Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Dílis d'ar nOidreacht
"True to our heritage"

County Clare Arms

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm a wee bit Irish so I thought I'd share a little about where my family came from. I actually just learned about our family's history in the past few years. Before that, I never really thought about it. When I was growing up in Danville, no one really mentioned anything about family histories. You were either black, white or American Indian. But in Pittsburgh, family origins are very important with all the different immigrants living here. Recently, my father decided to do a little exploring and found some information out about his family. He told me about his mother's family being from County Clare, Ireland. Here's a little information I found on Wikipedia:

County Clare (Irish: Contae an Chláir) commonly referred to as simply Clare, is a county of Ireland and part of the wider province of Munster. Clare is one of the 26 counties within the Republic of Ireland and it provides a basis for local government, in the form of its own constituency within the Dáil Éireann. The county system has existed since the 16th century; as well as its governmental usage, the counties form a significant part of local identity and culture within the country. Located on the west coast of Ireland, Clare is northwest of the River Shannon covering a total area of 1,215 square miles (3,147 km²). The most populated town and county seat is Ennis.


Hope you have a fun St. Paddy's Day- Irish or not!

"We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English."
-Winston Churchill

"You know it's summer in Ireland when the rain gets warmer."
-Hal Roach

4 comments:

Greener Pastures--A City Girl Goes Country said...

Happy St. Paddy's Day! I'm Irish too. My family is from County Cork.

You're right about how folks around here don't know much about their heritage like we do up north. I'm from Jersey and it's a big deal what "nationality" you are. I noticed a lot of Scottish and Irish names down here so I asked my neighbors what they were and they didn't know! My neighbor had this look on her face like it was something that never occurred to her before. She said, "Hmm, I guess I'm American--I don't know." I think she's Irish, lol.

www.GreenerPastures--ACityGirlGoesCountry.blogspot.com

Sweetflutterbys3 said...

Hey, fellow Irish girl!

That is interesting about your neighbors. It was quite a different thing moving here and someone asking me where my family is from. I had the same reaction as your neighbors- huh? lol

gingerhillery@mac.com said...

Our family hails from County Clare also! We went for a family trip over 5 years ago. Visited with cousins of my husband. It is a glorious place. Rocks, hills, Old ruined castles. Gentle funny people. I hope you get the opportunity to visit someday. It was weird and wonderful seeing so many people who looked like my family! I was a "race" and had found my people!

Sweetflutterbys3 said...

That is so cool! I would love to go. In the pictures I've seen it looks beautiful.
It's nice to know you and I might be related! Small world!