Hi there,

Here's your weekly dose of Irish for Friday, October 28th 2022...

• Irish proverb: Sleep is the first sign of recovery.

Latest updates:

• Hello everyone! Stephen here from Irish Around The World! I am back after walking the fisherman's trail in Portugal. It was great to get out in nature and take a break from work and recentre. I hope you didn't miss the weekly dose too much. 🙂
• I have decided from next week on; I am going to start doing an Irish recipe on the weekly dose of Irish. What do you think I should make for my first one? An Irish stew, Irish soda bread or a leisurely Irish breakfast. I am thinking of making a list of traditional Irish recipes and making one every week. Stay tuned!
• This weekend is Halloween. I hope you have a great day. After all, Irish people did originally invent the festive holiday. Well, at least the Irish Celts did. You can read all about how we invented it here.
• And how about these 10 fun and odd facts about Halloween? 👻

This weeks posts

🏚️ A Disused Shed in Co Wexford, by Derek Mahon – Meaning And Full Poem

My list of the top 100 Irish poems is getting shorter every week.

Every week I publish a brief analysis of a random poem from this top 100 Irish poems …

The post A Disused Shed in Co Wexford, by Derek Mahon – Meaning And Full Poem, appeared first on Irish Around The World.

Click here to read more.

🎃 10 Fun And Odd Facts About Halloween You Didn’t Know

Halloween is only a few days, and I wanted to share these ten facts about Halloween with you.

Now being Irish and the fact that Irish Celts pretty much invented …

The post 10 Fun And Odd Facts About Halloween You Didn’t Know appeared first on Irish Around The World.

Click here to read more.

• 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.

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Today in Irish history, October 28th:

October 28

1659 - Birth of Nicholas Brad, Anglican clergyman and poet, in Bandon, Co. Cork

1758 - Edward Moore, 5th Earl of Drogheda and former MP for Dunleer, drowns with his son Edward, chaplain to the House of Commons, en route from England to Dublin

1875 - Death of William Howard Glover, composer and music critic

1907 - John Harold Hewitt, a poet who wrote the Glens of Antrim, is born

1909 - Birth in Dublin of Sir Francis Bacon, painter

1958 - The State Opening of Parliament is televised for the first time

1976 - Máire Drumm, Irish Republican and Sinn Féin vice-president, is assassinated in her hospital bed by Unionist gunmen

1999 - Ulster Unionist and Sinn Féin politicians grapple with a new formula designed to break the deadlock in the peace process

2000 - Athlete Sonia O'Sullivan returns to her hometown of Cobh and is presented with the Freedom of The Town

2001 - Republican sources claim the IRA has destroyed up to 300 weapons in its first act of decommissioning.

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So what is this week's top Irish poem?

A Disused Shed in Co Wexford, by Derek Mahon

My list of the top 100 Irish poems is getting shorter every week. Every week I publish a brief analysis of a random poem from this top 100 Irish poems list. This week I picked number 37 from the Irish poet Derek Mahon.

Who is Derek Mahon? 

Derek Mahon was born in Belfast in 1941 and graduated from Trinity College Dublin and at Paris’ Sorbonne. He resided in London for many years, functioning as a critic, television adapter of literary works for British television, and poetry editor of the Nation. More recently, he has settled in Dublin and Kinsale. He is considered among the most proficient and influential of contemporary Irish writers. 

What is the poem A Disused Shed in Co Wexford about?

At first glance, you would think it is something about a shed or a memory shared from a place where the poem lived. But the poem is more about the struggle people around the world have suffered from injustice, abandonment, catastrophe and other events. 

Derek, who was also a journalist, wrote this poem right after Bloody Sunday. He refers in the poem to ‘drowned migrants’, which he compares to people reaching for hope. In the last stanza Mahon speaks up to almost a calling to all those who labour for more and strive to be free of injustice. So yes, not just a poem about a shed in Co-Wexford. 

So let’s get to this Irish poem. 

A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford

BY DEREK MAHON

Read The Full Poem On The Blog Here

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Irish Joke: Irish Nun On Halloween

Because this weekend is Halloween, I thought I could share a Halloween-themed joke.

A cabbie picks up an Irish Nun in San Francisco. She gets into the cab and notices that the VERY handsome cab driver won't stop staring at her.

She asks him why he is staring. He replies: 'I have a question to ask, but I don't want to offend you.'

She answers, 'My son; you cannot offend me. When you're as old as I am and have been a nun as long as I have, you get a chance to see and hear just about everything. I'm sure that there's nothing you could say or ask that I would find offensive.'

'Well, I've always had a fantasy to have a nun kiss me.'

She responds, 'Well, let's see what we can do about that:

#1, you have to be single, and

#2, you must be Catholic.'

The cab driver is very excited and says, 'Yes, I'm single and Catholic!'

'OK,' the nun says. 'Pull into the next alley.'

The nun fulfils his fantasy with a kiss that would make a hooker blush.

But when they get back on the road, the cab driver starts crying.

'My dear child,' said the nun, 'Why are you crying?'

'Forgive me, but I've sinned. I lied, and I must confess; I'm married, and I'm Jewish.'

The nun says, 'That's OK. My name is Kevin, and I'm going to a Halloween party.'

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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 participate in 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 later sought to connect Irish people around the world. Which lead to the blog and email you are currently reading.

I have always enjoyed reading about Irish heritage and how connected Irish people are around the world. But I felt that the websites did not connect the people to the information. Instead, they just published daily articles regardless of whether people cared about them or not. So I decided to change it and create my own Facebook community called Irish Around The World. It expanded to an Irish Around The World group, now with over 70k members!

Thank you again for being a part of Irish Around The World. 

Have a great day! 

All the best, 

Stephen Palmer

P.S Invite your friends or family to this weekly newsletter. Just share this link with them: Irisharoundtheworld.com/join.