Happy St. Paddy’s Day!
I can proudly say that I am an Irish chick through and through.
One of my dreams was to visit Ireland and last March Mr. Wonderful, girl spawn and I did!
We met relatives, I drank guinness beer with Mr. Wonderful, visited castles and walked the farm my ancestors lived at since the early 17th century.
Unfortunately, the farm itself had been torn down the year before, but there was still pieces of it (wood) in a pile.
I brought a piece of wood home, to hang here on the wall.
Kinda cool shit, huh?
At one point when girl spawn and I were walking the farm land, I saw something sticking out of the ground, buried in the dirt, I dug 2 pieces of what looked like rocks out along with some dirt to bring home and put on my Grandfathers grave.
It was pieces of a pipe, covered in mud.
When we got home I contacted some people in New York and New Zealand who belong to clay pipe societies. (Apparently people collect pipes, who knew?)
The pieces I have are from the late 17th century.
How’s that for an awesome souvenir?
One morning, we had an authentic Irish breakfast and it was quite the feast. Part of that breakfast had something called “black pudding” and “white pudding”.
I tried it. I thought it was pudding…
It’s not..its…blood…EWWWWWWWWW
Mr. Wonderful thought the black pudding was ok and the white was not very good…but he still ate it! lol
We also discovered Irish butter.
Holy shit, it is some good shit!
Mr. Wonderful frosted his toast like it was a cake and you could see his teeth marks in it when he took a bite.
I gotta tell you, it is some seriously cool shit to see where you came from.
My plan is to rob a bank and go back, it’s beautiful there and the people are damned wonderful!
The whole time we were there I kept saying to Mr. Wonderful, “Can you believe we are in Ireland?”
So here’s the thing, remember, I grew up poor, on Welfare (in the UK its called “the dole”)
I never ever thought I would get a passport, much less see Ireland in my life.
Not only was the trip a dream for me, girl spawn was probably just as excited as me. She has the Irish family name in a big way.
Her real name is kinda long and has a story to it that she has heard her entire life.
When my Grandfathers mother was 15 years old, she came to America on a boat, alone. It was after the potato famine and her family was very poor. She was sent here to make money to send home.
She met a man here, got married and had 3 sons. My grandfather was the baby. Her husband died of the Spanish flu in 1918 and 6 months later she died also. My grandfather was 2 years old.
Her sister came from Ireland and raised the boys as a single mother. A single mother in the early 1900’s was no easy task. She married later and had 2 of her own children.
Seriously strong ass women.
When Mr. Piece of shit, aka shitbag, asswipe, dickwad, fuckface, fucktard, dickless wonder, hopeless loser, schmuck, asshole, prick, dipshit,sperm donor, loser, waste of space, douche, hemorrhoid left me, I was 7 months pregnant.
I had already discussed names for our daughter with him but after he left, I figured, “Fuck you, I’m gonna name my baby what I want!”.
So I did.
She is named for her Great Great Grandmother and Great Great Aunt and also has the family Irish name. Unfortunately I also had to give her Mr. Piece of shits last name (I didn’t want the kids to be confused with different names) so she has 4 names. Longass name for girl spawn.
I knew my daughter was going to have a tough time with no Daddy in the house and I figured being named after some strong women with balls would be a great start for her.
We all see and read what assorted races say about how hard it was/is for them and that they are profiled, discriminated against and in short, treated like second class citizens.
But the Irish also had it bad. Most historians say the “Irish experience” was one of the worst.
Here’s a little history…
- During the Great Famine of the 1840’s in Ireland, thousands fled for America
- In one year Boston’s Irish population jumped from 30,000 to 100,000
- 70% of servants in Boston were Irish, two thirds were Irish women.
- Irish women suffered from high levels of mental illness (So that’s why I’m the way I am!)
- By 1908, there were more Irish than there were any other nationality in mental hospitals
- The established working class American resented the Irish who would work for anything
- Employers would place signs with NINA scrawled across the front. NINA spelled out is No Irish Need Apply. This would often be seen next to the No Dogs Allowed signs.
- In the 1870’s & 80’s, Irishman were portrayed on stage and in cartoons as bumbling, idiots and drunks
- The Irish who fled Ireland so they wouldn’t starve and came to America for a better life starved here as well, living and dying in slums
During much of the nineteenth century, the Irish and black people were pushed into competition.
In the South where slaves were viewed as valuable property, black people were prohibited from dangerous, life-threatening work. Many of those type of jobs were left to the Irish. Thousands of Irish lives were lost in the building of the nation’s canal and railroad systems.
The rivalry between blacks and Irish got worse when something call The Conscription Act of 1863 was passed. This act made all white men between the ages of 20 and 45 eligible for the draft. Free black men were allowed to volunteer and were not forced into battle.
Pretty fucked up shit.
So tonight, when you’re drinking your green beer and celebrating, remember all those poor bastards who worked there asses off and struggled so you could wear green and party it up.
Note to my special friend who had surgery 2 days ago. Glad you are home and feelin good.
I hope you poop soon!
<3
I Love your posts! I hope you have an amazing, like usual, weekend. BTW, hope the job worked itself out without too much BS.
Hey Karen! I go back on Monday…Yikes! Thanks for reading my shit and following me! I appreciate you tons and tons! Growing BOCL and finding new readers is my goal. Nothing would please me more than to be able to write BOCL daily, ya know? She is a huge part of me and this has been a really fun ride so far.