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Post by Stephen on Jan 3, 2021 7:26:45 GMT
Sounds like a delicious hot whiskey. The tradition need to be mandated by the Government for cultural reasons. 🍻
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Post by Séamus on May 14, 2021 12:43:27 GMT
The stauncher republicans will smirk with justification at the £25 charge to see Diana's 1981 wedding dress in Kensington palace grounds next month,but it's presence does highlight the quality of old Irish (Carrickmacross) lace(in this case a piece that had belonged to Mary of Teck); Carrickmacross was used more recently for Kate Middleton's bridal couture also. Hopefully,after two centuries of tradition, not exclusively manufactured in Wuhan now.
Ancient Celtic Christians believed that St Brigid broke the winter's ice on February 1st. One Welsh poet wrote a famous poem about this. I learnt today of a parallel tradition of central Europe- the obscure Boniface of Tarsus (still commemorated in the extraordinary form on May 14) being one of three or four men known as the Ice Saints because they're said to bring a cold blast towards the end of Spring. A newsreader commenting on Israel and Palestine today, unexpectedly came up with a reference to Judges, remarking the role of Gaza territory in the Samson and Delilah tale. The legend of Boniface is similarly romantic (slave/mistress falls for him/both convert/she wants martyrs relics/he travels for relics/the relic she got returned to her was of Boniface himself)
St Columbanus is said to have meditated on Judge's account of Samson to support tranquility in celibacy, showing that the holiest of Irish monks could glean from it,but it's probably the romanticism of the story that has led to it's popularity in the arts. Luther seems to have criticized devotion to the Ice Saints,but considering Boniface of Tarsus' strong "Samson and Delilah potential" the Church has,if anything,shown amazing constraint in keeping the equivalent of a DC superhero in the background.
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Post by Stephen on May 14, 2021 12:50:13 GMT
The stauncher republicans will smirk with justification at the £25 charge to see Diana's 1981 wedding dress in Kensington palace grounds next month,but it's presence does highlight the quality of old Irish (Carrickmacross) lace(in this case a piece that had belonged to Mary of Teck); Carrickmacross was used more recently for Kate Middleton's bridal couture also. Hopefully,after two centuries of tradition, not exclusively manufactured in Wuhan now. Ancient Celtic Christians believed that St Brigid broke the winter's ice on February 1st. One Welsh poet wrote a famous poem about this. I learnt today of a parallel tradition of central Europe- the obscure Boniface of Tarsus (still commemorated in the extraordinary form on May 14) being one of three or four men known as the Ice Saints because they're said to bring a cold blast towards the end of Autumn. A newsreader commenting on Israel and Palestine today, unexpectedly came up with a reference to Judges, remarking the role of Gaza territory in the Samson and Delilah tale. The legend of Boniface is similarly romantic (slave/mistress falls for him/both convert/she wants martyrs relics/he travels for relics/the relic she got returned to her was of Boniface himself) St Columbanus is said to have meditated on Judge's account of Samson to support tranquility in celibacy, showing that the holiest of Irish monks could glean from it,but it's probably the romanticism of the story that has led to it's popularity in the arts. Luther seems to have criticized devotion to the Ice Saints,but considering Boniface of Tarsus' strong "Samson and Delilah potential" the Church has,if anything,shown amazing constraint in keeping the equivalent of a DC superhero in the background. I was lucky enough to have received a baptism gown from my Mothers side that is made Carrickmacross lace. The gown is around 120 years old and has been used for my 3 children.
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Post by Séamus on Jun 27, 2021 12:19:22 GMT
Some people I know were looking up St John's Day wiki page this week to see what traditional dishes there might be for this around the world. Amidst all the fire-burning and wreath-wearing only one was listed- a special traditional in Connaught. Good for them.
I was revisiting a book about Dublin first printed in the 1970s (Éamonn MacThomáis) which emerged recently. Most of it is historical, as the author meticulously goes through anecdotes of the major districts of Dublin's centre- from Henry II naming Thomas St after the archbishop he was responsible for murdering to twentieth century characters like BangBang- and it doesn't concern us here.
But some traditional games, children's in particular,are detailed:
Mind the Thread Rope the Door Tip and Tig Pitch and Toss or Up To the Mottie (the same or similar to Australia's traditional Two-Up gambling game) Taw in the Hole (marbles) Piggie Beds Kick the Can (still played in my time) or just swinging on lampposts,which my mother always talks about.
One chapter is dedicated to Newgate Cant,a Liberties dialect. One example given must actually be an endemic word- red biddy, apparently Brasso mixed with metho. Not sure how well that works on acolyte candles.
The cinema apparently had slang of it's own: Mot- the heroine Pal- offsider, seemingly even if it's an animal like Trigger The Chap- the hero (my father spontaneously remembers that one,so- like Kick the Can,declared unextinct at present)
The description of card-playing is interesting: "If you wanted your partner to head with a certain suit of cards you would work the tip off system: spades, 'I saw your father digging the garden today'. diamonds, 'Mary Murphy's getting married,her fella gave her a lovely ring', clubs (singing) 'The Dear Little Shamrock'... surprising how it worked"(cf jewel and darlin Dublin).
