today is 37 degrees! 🥵🥵Far too hot for an Irishman. So I am hiding inside writing this weekly dose. Yesterday I only made it to the beach at 7 pm, and it was still 28 degrees.
• Do you send money abroad often? Sign up with OFX here and get free transfers for life over $1000! They are my number 1 recommended money transfer company, and I have used them since 2013. They work worldwide! The best rates you will find online and fantastic support. Plus with the link above you will get an even lower rate than normal.

This week's posts:

😎 Irish Poem: Christmas Day, Paul Durcan – Full Poem And About

At the time of writing this poem, it is June, and this week I have picked a poem titled Christmas Day by Paul Durcan.

The Irish Poem: Christmas Day, Paul Durcan – Full Poem And About appeared first on Irish Around The World.

Click here to read more.

🐕 Irish Wolfhound – 15 Things You Need To Know About This Gentle Giant

One of the most searched dog term on the internet the Irish Wolfhound.

This remarkable dog often claims the award for the most giant dogs in the world!

Today I am …

The post Irish Wolfhound – 15 Things You Need To Know About This Gentle Giant 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.

Click here to read more.

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This week's Irish jokes

This week I found this funny paragraph about "What Is An Irishman."

It was very entertaining, so I said I would share it.

WHAT IS AN IRISHMAN

An Irishman is a man who?

May not believe there is a God

but is darn sure of the infallibility of the Pope...

Won't eat meat on Friday,

but will drink Jameson for breakfast.....

Has great respect for the truth,

which he uses in emergencies...

Sees things not as they are

but the way they never will be.....

Cries at sad movies,

but cheers in battle...

Hates the English,

but reserves his cruelty for his countrymen...

Gets more Irish the further he gets from Ireland.....

Believes in civil rights,

but not in his neighbourhood...

Believes to forgive is divine,

therefore doesn't exercise it himself...

Loves religion for its own sake,

but also because it makes it so

inconvenient for his neighbours...

Scorns money,

but worships those who have it...

Considers any Irishman who

achieves success to be a traitor...

So what is this week's top Irish poem?

At the time of writing this poem, it is June, and this week I have picked a poem titled Christmas Day by Paul Durcan. His poem comes in at number 84 on the top 100 Irish poems list. Irish poet Paul Durcan was born in 1944. He has won the Patrick Kavanagh Award (1974) and the Whitbread Poetry Prize (1990). This is a powerful Irish poem about Christmas day and many aspects of loneliness and sorrow. Paul Durcan narrates in the first person a Christmas spent with another friend who is on his own, Frank. The poem flows along easily and gently through the pre-Christmas and Christmas events.

In case you are wondering, Acapulco is a beach resort town on Mexico's Pacific coast set on a large bay backed by high-rises and the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, made famous by the jet set in the 1950s and ’60s. It featured the second paragraph, 'What is your idea of Heaven? –

Snorkelling in Acapulco.'

Christmas Day

There was a young widow in black

In Glasnevin Cemetery. I heard her

Before I saw her – the tapping

On the tarmacadam of her high heels.

I spun around and I saw her

Hurdling towards me across the headstones,

Her yellow hair tucked into her black suede jacket,

Her blue mini-skirt more daring than a fig leaf,

The white ponies of her teeth

Riding red lipstick.

As we were about to pass

We stopped and stared

And she smiled and I gazed

Into the waterfall of her eyes

Waiting for it to stop

Thinking that she was a clock

But she was not a clock –

She was a woman,

A preoccupied soul.

Is there a role

For my twenty-three-year-old son?

She said: ‘Have you got the time?’

I said: ‘It is three o’clock.’

She said – as if I had invented time –

With dismay: ‘Is it three o’clock?’

And I wanted to change my mind and say

That there was no time today,

That Christmas Day is a timeless day.

Instead I repeated: ‘It is three o’clock’

And she walked on out of my life

Up the aisle under the yews

Towards the Parnell altar stone.

When she was out of earshot I said to her:

‘May I hold your hand?’

The worst thing about loneliness

Is not loneliness.

The worst thing about loneliness

Is selfishness:

The savagery of selfishness.

Why do computer programmers always answer

When asked in questionnaires

In Sunday newspapers

What is your idea of Heaven? –

Snorkelling in Acapulco.

Why do they never say

What I would say?

My idea of Heaven as a man

Is to be lying on my back

Smiling up into the eyes of a woman,

Her face latticed by her hair,

Her shoulders braced

As she squats in her starting blocks.

She leaps out of her blocks

To race 100 metres

Over low hurdles

In 10.8 seconds

While I lie under her

Clinging to her

And she spits on my shoulder –

There! –

And whinnies and dozes

And then she straightens the pillows

And the blankets, folds me up,

All my parts,

And puts me away in her violin case

Until the next time she decides

To go to hounds and cross over the river

To the other side.

Christmas Day is not as good as Good Friday.

Which would you prefer to be able to say:

Happy Christmas or Good Friday?

On Christmas Day man is born

But on Good Friday

Man goes one better – man dies

For his woman!

The ethical kiss!

Christmas Day is Happy

But Good Friday is Good.

What did you think about this powerful Irish poem?

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