Hi there,

Here's your weekly dose of Irish for Friday, August 20th 2021...

• Well, a quiet work week for me. I arrived back home in Cork last week and have been very busy catching up with family and friends. Great to be back in Ireland, but I think I have missed the best of the summer as it has been raining the past few days, haha. In fact, I saw this image on Facebook and had to laugh:
• Last week I shared there are 10 places in the world also called Limerick(after Co. Limerick in Ireland), and thanks to Geraldine, who told me I forgot another one! With a population of 45, Limerick in NSW Australia.
• This week I have put seven things you might not know about Co. Galway in Ireland.

7 things you might not know about Co. Galway

The lovely County Galway is located on Ireland’s west coast, sits where the River Corrib meets the Atlantic Ocean.

1. Speaking of the River Corrib, did you know that it is the fastest flowing river in all of Europe. In full flow, it can carry a person at up to three metres a second! Wow. Source Irish Times
2. The longest name in Ireland is in Co. Galway. Muckanaghederdauhaulia – which means “piggery between two briny places” – is a 470-acre townland located in Kilcummin Civil Parish in County Galway.
3. Galway is the home of the Claddagh ring and authentic Irish Aran sweaters.
4. The Aran Islands, probably Ireland’s most famous islands, are located just off the coast of Galway. The three islands – Inishmore, Inishmaan and Inisheer – are amazing places to see in Ireland.
5. What are Aran island sweaters? Aran is a style of sweater that takes its name from the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. Often known as a Fisherman sweater, they are distinguished by their use of complex textured stitch patterns, several of which are combined to create a single garment. Don't they look lovely and warm!
6. Alice Perry from Galway was the first woman in Britain or Ireland to be awarded an engineering degree in 1904. Well done, Alice!
7. Galway also is home to the incredible Connemara marble. It is only about 600 million years old! It is typically greenish in colour. The distinct green colour of the middle slab is a result of an abundance of serpentine minerals.

You can read more Irish facts here.

This week's posts:

☘️ September 1913, by W. B. Yeats Including Analysis

This week we are going all the back to September 1913. This lovely Irish poem ranks number 17 in the top 100 Irish poems written halfway through W.B Yeat’s life. He …

Yeats Including Analysis appeared first on Irish Around The World.

Click here to read more.

☘️ Top 10 Best Things To Do In Galway And Places To See

There is a lot of amazing things one can do in Galway.

Galway, along with Cork, Dublin, Belfast and Killarney, is one of the most popular places to visit in Ireland.

The post Top 10 Best Things To Do In Galway And Places To See appeared first on Irish Around The World.

Click here to read more.

☘️ 130+ Unique & 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.

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So what is this week's top Irish poem? 

This week we are going all the back to September 1913. This lovely Irish poem ranks number 17 in the top 100 Irish poems written halfway through W.B Yeat’s life. He speaks mainly about what life was like then and his detestation of the middle classes whilst glorifying figures such as John O’Leary.

Who was John O’Leary? John O’Leary (1830-1907) was an Irish patriot who was sentenced to twenty years of penal servitude in 1865 (although he was freed four years after his conviction, on condition that he didn’t return to Ireland until the twenty years of his agreed sentence had passed, so he became an exile). Yeats knew O’Leary, who acted as a sort of mentor and father figure to Yeats.

The poem ends on a solemn note.

Yeats appears to give up hope for a return to the past that brings with it any significance. Enjoy this fantastic Irish poem. 

 September 1913

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

What need you, being come to sense,

But fumble in a greasy till

And add the halfpence to the pence

And prayer to shivering prayer, until

You have dried the marrow from the bone;

For men were born to pray and save:

Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,

It’s with O’Leary in the grave.

Yet they were of a different kind,

The names that stilled your childish play,

They have gone about the world like wind,

But little time had they to pray

For whom the hangman’s rope was spun,

And what, God help us, could they save?

Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,

It’s with O’Leary in the grave.

Was it for this the wild geese spread

The grey wing upon every tide;

For this that all that blood was shed,

For this Edward Fitzgerald died,

And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone,

All that delirium of the brave?

Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,

It’s with O’Leary in the grave.

Yet could we turn the years again,

And call those exiles as they were

In all their loneliness and pain,

You’d cry, ‘Some woman’s yellow hair

Has maddened every mother’s son’:

They weighed so lightly what they gave.

But let them be, they’re dead and gone,

They’re with O’Leary in the grave.

This week's joke:

I am a Seenager. (Senior teenager)

• I have everything that I wanted as a teenager, only 60 years later.
• I don’t have to go to school or work.
• I get an allowance every month.
• I have my own pad.
• I don’t have a curfew.
• I have a driver’s license and my own car.
• The people I hang around with are not scared of getting pregnant, and I don’t have acne. Life is great.
• I changed my car horn to gunshot sounds. People get out of the way much faster now.
• Gone are the days when girls used to cook like their mothers. Now they drink like their fathers.
• I didn’t make it to the gym today. That makes five years in a row.
• I decided to stop calling the bathroom the “John” and renamed it the “Jim”. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.
• Old age is coming at a really bad time. When I was a child, I thought “Nap Time” was a punishment. Now it feels like a small vacation.
• The biggest lie I tell myself is, “I don't need to write that down; I'll remember it.”
• I don’t have grey hair; I have "wisdom highlights"! I’m just very wise.
• If God wanted me to touch my toes, he would’ve put them on my knees.
• Last year I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven’t met yet.
• Why do I have to press one for English when you’re just going to transfer me to someone I can't understand anyway?
• Of course, I talk to myself. Sometimes I need expert advice.
• At my age, “Getting lucky" means walking into a room and remembering what I came in there for.
• I have more friends I should send this to, but I can’t remember their names right now.
• Now, I’m wondering, did I send this to you, or did you send it to me?

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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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