wash your language

  • All Posts
  • Publications
  • Services
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Dublin / Dear Saint Patrick, it’s complicated

Dear Saint Patrick, it’s complicated

March 17, 2018 by EmmaP 2 Comments

Ah glorious Saint Patrick! Once a year I’ve thought about him, or ignored him, or celebrated his feast day to the hilt, around the world from Hawaii to London, Warsaw to Montreal, Rome to Oslo. And now we’re here as a family in Dublin, and imagining what it’ll be like.

Read the full story – the “before”- in the Irish Times of March 16th. The next post will be the “after”.



 

Like many Irish living abroad I’ve had an on-off relationship with our national holiday. It’s the one day of the year when you can dip into that pool of Irish identity that you always know is there, but which you might choose to disconnect from for the rest of the year.

When I lived in New York, more than 20 years ago, I chose not to dip into the Irish scene. I never went to the St Patrick’s Day parade, perhaps seeing it as a local Irish-American event and somewhat removed from the country I had deliberately left only a few years before. I was actually more curious to watch the others nationalities – like the Poles or Haitians – when they paraded down 5th Avenue and lit up the Empire State Building with their colours…..

Read on

Filed Under: Dublin, Irish, Moving to Ireland, Travel

Recent posts

  • Nana’s Gingerbread November 13, 2019
  • At Last, Our First Halloween in Ireland October 28, 2019
  • The Wren on the Farthing October 14, 2019

Comments

  1. Yvonne Burke says

    April 10, 2018 at 12:31 am

    How do I Blog travel stories and or memoirs, in the Irish Times?
    Best,
    Yvonne

  2. EmmaP says

    April 17, 2018 at 8:13 am

    hi Yvonne you can contact the editor of the Abroad section, Ciara Kenny, who is always looking for interesting stories from Irish people abroad. Emma
    https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

A Blog and More

I write about language and the quirks of our family life in Dublin and previously in Florence and Oslo. My day job is translating from Italian to English, and proofreading.  Read More…

RSS
Facebook
Facebook
Twitter
Visit Us
Instagram

Instagram

Instagram post 2194594614447392381_214605181 Just took a wee trip up to Belfast and now I’m really set to read this wee book
Instagram post 2193062881495298332_214605181 Ah the Christmassy peace and snugness of the Gaiety Bar! You’d never know there was a riot of kids and grannies and shiny wavy wands and noise going on at the panto inside. I wrote a story 2 years ago about my first time with the kids (and husband) at the panto, a very Irish/English tradition. And now they insist on going every year. Link in bio
Instagram post 2190916757279987419_214605181 Took a break at the interval from the panto mayhem at the Gaiety and was drawn to this beautiful portrait outside the bar. It’s Margaret Burke Sheridan (or “Peggy from Mayo” as she always called herself). She was a top soprano in the 1920s, working between Rome and Covent Garden. Puccini apparently swooned at her Madama Butterfly and she made famous recordings of it. She turned down the offer of a Papal Countess (not sure why), and ended up living a quiet life in the Shelbourne Hotel. I’d love to read more about her. Maybe @nuala_oconnor knows a bit.
Load More…

Facebook

Wash Your Language is at The Gaiety Theatre.

6 days ago

Wash Your Language

Took a break at the interval from the panto mayhem at the Gaiety Theatre and I was drawn to this beautiful portrait outside the bar. It’s Margaret Burke Sheridan (or “Peggy from Mayo” as she always called herself). She was a top soprano in the 1920s, working between Rome and Covent Garden. Puccini apparently swooned at her Madama Butterfly and she made famous recordings of it. She turned down the offer of a Papal Countess (I’d love to know why), and ended up living a quiet life in the Shelbourne Hotel. I found a nice story on her at https://irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/… ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook

Wash Your Language

2 weeks ago

Wash Your Language

Here's a fun thread on Twitter about weird #Irish expressions of vagueness from the excellent @theirishfor page.
-------------
Not sure if this is something that happens elsewhere but as a child if I asked my Nana “why?” she would reply “that’s the why.” Or if I was asking her where something was it would be “up in Nellie’s room behind the wallpaper.”

What are your favourite Irish vague non answers?

Here are a few of the answers:

Whenever I'd ask where my mam was, my dad would always respond with "she's run off to marry a soldier" lol

What's for dinner? Cats malacky and dogs melodian
What am I getting for Christmas? A bang of a drum, a kick in the bum, and a Chase around the table

Where are you going ?
Off on a bee’s back for a spin !!

Actual conversation I had in the Gaeltacht:
Me: do you know what time the bus is?
Man: ah don't worry now, there'll be a bus!

Where are you going Mammy? "Out of my mind for the want of sense"

Mam, your legs are looking a bit pale...yes, well that’s the sun...🧐
... See MoreSee Less

Motherfoclóir: Hiberno-English Mark on Twitter

twitter.com

“Not sure if this is something that happens elsewhere but as a child if I asked my Nana “why?” she would reply “that’s the why.” Or if I was asking her where something was it would be “u...
View on Facebook

Wash Your Language

2 weeks ago

Wash Your Language

Rome's most beautiful bookshop closes its doors ... See MoreSee Less

Rome's most beautiful bookshop closes its doors

www.wantedinrome.com

Rome's Libreria del Viaggiatore, which specialises in travel books and is considered by many as the city's most beautiful bookshop, will close its doors for good on 31 December 2019.
View on Facebook

Wash my language?

Språkvask is the Norwegian word for proofing text. Literally it means “language wash”; a more poetic way of saying it!

Blog comments

  • EmmaP on Nana’s Gingerbread
  • Margaret on Nana’s Gingerbread
  • EmmaP on Jaywalking

© 2019 · Handcrafted with d by 2 Pups Design Co.