Re: [pyrnet] St Patricks Day!, Begorrah!!!! !! Long

> I think of my old Grandad, Irish born but with a Scots accent. The Family
> owned a pub in Ireland but were asked to "leave" during the troubles and
> their sympathy for the wrong faction during the Easter rebellion. The
> Great-Granny had them all hidden under her bed!!   Some bed!
>
> My Father sang "Kevin Barry" for the rest of his life and even more on
> Saint Paddy's Day!! My Mother would leave the house on Saint Patrick's Day,
> (she is Scottish and it wasn't Saint Andrew's Day!). She'd leave the house
> the minute he started singing "Kevin Barry" no matter the day! She travelled
> a lot.
>
> One Saint Patrick's day my Uncle was visiting a patient next to the local
> hotel and he came out of the house and saw a pram next to the hotel. Inside
> the pram were a pair of twins and a Boxer dog tied to the handle bar. On
> further inspection he realised the twins were his nieces, on top of their
> blanket was a fortune in half crown coins, the Boxer was my father's UK Dog,
> Major, (he had chosen the dog after the war and had him shipped to New
> Zealand) and the person in charge of the twins was his Father in law
> singing Irish songs inside drunk!!! Uncle took the twins and dog home (and
> the money!) and then went back and got the Grandad!! Uncle was devasted to
> think the twins he had delivered had been "abandoned" like that!! (He adored
> us from our birth to his death, we could do no wrong and we did try! ).
> Apparently he had warned my Mother about letting the "auld man" out loose
> in control of anything less than his legs.   The old devil tried to get out
> of saying why he had left us out there, apparently twins were a sign on
> goodluck and if you threw a coin in the pram of twins on Saint Patrick's Day
> then you would have goodluck for ever. What he forgot to mention was that
> he didn't get back out in time to get the "drinking money!!"
>
> God only knows how often us twins had been left outside a pub , he always
> used to offer to take us for a "promenade", he was a smart dresser and what
> my Mother called "A real toff" and the ladies loved it when John
> MacGlade-Kerr tipped his hat to them as he wheeled his twin grand-daughters
> past ! You could hear them say "There goes Doctor's father in law, such a
> gentleman and still standing!". Well he ran a mental hospital for years so
> he must have been a gentle man!! Ronda and I went to visit it a while ago!!
> My Father had told me so much about "Seacliff" and how he would as a boy
> sing to the inmates to help calm them down! His Father took him along for
> company and then a week would pass before they could leave due to the
> weather and the roads! This was the Hospital for the "Criminally Insane".
> Our bedtime stories were based on those times. Grandad had many of New
> Zealands' notorious Killers to bed down for the night!! He had to strap them
> in so we were told. We were always tucked securely into our pram!
>
>
> The Grandad got our "twin pram" shipped out from the UK, nothing was too
> good for us. ( His wife, our Grandmother had died having twins so we were
> special) and he had a seat built for our older sister at the front. He
> couldn't leave her outside a pub though, she would have been able to "tell".
> She'd do anything for a chocolate Teddy!!
>
> "Top of the morning to you colleens" was one of his favourite expressions
> to the ladies. A "colleen" could have been 80!    But another time when an
> Aunt lifted us out of our pram she found bottles of whiskey under the
> mattress! He was a grand old Irishman,(with a Scots accent!) he had his
> Border Collies and plenty of money and many lady friends!! We know why!
> When he took my Aunts out (I had many Aunts who weren't "Aunts" by blood or
> marriage) he bought them fur coats and fox stoles to wear. For years after
> I could be found patting ladies fur coats !! My Mother was horrified! This
> child would be stroking the shoulders of strangers on public transport!
> Loved those little glass eyes on the fox stoles.
>
> Oh to know all this history and know why you love dogs and Irish music and
> have a real taste for whiskey and cigars too! It's in the genes. I only
> smoke a cigar though with my twin sister on her trips back to New Zealand!
>
> So have a great Saint Patrick's day if you have a wee drop of the old Irish
> in you!! Be it in your blood or down the throat!
>
> Jan
> Jan Chaplin
> Ariege-Roussillon Pyreneans
> http://www.geocities.com/janellachaplin or
> http://ariegeroussillonpyrenean.homestead.com/
> Visit here!! http://www.geocities.com/pyrworld
> Jan's Ebay Auctions http://showcase.auctiva.com/janella
> ariege@xtra.co.nz
>
>
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