By Steve Gillespie / managing editor
March 08, 2008 11:56 pm
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"I spent 90 percent of my money on women and drink. The rest I wasted." — Irish soccer star George Best
On a recent visit my Dad mentioned he was planning to vote for "the Irish candidate" in this year's presidential election.
I paused to consider whether he meant Hillary Clinton, her married name certainly being Irish, or if he meant John McCain, with his surname having both Scottish and Irish origins.
Then he dropped the punch line of what he thought was a joke.
"Barack Obama," he said, pausing a little between the "O" and the "bama" parts, I guess to give the implication of an apostrophe being there.
The funniest part about his joke is that it is no joke.
Barack Obama’s maternal great, great, great grandfather, Fulmuth Kearney, came from Moneygall, in County Offaly, Ireland. He came to the United States in 1850.
I found that tidbit online at www.ireland-fun-facts.com. It should come in handy with St. Patrick's Day coming up.
You know who else has some Irish heritage besides 40 percent of our U.S. Presidents, and 30 percent of the people in Australia? Muhammad Ali. His great grandfather was born in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, and emigrated to Kentucky in the 1860s. He married an African-American woman. A son born to them also married an African-American woman. Their daughter, Odessa Grady, was Ali's mother. She married a man named Cassius Clay, the name they also gave their son, who later changed his name to what it still is today.
And as Irish politician Ivana Bacik has said: "There is, for whatever reason, an international tendency to be well-disposed towards Ireland — a tendency that elevates us beyond our actual standing on the world stage."
In other words, it'll make no difference what anyone's name is in another week. On St. Patrick's Day, March 17, everyone is Irish.
Trivia
Here's some nerdy Irish trivia you might enjoy and want to share:
Did you know ...
• The very first St. Patrick's Day parade in America was hosted by the Charitable Irish Society of Boston in 1737?
• That the Academy Awards "Oscar" statuette was designed by Cedric Gibbons, who was born in Dublin in 1823. He emigrated to the U.S., became MGM’s top set designer during the golden age and won 12 Oscars of his own.
• Kilkenny-born architect James Hoban designed the White House in Washington after winning a competition sponsored by President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson in 1792.
• The first American general to die in The Revolution was Richard Montgomery, who was born in Donegal.
• Baileys Irish Cream is the most popular liqueur in the world.
Proverbs
Here's some cool Irish proverbs:
• Man is incomplete until he marries. After that, he is finished.
• Beware of the anger of a patient man.
• If you want an audience start a fight.
• A diplomat must always think twice before he says nothing.
• Three things come without asking: fear, jealousy, and love.
Quotes
Some great quotes by and about the Irish:
• "It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's simply that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody." — By Brendan Behan, who also said ... "I am a drinker with a writing problem."
• "Those who drink to forget, please pay in advance." — Sign at the Hibernian Bar, Cork City.
• "The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scotts as a joke, but the Scotts haven't seen the joke yet." — Oliver Herford
• "This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever." — Sigmund Freud (speaking about the Irish)
• "Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious." — Brendan Gill
Steve Gillespie is managing editor of The Meridian Star. E-mail him at
sgillespie@themeridianstar.com.
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