Authentic Irishness

See also: Ersatz Irishness

Because it's St. Patrick's Day and I'm Irish, a couple facts about the forms my Irishness takes:

• My mom's maternal grandparents are the Irish in my family.
  
• My Irish ancestors are from a town in northwestern Ireland called Sligo. I saw it once when I was 10. I remember it as a gray, kind of poky, little town, surrounded by beautiful countryside. There was a shopping cart upside down in the middle of the river that ran through town, and some ducks swimming around it. We had lunch at a pub, and then visited Yeats' grave.
• I used to play golf with some of my parents' Irish friends. A common phrase: "OK, [Floppy] looks like we're in the deep stuff again."
  
• I could tell the difference between a Cork and Dublin accent when I was in high school.
  
• I met Seamus Heaney once.
  

This concludes the chronicling of my own ties to the Emerald Isle.

We'll be back in August to honor my other ancestors on St. Stephen's day, Oktoberfest and Guy Fawkes Day.