It’s been close to a decade since I left Minneapolis, where I got my first job in the IT field. As we all (should) know, Minneapolis is home to possibly the greatest Pub in the United States, Kieran’s Irish Pub.
So anyways, I’d be in there nightly with my best friend in Minnesota, who also happened to be from Philadelphia. Anyhow, we’d go in and have a few pops and shoot the breeze with everyone. It was great, we were “those thugs from Philadelphia”.
Philadelphia? Mary and Joseph, you thugs from Philadelphia go to Belfast to relax on holiday!
To which the only proper reply would be:
Oi Dominic, your mother’s been tellin’ tales again I see.
[Totally off topic, but this drives my wife nuts. If I am in an environment long enough, I will pick up the speech patterns and mannerisms of those around me. Within twenty minutes at Kieran’s I’d sound like one of Darby O’Gill’s little paypul.]
Anyhow, on to the main story. Friday and Saturday night would be live music night. It would start at eight and end at closing time. Like clockwork my friend Steve and myself would arrive at six, get warmed up by eight and by twelve I’d be on the floor dancing a jig.
By twelve forty-five I’d be Tom, Lord of the Dance.
So this one dark and cold night, I’m out there feeling no pain. The music is going, the people are stomping, I’m warm and feeling it. Then, it happened.
Kieran Folliard, Lord bless him, the owner of the bar, comes over and clasps me on the shoulder.
“Tom”, says he, “I’ve been watching you out here for many a week. Truth be told I’ve been touched and amazed. ” “In fact,” says he, pushing his hat into me hands, “so moved was I, that I took up to passing the hat for you. Here you go.”
I looked inside the hat. There was one hundred forty dollars in loose bills inside.
Before I could say a word, he patted me on the shoulder, winked, and walked away.
I generally don’t recommend smacking people, Anthony, but there are always exceptions:
On the other hand, I did get to hang out a little with Liam Clancy who is apparently some sort of musician. I was never into the whole Oirish eidelee eidelee music scene, but he seems to have been a significant figure in it. He seemed like a nice guy, although I really wasn’t talking to him much. Alan Gilsenan was in New York for a couple of days, and he bought Liam and his wife out to Molly’s for a few, along with his researcher Anna. Although Liam wasn’t drinking.
Some sort of musician?
SOME SORT OF MUSICIAN?
I mean, I’m not even going to mention “Oirish eidelee eidelee“. I thought it was eidelee deedelee, myself.
Then again, when the company you work for is best known for some mildly successful video game where you get to run over hookers…
Oh well, I was never into the thuglife gotz my gat video game scene.
Andrew Stuttaford on The Corner discussing the celebrations commemorating the victory at Trafalgar:
I’m glad to be able to report that the occasion was not neglected yesterday in NYC, where there was a lunch in a French restaurant (naturally) attended by about seventy members of the British financial community. The ensign flew, admirals hats were worn, plenty, plenty, was drunk, Beef Wellington was eaten (well, of course), anthems (including Jerusalem, our real national song, and sporting attempts at the French, Spanish and American anthems) were sung, postcards of the divine Emma and the great Horatio decked the tables, a visitor from the Royal Navy made a fine speech, and the small (and intrepid) French delegation was kindly treated. The event was a lot of fun, patriotic, proud of British history, deeply nostalgic and punctuated by the self-mockery and sense of the ridiculous that made it a very English occasion.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin is not mincing words about the proposed Vatican statement on homosexual seminarians. In plain, simple language, he told The Tablet: “You don’t write off a candidate for the priesthood simply because he is a gay man.”
You might think that Archbishop Martin is desperate. After all, he ordained zero new priests this year– the first year in the history of the Dublin diocese that no priests were ordained.
But No. The instructors who train candidates for the Dublin priesthood are rigorous enough on some issues.
The Irish seminary at Maynooth (which is, these days, the only functioning seminary all of Ireland) recently threatened to suspend 5 young men– 6.7% of the entire student body– for a particular form of misconduct.
What was the transgression for which this punishment was threatened? What would cause you to write off a candidate for the priesthood?
When Ian “they hide submachine guns in their churches” Paisley turns around and says, “Hey man…that’s a little extreme.” You are officially beyond the Pale.
After all, let’s take a look at some famous quotes made by my man:
# “This Romish man of sin is now in Hell!”; to a packed Ulster Hall after the death of John XXIII in June 1963.
# “I will kill all who get in my way”, which was shouted out at certain reporters following a loyalist rally in 1968.
# When Terence O’Neill arrived at Stormont for a meeting with Sean Lemass, a former IRA Volunteer under Michael Collins (Irish leader) during the Anglo-Irish War, Paisley shouted at his car “No mass! No Lemass!”
# After a loyalist rally in 1968, Ian Paisely justified the burning of Catholic homes by claiming: “Catholic homes caught fire because they were loaded with petrol bombs; Catholic churches were attacked and burned because they were arsenals and priests handed out sub-machine guns to parishioners”; he also said the massive discrimination in employment and allocation of public housing for Catholics existed because “they breed like rabbits and multiply like vermin”.
Ok, but what’s going on right now is too much for him. That should be a clue you’ve gone too far, don’t ya think?
I’ve been taken to task in the past for speaking ill of the Orange Order. What most people don’t understand is that it has quite a different meaning in Northern Ireland than in nearly the rest of the world. Below is an excerpt from an article on the history of the Orange Order in Ireland. And that’s all I have to say about today.
Yet, as was once admitted by Sir George Clarke, an eminent Ulster Orangeman, that civil and religious liberty has its limits. It is civil and religious liberty for Protestants only. Furthermore - though this is what no modern Orangemen would admit - the only Protestants in Ireland who for a long time enjoyed civil and religious liberty were those in communion with the Church of Ireland, the church state established by the dominant English. Irish Presbyterians and members of other non-conforming Protestant churches were for more than a hundred years denied many of the civil rights alleged to have been secured in 1690. And that is altogether apart from the Roman Catholics who, though constituting the overwhelming majority of the Irish population, were deprived of virtually all civil rights during the entire course of the eighteenth century. (more…)
Maureen Martin’s comments made me think. That hurts my head, so I try to stop as soon as possible. In any event, the combination of her comments and Irish John’s flying of the Union Jack as well have inspired me to link to any site run by anyone of Irish descent that posts the Union Jack on their blog today. If you display it, just trackback to here.
I know Patrick O’Hannigan will probably stop by sometime today, so I’m really hoping to see…that flag…there as well. I’m sorry, I can only call it by name so many times.
In any event, I’ll even extend the offer to anyone else who does so.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
