If it looks like an Irishman...

Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone!  Are you Irish?  Not that it matters because we all celebrate the day, right?  I didn't know I was Irish until I was in sixth grade.  I mean sure, St. Patty's Day always meant a trip to Hallmark to pick out a cool shamrock pin, but I just wanted to be like my friends...I didn't know I was indeed Irish.

You'd think my parents would clue me in.  I mean my grandmother was a red head who enjoyed corned beef and soda bread.  Two of my sisters with their red hair and fair freckled complexion look so Irish they could pose at Ellis Island.

My dad loved Irish setters.  Bought me one for my birthday when I turned five.  Mom made him take it back, but still...Maybe he was trying to clue me in to my heritage without mom knowing about it.  I didn't get the hint.  Bye puppy.  Nice knowing you Irish Setter.  I just call him "Irish Setter" because I only spent about an hour with him.  Didn't get the chance to name him.  Regardless because I didn't know I was Irish, I would probably would have come up with some dumb name like "Fluffy" or "Red" instead of  "O'Mahoney" or "Shamrock".  Cool Irish names.

I liked Irish novelties like green leprechaun and shamrock stickers.  I drew lots of rainbows.  I also found Lucky Charms to be my favorite cereal.  I liked to hoard the marshmallows.  Irish breakfast if you will...

I couldn't dance too well.  Don't the Irish do a little jig with their feet going cloppity clop in a cool rhythmic fashion?  Yeah, couldn't do that.  Maybe that threw me off my Irish ancestral scent trail....

I don't know why, but on a sunny Saint Patricks Day in sixth grade I approached my mom as though I was going to have the big 'talk'.  I just asked her.  Flat out.  "Am I Irish?"  I needed answers.  There had to be a reason for my attraction to all things Irish.  The answer? "Trina, of course you're Irish.  You didn't know that?  Your grandmother, her mother, her mother's mother were all of Irish descent."  As though it was common knowledge.

I shared the news with my siblings.  We were pretty jazzed to learn we were indeed Irish.  Real Irish people.  Not the ones who make the claim on March 17th.  I was a little miffed that I had celebrated my Saint Patrick's Days of yesteryear under what I thought was the guise of being Irish....

My anger melted away once I put on that green construction paper hat...with the buckle.  Truly Irish indeed...

Outta here...