ahem.../me slides shyly into playground and waves...

Hey everybody I get the exact same thing <it doesn't help that I have red hair <g>> so it was really lovely to hear from her.

Now this got me thinking...how many Irish FoLCs are actually out there? <I know of two, but I hope that's not all :p > I've never met anybody over here who liked the show, so I was wondering...Irish connections, born in Ireland, lives somewhere else, born somewhere else but lives here, born and lives here, I would like to hear from ye all. So if you have the time...please?

Sara (curious )

I'm mad at a certain friend of mine, cuz I sent this certain person the thread, and this certain person has not posted a thing. Oh well, I know he/she's busy.

I have a good dose of Irish blood in me, even though I'm American. I have an American friend who went to Ireland last spring. I'm fairly certain she enjoyed herself. Oh, but she's not a FoLC, I don't think.

Hi Sara! You know I'm Irish. LOL But I thought I'd post here anyway.

I was born in Ireland and then moved to the states, but I'm an Irish girl at heart. I've even got the hair to prove it. <g>

Caroline

Woohoo! Thanks for replying, guys and you have red hair, Caroline? <Btw, only about 5% of Irish people have red hair

Sara

Um...
/me raises hand

Born and educated in Dublin; moved to the UK in 1988 - for a job, of course.

Sara, you're at DCU now? I thought you were at UL! /me wonders if she should point out that the President of DCU is a good friend of hers, and also an academic co-author


Wendy

Yay Wendy...thanks for posting <g>.

Yup, Wendy, I'm at DCU now...I did tell you that I was at UL, but that was before I realised that certain friends of mine are not particularly copious at taking notes and when they *do* manage to scribble one or two, you'd swear that they were writing in Turkish...and unfortunately, if you remember that accident I had with my arm...it was the wrist I wrote with...and bones take six weeks to heal...six weeks valuable lecturing time...six weeks in which you should be able to take notes... life isn't fair sometimes.

However, that doesn't explain what I'm doing in DCU...<g> I'm taking a three-week course in Law at the moment and am strongly considering switching colleges...repeating first year does *not* appeal to me...

EDITED after I realised my mistake...

Switching colleges? LOL! Bet that confused you, Wendy, especially if you knew that DCU actually doesnt have a Law course... :rolleyes: and if I *did* want to go there, I'd have a 100mile drive from my house to Whitehall, which would take me about three hours, depending on traffic . I'm staying in UL, I promise! In fact I'm just back from DCU yesterday...

So anyway, must get my tushie in gear and start on my assignment, of which I have one page done, and which is due in on Tuesday at the latest

Sara

er...me wonders...does irish roots count?

Dublin 1648 as far as parish registers allowed me to trace my genealoy back...but everybody knows you can't go back further than 1600...and I'll stop babbling now.

If yes, then me raised hand too

Wow...raise your hand, Carole! Lots of my American friends here introduced themselves as, "Hi, I'm American, but my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother's cousin was Irish, so I'm *really* Irish-American so yeah, of course you count!

Sara

I don't suppose that attending grad school at the U of Notre Dame counts. :rolleyes: Nah!

Frank

The U of Notre Dame? Might be just me just me, but that sounds slightly French...care to illuminate me? :p

Sara

Notre Dame's mascot is the "Fighting Irish" and their teams are called "the Irish". I know that because there is a priest who used to be at my church (back when I still went to church) that always tried to convince me to go to Notre Dame for college.

- Alicia

PS. I'm American -- okay my anscestors are from Poland, but my family's been in America for over 100 years. I know 3 words in Polish

Yes, the Universite de Notre Dame du Lac - near South Bend, Indiana - Home of the Irish. They seem to have come by the name early in the history of their intercollegiate athetic competitions because of the large number of Irish Catholic students. It was meant to be derogatory but the name was adopted and worn with pride.

Before I was invited to apply for graduate school there, I had no idea where the school was located. One of my father's college coaches had played there, so he was a big fan and I was familiar with the name, but I had vague thoughts that it was located somewhere on the east coast. I was there when Lou Holtz lead the football team to the national championship, and when they filmed the movie "Rudy".

Of course, that is the only claim I have to anything remotely Irish. Sorry for taking this off-topic thread off it's own topic.

Frank (who usually considers himself a Missouri Miner rather than Irish anyway)

Well,

Well, I'm not american, though I have relatives on the american continent (Canada included). But my great-great-great...LOL.

Nope, the irish roots has more to do with celtic origins (from Ireland to Britanny, french celtic region).

But, glad to be 'part of the club!'

Carole

Yeah, we Americans are quite proud of our heritage. I myself proudly proclaim to be a pure-bread American mutt, with several nationalities running through my blood, Irish included. My husband's grandmother, I believe, came over from Ireland years ago, and my mother-in-law went over there 2 years ago to visit her relatives. The only downside was that she was stuck over there during 9/11. She loved it over there, and wants to go back.

