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In that picture of the turf Birdwatcher posted the turf is "clamped". It is part of the process of drying it to bring home and burn. Much like Birdwatcher I have had my foot in all 3 worlds, born in the west of Ireland, 3 years in an English town during the troubles as an Irish kid and then America. I definitely choose America in that mix.
I think what is lost in this discussion if people are actually interested in the Irish is the relationship with England. That defines us but not them. Hundreds of years and yes we were conquered. Penal laws, all the children between 10 and 14 being rounded up and sold into slavery in the West Indies, the black and tans, etc. .
I will give a family story my mother told me as an example. She is a Murray from East Galway. It is mostly a Scottish name. When her grandmother was dying in the house and my mom as the oldest was attending to her she was told about two uncles she never had heard of. Her grandmother was broken and crying telling her about her own sons. One of them lived only a couple of miles away. They were disowned by the family for joining the British army during world war one. Now they might of only done it because there was no other job but they were disowned by their family. The Irish truly hate informers and traitors. I don't see the same hardness here in America. Interesting to note that the most Irish deaths in war are in world war one followed by the American Civil War. I personally don't blame my great uncles but I didn't live through what my Great Grandparents did.

The Irish are predisposed to drinking and fighting, they just like it the same way a lab wants to fetch. Never heard anyone claiming to be "Badass" when I was growing up.

Hell ancestors were here long before the Revolutionary War, fluctuating between Canada and Michigan... and yes we liked to drink and fight. Hell prior to the war the Irish amounted to some 1/4 to 1/3 of the early American population. Had it not been for the Irish, might be you all would be speaking more of a British slang than you do. Freedom, it wasn't the British aristocrats that were interested in American freedom.

Phil

Celt, thanks for the insight. You are more Irish than me.

My great Uncle Patrick was a originally a sailor, joined the Royal Munster Fusiliers before the Great War, his brother, my Grandfather hated the Brits but not his brother. They were from Queenstown, now Cobh, seems like anti-British sentiment weren't so strong in that town, maybe because so many made a living off of English shipping.

Great Uncle Patrick died at Gallipoli, mentioned in dispatches. Grandpa O'Birdy died before I was born, he messed up his lungs through an attack of the bends when he worked salvage diving in the Caribbean, moved to Brooklyn, married an Irish girl. She died giving birth to their fifth child. My grandma had stayed on in Ireland until her thirties, an old maid, stayed back to look after her elderly parents. Her marriage to my grandpa was almost arranged; she was alone, he needed someone to help raise the children. They had four more kids, one of whom was my dad. My dad weren't much on hate, he never did set foot in Ireland, grew up hunting and trapping during the depression in rural NY State. Whatever negative sentiments he may have learned were blown away by his experiences with the Sixth Marines on Okinawa, I think that made all else sorta irrelevant, Plus the love of his life became an English girl.

My mom'd dad, who I grew up around, was the son of an English Catholic (related to the Old Lancashire Martyrs) who had married an Irish girl in Manchester. That guy drank their fortune away so my grandpa had to raise himself up from nothing, becoming a prosperous hotelier on the Chamber of Commerce. He was a fireman during the Blitz My mom's mom was brung to Manchester by her County Cork parents. Her dad took a ship to New Zealand, telling no one, just didn't come home one day, abandoning his wife and two young daughters. So my mom's mom grew up in poverty, in England, little cause to be enamored of anything Irish. My mom was raised Catholic English, the defining experience of Her childhood was getting bombed out of her house by the Luftwaffe. She was sent to Canada, met my dad in Brooklyn right after the war, he followed her back to England and married her there.

We were in Blackpool through the sixties, can't say I had any reason to complain, I grew up with English friends. Us O'Birdy kids did go to a Catholic school taught by the Irish Christian Brothers (only two of the fifteen were homosexual pedophiles), but they soft-pedaled Nationalism in that setting. Of course I was aware of the troubles, Bernadette Devlin and Ian Paisely were on the telly most every night. Mostly we were glad we weren't a part of it.

I think there's a Celtic predisposition for getting PO'd we all inherit, I'm personally familiar with the hatreds on both sides, I understand it, cuts close, still glad I don't gotta be a part of it.


Only thing in your post I might take issue with, EVERYONE I knew in the working classes over there was prone to drinking and fighting

Scots Irish, Protestant for the most part. Big difference.

True on everyone doing the drinking and fighting in the working classes Birdwatcher. I never had the hatred of the English, easier for my cousins who never lived there. When kids were showing up in my neighborhood in Yorksire to fight the paddy and i was more experienced my english friends always enjoyed the show. Once again my experiences are different,. when I was only a baby my dad would go to London in the summer to work. One summer he was bringing my mother and leaving me in Galway..Trying to find a place to rent . All the signs said no coloureds or Irish. I never dealt with that.

double post

This explains the difference better.... 🙂

Sorry about the delay, when I did this trip June/July/August 2016 Photobucket was up and running, I'm reclaiming my photos from there, but sometimes they ain't available.

My son and I went to see the Isle of Man TT, after he left I had 40 days to do a 1,500 mile loop on a bicycle - North of England - Scotland - Ireland - France - back to the start up England. Took me ten days up England and through Glasgow and down the Kyntire Peninsula to Campbeltown. Ended up spending fourteen days in Ireland,: In through the far Northeast corner at Ballycastle, then made a beeline southwest through Ulster and the Republic to the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast at Doolin, from there south to Killarney, then County Cork, then Cobh to look for my grandpa's house.

This was in a Saturday morning on the dock at Campbeltown, Scotland, before 6am. Used to be this woulda been BFE, but time and the internet has united everybody. Paul McCartney famously has a country place just outside of town. The morning before about halfway down that peninsula I stopped at a little store, the guy working the counter was a huge NFL fan thanks to ESPN, and him and his buddies were due to fly out to Vegas, wanted to know how far it was to the Grand Canyon. That's how small the world has become.

Campbeltown_zps8bsll22q

Just fifteen miles of open water between Campbeltown and Ballycastle, once a week passenger service, foot traffic only, last view of Scotland.....





First view of Ireland, Rathlin Island, four miles long, just off the coast of Ulster. Not to start out morbid or anything but back in the 16th and 17th Century hundreds of women and kids were tossed of those cliffs, twice, for the crime of being MacDonalds, both massacres perpetrated by the Campbells. Bonnie Scotland and all that....



First view of Ulster proper, this was a big moment for me, I was finally gonna set foot on Mother Ireland....



Ballycastle Harbor.....



One thing the whole British Isles does really well is big, greasy breakfasts, perfect if you're gonna be riding a bike all day (turns out French breakfasts suck in that regard). It was raining of course, and still early, so I got breakfast at a little place right by the harbor.



That'll do for now, I got a few more Ulster pics to post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4atNBYCr0Y

A great Celtic song about crossing the Irish Sea. O Ro Song of the Sea by Sean Nua with Antoinette McKenna.