Hi there,

Here's your weekly dose of Irish for June 5th 2022...

Latest updates:

Hello everyone! Apologies for missing the last two weekly doses. My sister was getting married in Spain, so I had no time to get you your weekly dose of Irish! Great to be able to celebrate with family again, and at the moment no face masks in Spain! Except for public transport. I hope you have a lovely Sunday and a great week ahead. Stephen

• Did you know? At its closest point, Northern Ireland is only 13 miles across the sea from the Scottish coast. On a clear day, you can stand in Antrim, look across the water and see houses in Scotland!
• There are more mobile phones than actual people living in Ireland.

Irish wisdom: A cabin with plenty of food is better than a hungry castle

This week's posts:

✈️ Irish People Talking About Where They Are Going On Holidays In 1973

Did you ever wonder how much a holiday from Ireland used to cost?

Well, I found this incredible footage from C.

R’s vault again.

Several interviews of Irish people talking about …

The post Irish People Talking About Where They Are Going On Holidays In 1973 appeared first on Irish Around The World.

Click here to read more

🗒️ Red Hanrahan’s Song About Ireland, By WB Yeats – Irish Poem

Red Hanrahan’s Song about Ireland, by William Butler Yeats.

This wonderful poem/song comes in at number 68 on the top 100 Irish poems list.

  A short but powerful poem, …

The post Red Hanrahan’s Song About Ireland, By WB Yeats – Irish Poem appeared first on Irish Around The World.

Click here to read more

🚴 The Last Of The Cycling Postmen, Ireland 1975

It has been a while since I put together an article on some old Irish videos.

This week from CR’s video vaults, it is a clip from 1975.He was …

The post The Last Of The Cycling Postmen, Ireland 1975 appeared first on Irish Around The World.

Click here to read more

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This week's Irish joke:

The following is an actual letter sent to a bank by a 96-year-old woman. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the New York Times.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavoured to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his depositing the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honour it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly transfer of funds from my modest savings account, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only thirty-one years.

You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity and also for debiting my account $30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity that your bank has recently become.

From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person.

My mortgage and loan repayments will, therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic but will arrive at your bank, by check, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate.

Be aware that it is an offence under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope.

Please find attached an Application Contact Status form which I require your chosen employee to complete.

I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative.

Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof. In due course,

I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modelled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Please allow me to level the playing field even further. When you call me, you will now have a menu of options on my new voice mail system to choose from.

Please press the buttons as follows:

Press 1: To make an appointment to see me.

Press 2: To query a missing payment.

Press 3: To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.

Press 4: To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.

Press 5: To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.

Press 6: To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.

Press 7: To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required. Password will be communicated to you at a later date to the Authorized Contact.

Press 8: To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 7.

To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service. While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call.

Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee of $50 to cover the setting up of this new arrangement. Please credit my account after each occasion.

Your Humble Client...

(Remember: This was written by a 96-year-old woman!)

So what is this week's top Irish poem?

Red Hanrahan’s Song About Ireland, By WB Yeats – Irish Poem

Red Hanrahan’s Song about Ireland, by William Butler Yeats. This wonderful poem/song comes in at number 68 on the top 100 Irish poems list. 

A short but powerful poem, but sure, I wouldn’t expect much less from Yeats.  

So what is the poem Red Hanrahan’s Song all about? 

In short, Yeats is talking about a fictional character, ‘Red Hanrahan,’ to make a specific point about idealism. Once again, we get a lot of strong images throughout the poem, for example, “The old brown thorn-trees break in two high over Cummen Strand”…

Let’s get to this remarkable poem! 

Red Hanrahan’s Song about Ireland

By W.B Yeats

He old brown thorn-trees break in two high over Cummen Strand,

Under a bitter black wind that blows from the left hand;

Our courage breaks like an old tree in a black wind and dies,

But we have hidden in our hearts the flame out of the eyes

Of Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan.

The wind has bundled up the clouds high over Knocknarea,

And thrown the thunder on the stones for all that Maeve can say.

Angers that are like noisy clouds have set our hearts abeat;

But we have all bent low and low and kissed the quiet feet

Of Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan.

The yellow pool has overflowed high up on Clooth-na-Bare,

For the wet winds are blowing out of the clinging air;

Like heavy flooded waters our bodies and our blood;

But purer than a tall candle before the Holy Rood

Is Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan.

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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 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!

Many of you have probably seen me popping in and out of our Facebook group has been amazing to see the interaction with each member. 

There have been many ups and downs in the groups. Laughs and tears but every day, it continues to move forward. Thanks for being a part of it.

Sign up here if you haven't joined yet and don't know what you are missing.

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

Have a great day! 

All the best, 

Stephen Palmer

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