Of interest is the book's use of then-contemporary photography. Scenes,such as young ladies in 70s minis queuing up for a Movie, didn't seem out of sync with the author's earlier memories. There was still a continuity.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Jun 27, 2021 14:28:18 GMT
Some people I know were looking up St John's Day wiki page this week to see what traditional dishes there might be for this around the world. Amidst all the fire-burning and wreath-wearing only one was listed- a special traditional in Connaught. Good for them. I was revisiting a book about Dublin first printed in the 1970s (Éamonn MacThomáis) which emerged recently. Most of it is historical, as the author meticulously goes through anecdotes of the major districts of Dublin's centre- from Henry II naming Thomas St after the archbishop he was responsible for murdering to twentieth century characters like BangBang- and it doesn't concern us here. But some traditional games, children's in particular,are detailed: Mind the Thread Rope the Door Tip and Tig Pitch and Toss or Up To the Mottie (the same or similar to Australia's traditional Two-Up gambling game) Taw in the Hole (marbles) Piggie Beds Kick the Can (still played in my time) or just swinging on lampposts,which my mother always talks about. One chapter is dedicated to Newgate Cant,a Liberties dialect. One example given must actually be an endemic word- red biddy, apparently Brasso mixed with metho. Not sure how well that works on acolyte candles. The cinema apparently had slang of it's own: Mot- the heroine Pal- offsider, seemingly even if it's an animal like Trigger The Chap- the hero (my father spontaneously remembers that one,so- like Kick the Can,declared unextinct at present) The description of card-playing is interesting: "If you wanted your partner to head with a certain suit of cards you would work the tip off system: spades, 'I saw your father digging the garden today'. diamonds, 'Mary Murphy's getting married,her fella gave her a lovely ring', clubs (singing) 'The Dear Little Shamrock'... surprising how it worked"(cf jewel and darlin Dublin). Of interest is the book's use of then-contemporary photography. Scenes,such as young ladies in 70s minis queuing up for a Movie, didn't seem out of sync with the author's earlier memories. There was still a continuity. I had to look up "offsider"! My father (born 1939) said he went to the movies every day at one point in his youth. I think this must have been a common thing because my father was by no means a cinephile; he was one of those people who forget a film as soon as the end credits roll. (I don't get that.) Anyway, I noticed that the movies had an influence on the language of his generation: he would frequently use the term "pants" for underpants, something none of my contemporaries did. I remember his brother, of the same generation, using the term "bust" to mean "broken". Myles Na Gopaleen uses the term "heel" in one letter, to mean "villain". I think a lot of these usages came from American films, especially cowboy films. My mother told me that Hammer horrors were considered terrifying, and that people really did shout "he's behind you!" at the cinema.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Oct 13, 2021 11:02:27 GMT
My American wife notices a lot of Irish foibles. One is a particularly Irish way of ending a telephone call; repeating the word "bye" over and over again, staccato. "Bye bye bye bye bye bye bye". I think the idea is that you can't possibly fail to return the other person's "goodbye". This seems mostly done by women. I think I've heard Irish comedians lampoon it.
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Post by cato on Oct 13, 2021 15:17:28 GMT
My American wife notices a lot of Irish foibles. One is a particularly Irish way of ending a telephone call; repeating the word "bye" over and over again, staccato. "Bye bye bye bye bye bye bye". I think the idea is that you can't possibly fail to return the other person's "goodbye". This seems mostly done by women. I think I've heard Irish comedians lampoon it. One of my numerous vices.
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Post by Stephen on Oct 13, 2021 15:21:02 GMT
My American wife notices a lot of Irish foibles. One is a particularly Irish way of ending a telephone call; repeating the word "bye" over and over again, staccato. "Bye bye bye bye bye bye bye". I think the idea is that you can't possibly fail to return the other person's "goodbye". This seems mostly done by women. I think I've heard Irish comedians lampoon it. Definitely a Irish thing.
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Post by hilary on Oct 14, 2021 22:03:39 GMT
My American wife notices a lot of Irish foibles. One is a particularly Irish way of ending a telephone call; repeating the word "bye" over and over again, staccato. "Bye bye bye bye bye bye bye". I think the idea is that you can't possibly fail to return the other person's "goodbye". This seems mostly done by women. I think I've heard Irish comedians lampoon it. That's quite a new thing - I'd say it came in in the last 20 years or so. Possibly associated with the mobile phone? Busy, busy, busy!