Well, my last name may sound vaguely Irish -- my husband's full name is Joseph Kelley Jernigan, which he thinks sounds Irish <g> -- but he assures me that his family is descended from Vikings <g> My family's been here so long, I have very little clue what Old Countries they all came from, so I guess that makes me a pure-bred mutt as well

PJ
who, if asked, puts her ethnicity as "American"

Well, my grandmother's maiden name was Riley. She was what they call Black Irish, with the black hair and green eyes that go with it, so I guess I can claim Irish ancestry (along with Welsh, Scot, English and a little French on the side). Pretty much an American mongrel, I know.

Nan

That means I've got a Black Irish side too? Interesting, I never heard of that expression when in Ireland...

Carole

Another Irish-American here. My paternal grandfather was off the boat as were both sets of my mom's grandparents. As far as I know I am 100% Irish by ethnicity but I may have a little Scottish blood also.

That's because the story about some of the Spanish Armada wrecking/landing in Ireland and the surviving Spaniards/Moors marrying some pretty colleens is an American invention. As I understand it, nothing like that happened and the reason there are people of Irish descent with dark hair and skin that acutally tans (as opposed to burning or freckling) is just some odd matter of genetics. It's a great story though.

Also, the idea that Irish people are all red-haired, green-eyed and freckled isn't entirely true either. Most Irish people I've ever met have either had honey blonde, reddish brown or (more rarely) very dark/black hair (like myself) and almost all of them (in my family, friends, acquaintances) have had blue eyes. I am one of the few Irish people I know with green eyes. Brown eyes are also rarer among Irish people but not as rare as green.

(It's important to point out right here that redheads and green-eyed people are both rare so the real question is whether Irish people are more likely to have either of these traits than the average, non-Irish, white person -- 5% of the Irish population vs. 2% of the non-Irish population for example.)

The freckles on the other hand is closer to the truth. We Irish seem to come in about 3 shades, freckled, ghostly pale (me) or ruddy.

-- Birdie (who knows way too much about this)

Or both freckles and ghostly pale... I'm afraid to put my husband in the sun, he'd either blind us all, or turn into a lobster.

Birdie,

thanks for the explanations, I feel less dumb now (and that may explain my foundness for spanish music and salsa, LOL).

Karen, I get the same remarks from my family: when in the sun, I'm either livid white or turns red without even tanning

Sounds like me. Specifically, I'm 1/2 Austrian, 1/4 Dutch, 1/8 Irish, 1/16 French and 1/16 English. But I mostly look Irish due to my complexion (my hubby calls it "fish-belly white") and my red hair (from a bottle).

...pant...

Whoa...Just after catching up with the thread after being absent for a few days...wow! Thanks everybody for replying!

And thanks Alicia and Frank for explaining the link to Notre Dame...very interesting!

That's so typical of we Irish to take an insult and turn it into a compliment!

ROTFL!

I'm so sorry about your mother-in-law being stuck here during 9/11... but it's great that she loved her time here!

LOL, Pam! And yep, it does sound vaguely Irish...it might have helped if his second name was Séan, though...

Oh, so I'm *not* the only one! Yeah, me too &#8211; the disappointing thing is when the skin peels off, there's no tan underneath that was promised by countless doctors

Whoa...and LOL btw! I'm lucky...well, maybe unlucky to be born with all natural, all red, all conspicuous hair <g>

All right, once again, thanks to everyone who replied so far!

Sara

P.S. Btw, huuuuge credit goes to Labrat for noticing I was having trouble with those quotes &#8211; otherwise this post would have been even more of a jumbled mess You're the best, Labrat!

According to my dad, who claims my maiden name (Russum) is Irish, the Vikings invaded Ireland a few times, so he could be both. Anyone know a good website for looking up origins of last names?

Hey Anne

You might find this website interesting... www.last-names.net. I found mine there - apparently it's also the surname of Niall, who captured St. Patrick from Wales and brought him to Ireland on a slave ship

Come to think of it...Dad has always hated the name Patrick...hmmm....

Sara

Um, family lore, which I haven't confirmed, says that my Scottish great-grandfather on my father's mother's side, married the daughter of an Irish sea-captain. I haven't confirmed that yet, tho'. Her maiden name was Cochrane - is that an Irish name?

Oh, and I went to university just north of Notre Dame, over on the Michigan side of the line. We organ majors would go down to South Bend all the time for organ recitals at Notre Dame's *gorgeous* church, or other concerts too. (You had to attend a certain number of concerts a term as a music major, and you couldn't always count on getting them all in by attending senior recitals and other concerts on campus...)

Melisma (under her Rock, really needing to get back to the ancestry project soon)

Hey Melisma I have no idea on whether or not Cochrane is Irish...I've heard a lot of old Irish names, but that one isnt among them I love music myself (especially Celine Dion )so you can imagine how envious I am

Once again, thanks for posting

Sara