Happy St. Patricks Day. Two stories I’d like to tell on this St. Patrick’s Day. I was watching an old movie called “The rising of the moon”. One scene I’d like to talk about had two men on a train platform arguing. One looks at the other and says that he can’t be trusted as it is well known that during the famine his great grandfather was seen sneaking up the back wall carrying a bowl of soup! At that everyone stops and steps back a bit, both men start to take off their coats to do serious battle. So what was the insult? The soup! To accuse an Irish man of taking the soup is one of the most injurious of insults. During the potato famine, with millions of starving Irish Catholics, some protestant groups in England decided to help these poor unfortunates by giving free soup to them. With one condition, who ever took the soup had to deny the Pope. Some took the soup, I might have if I was watching my kids starve to death. So never tell an Irishmen that he took the soup or you might not wake up till the next day. The second story involves the Black and Tans. I was telling a salesman about how the Black and Tans were tearing apart Tom Creans pub and didn’t stop until they saw a picture of him in a British uniform. The salesman stopped me and wanted to know what the Black and Tans were as he had traveled to Ireland and in a pub had asked for a drink called a black and tan, the bartender told him that he would never serve a Black and Tan in his pub and that if he were to ask again the salesman would be firmly removed from the premises! With no explanation, the salesman just thought it was just a drink. The Black and Tans were a military group put together by the British, after World War One, to help the Irish police control the IRA, they were an undisciplined violent group with a very heavy hand terrorizing and killing whoever they felt were connected to the IRA. They were so bad even the British public was appalled by their behavior. One of the worst atrocities was in Dublin November 1920, were in retaliation for the deaths of 14 their own by the IRA the Black and Tans opened fire on fans watching a Dublin football game killing 12 innocents. So this is a bit long winded, but Irish stories are meant to be. I would like to thank Stephen McPhilemy for sharing so many stories of his country with us. If you ever get a chance to tour Ireland give him a visit.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 22:55:55 +0000
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