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Post by cato on Oct 15, 2021 11:18:24 GMT
My American wife notices a lot of Irish foibles. One is a particularly Irish way of ending a telephone call; repeating the word "bye" over and over again, staccato. "Bye bye bye bye bye bye bye". I think the idea is that you can't possibly fail to return the other person's "goodbye". This seems mostly done by women. I think I've heard Irish comedians lampoon it. That's quite a new thing - I'd say it came in in the last 20 years or so. Possibly associated with the mobile phone? Busy, busy, busy! In the early 1980s before mobiles arrived even a domestic land line was a comparative rarity where I lived. Getting one involved a waiting list at one stage and people would lobby local politicians to speed up the process! By and large people were brief on the phone too as free calls were a thing of the future. Mobile phones are a broadly good thing in my eyes. Progress isn't always negative! I did hold out against mobiles to the late 1990s I remember. Can anyone who is old enough recall how we managed to meet up before we had texts and mobile calls?
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Post by assisi on Oct 17, 2021 18:39:03 GMT
That's quite a new thing - I'd say it came in in the last 20 years or so. Possibly associated with the mobile phone? Busy, busy, busy! In the early 1980s before mobiles arrived even a domestic land line was a comparative rarity where I lived. Getting one involved a waiting list at one stage and people would lobby local politicians to speed up the process! By and large people were brief on the phone too as free calls were a thing of the future. Mobile phones are a broadly good thing in my eyes. Progress isn't always negative! I did hold out against mobiles to the late 1990s I remember. Can anyone who is old enough recall how we managed to meet up before we had texts and mobile calls? I can recall many was the time I or my friends missed each other on a Friday or Saturday night. When I worked in London I would phone by landline a friend and arrange to meet up at a pub at a certain time, usually a pub that one of us knew. So I would say something like the White Lion in Bayswater at 7.30. I would duly turn up, have a look around the pub and wait if my friend wasn't there yet. After Half an hour of waiting and no friend, I would go outside and see if there were any other pubs with a similar name, the White Hart, the Golden Lion or whatever and check those pubs to see if my friend had mistakenly gone there. Then rush back to original pub to see if they had since arrived.......only to eventually give up at about 8.30 and call it a day. The next day when I talked to my friend he would have said that he was at the pub at 7pm and waited and left. Or even worse he had been sitting in a part of the pub I didn't know existed. Oh memorable lost nights out!
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Post by Séamus on Jan 2, 2022 1:52:19 GMT
I had been unaware of the Patrician Year 1961-2, commemorating the 1500th anniversary of St Patrick's death until coming across,and then losing,a commemorative book, which I just found again (appropriately before New Year's Day). It's a 200 page volume compiled by a Seanchas Ardmhacha (discovered that this group periodically published things like this), actually several of the contributions came from writers with particularly Ghaeilge names,some articles are in Irish, including one titled Cérbh é Ninine Éigeas? by Tomás Ó Fiaich- not sure what rank he had in 1962? Images of the saint from around the world are reproduced, including very German-style statues in Hohenstaufen and Eggenrot. Images of huge celebrations in Slane,Croke Park,Slemish,the Mansion House,Ardagh and Auxerre, France are beautifully printed. A statement by John XXIII makes one chapter.
Can it be called a tradition? Not sure whether the Patrician Year happened before,in a time of greater faith I'm sure we'd have had more mention of the 1560th anniversary last year. But the whole event was quite a synthesis of tradition and faith and the section of artworks was worth looking through for the well-selected timeline- ranging from ancient ruins to the most modern of the time including the Seamus Murphy Maynooth sculpture and an even more modern 1960 creation by a Domhnall Ó'Murchadha (Belfast).
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Feb 14, 2022 10:55:26 GMT
Someone returned a book about St. Martin's Day (or Martinmas) today-- a day in which blood sacrifice was practiced in Ireland until recent times! Of a cockerel rather than a human being, but still quite surprising. It was on November 11th. www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/1108/1089533-martinmas-blood-sacrifice-rites-ireland-november-11th/I can't easily find how recently it was observed-- the closest I came was that the the Irish Folklore Project in UCD, which was collected in the 1930's, has accounts of it.
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Post by Séamus on Feb 15, 2022 1:55:36 GMT
Someone returned a book about St. Martin's Day (or Martinmas) today-- a day in which blood sacrifice was practiced in Ireland until recent times! Of a cockerel rather than a human being, but still quite surprising. It was on November 11th. www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/1108/1089533-martinmas-blood-sacrifice-rites-ireland-november-11th/I can't easily find how recently it was observed-- the closest I came was that the the Irish Folklore Project in UCD, which was collected in the 1930's, has accounts of it. John B Keane has written a less sinister-sounding account of Michaelmas and slaying geese. Feathers were kept for quilts etc,always used eventually for Christmas presents. (Feather Beds,included in Christmas in Ireland compiled in 1989) It probably became urgent by November for those without a decent blanket
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Post by Séamus on May 29, 2022 9:05:02 GMT
"The best white pudding in Ireland,son, Clonakilty pudding! If I ever murder someone and I'm on death row,that's my last meal. A full ring of white Clonakilty pudding". Brian McFadden,with Keith Duffy giving his assent down the page,in a recent interview by Mick Wall.
Both bands were accused once of sucking the blood from,and dancing the vampire dance on, Irish music, but a member each of Boyzone and Westlife seem to appreciate something authentically Irish. Don't know why death row,of all examples would come to his mind.'
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