Happy St. Patrick's Day!

[LSPoorEeyorick]

I was just telling this story at work, and I realized it might behoove me to start a wearin'-o-the-green thread for purposes of telling it here.

So. I got Irish for Christmas.

We'd been trying to get ahold of our family tree from my paternal grandparents. But unpleasant as they've generally always been, they wouldn't let us touch it or make a copy or anything.

My brother--so sneaky!--made friends with our grandfather's sister. She gave him the kit and caboodle.

And it turns out that, a few generations back, about the time that being Irish in this country was a sentence to drudgery work and struggle, the long-since-immigrated Irish part of the family covered up their heritage!

This means that tomorrow is my very first "Kiss me, I'm actually Irish" St. Patrick's Day!

Anyway, this thread could certainly go (at least) two ways. Blueerica and I discussed the concepts of hiding, discovering, and "owning" one's heritage, as related to World War II and the current war, hoping that the sunni/shi'ite/kurds who feel as though they have to hide or squash their cultures can rediscover and be proud of it these days.

Of course, there's also the whole "green beer!" way this discussion could go. And in light of that...