Top O’ The Mornin’ To You!

By Kathy Kovach

I’ve always embraced my Celtic roots, from the auburn in my hair to my Irish smile. Movies about Ireland are among my favorites. The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, and Leap Year, a contemporary love story. Yes, Ireland has always been deep in my soul, until my sister took a DNA test and found we’d spent more time in other European countries than the Emerald Isle.

Maybe I was adopted.

At any rate, here's the craic on some misunderstood Irish facts. (Craic is a common word for fun going's on, gossip, or story.)

First off, let’s talk about Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. He wasn’t Irish. He was but a lad of about sixteen and a Roman citizen of Britain, when he was captured by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. He escaped to his homeland, became an ordained Bishop, and returned to the land of his captivity as a missionary. Some say he drove the snakes (the pagans) out of Ireland, but more accurately, Saint Patrick brought Christianity into the country. As a result, he was instrumental in changing laws and culture, advocating for women, the poor, and the enslaved. 

Do you know what the national symbol is? The shamrock, you say. Indeed, ‘tis not! Well, not the only one, anyway. A 14th century harp is the official national emblem of Ireland, but not without its controversy. As respected as poets, harpers were held in high esteem. In 1431, Henry the VIII of England declared the musical instrument as the national symbol. He even ordered the image to be used on coins. Eventually, however, harp music fell out of favor. By 1912, the harp was resurrected as a representation of resistance to the United Kingdom, and the image was flown on a green flag. After gaining their independence, the Irish government wished to make it their national symbol once more. But not so fast! Guinness, as in the beer, had already registered the figure in 1862, long before the revolution. Not to be deterred, the government simply flipped the harp from left to right, effectively distinguishing the harp’s image for posterity.

Picture is of my husband and our granddaughter, Sophia.

If you ask an Irishman a direct question, they will not answer with a simple “yes” or “no.” This is because these words are not in their original Gaelic vocabulary that dates back to the 4th century. When you inquire if they want to join you at the pub, they will answer with “I would” or “I would not.” More than likely the former as many of them love their beer—the one with the harp on it.

The term, boycott, has been bandied about lately, along with the word, cancel. But where did it originate? If you look at the word itself, it gives no clue to its meaning, unlike cancel, which, in part, comes from the Latin cancellare, meaning “to make like a lattice” or in short, “cross out.” Rather, the word started in Ireland. In 1880, Captain Charles Boycott, a land agent from Ulster, refused to reduce the rents of his employer’s tenants. As a result, he was ostracized by the entire community. The Times of London coined the expression, to boycott, as a term of organized isolation.

“Top o’ the mornin’ to you.” The phrase that kicked off this article was once used in the British Isles during the Victorian era, gaining popularity in Ireland. However, if you said it to an Irishman today, you’d be laughed at. Hollywood resurrected the archaic term and joined a long list of Irish stereotypes. Notably, Clancy, the red-haired hot head with an ale in one hand and a shillelagh (walking stick) in the other, searching for a Leprechaun and his pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

The drop of Irish blood in me wishes to bestow a blessing before we part:

MissAdventure Brides Collection
Seven daring damsels don’t let the norms of their eras hold them back. Along the way these women attract the attention of men who admire their bravery and determination, but will they let love grow out of the adventures? Includes:
"Riders of the Painted Star" by Kathleen E. Kovach

1936 Arizona
Zadie Fitzpatrick, an artist from New York, is commissioned to go on location in Arizona to paint illustrations for an author of western novels and falls for the male model.

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother, though much too young for that. Kathleen is a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.

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Famine in Ireland, and a Wee Bit o' Irish Trivia

by Kathleen L. Maher

The potato. A pivotal figure to the history of Ireland. But not quite the way you might think. First of all, it is not a native plant to the Old World, but originated in South America, and only made its way to Europe during the Sixteenth Century. Secondly, it is not that the Irish were born with a natural and insatiable love for the taste of potatoes, forsaking all other culinary fare, as lore or bad jokes would suggest. Potatoes simply fit into a system of subsistence tenant farmers who needed a food crop that would grow abundantly in the harshest conditions and poorest plots. Any good land in Ireland, where barley and oats grew, or where cattle might graze, would have been farmed for cash crops to enable a tenant to pay exorbitant rent to wealthy landowners. Potatoes, as it turned out, would grow in Ireland in such abundance that half an acre could produce enough to feed a family of two adults and four children for a year. Easily stored and preserved over winter, the starchy wonder offered sustenance long after harvest. And so it would seem that the potato was sent as a miraculous provision into this time and place. 

one of the many four-leaf clovers I find

The population of Ireland increased markedly with the cultivation of the tuber, along with dependence upon it as a staple. Intertwined among the social classes, from the very poor who ate potatoes almost exclusively, to the upper classes who filled out their menu of pork or mutton and fresh vegetables with daily portions of potato, the crop became ubiquitous to Irish life. Variety was the spice of the potato life, with different ways of preparing it such as colcannon--boiled/mashed cabbage and potato, boxty--a fried mixture of potato pancake and hash brown, Irish stew--the poorer cuts of meat mixed with potatoes and vegetables, and finally, champ mash--a spud mashed and served with spring onion, butter and/or milk. Milk typically would be skimmed for making butter or curds, and the remaining and less nutritious whey used by the peasant farmers to "make do".

So with a plentiful source of nutrition so easily adapted to their climate and needs, what could possibly go wrong?

Exhibit A) Britain's complex political climate leading up to and including the Victorian Age. Landowners held great influence, even if they were absentee landlords with holdings in Ireland. The poor held little power to influence law or policy. Irish tenant farmers had about as much political voice as the stones they tilled out of their rented fields. 

Exhibit B) English Corn Laws
A system of protecting the financial interests of these wealthy landowners evolved into high tariffs on imported grains into the British Isles. British corn and grain sold at an artificially high price because the more plentiful foreign grain was taxed too heavily to be profitable. The poor simply could not afford to pay for the luxury of eating grain.

Exhibit C) A blight of fungi on the potato crop in Europe
All of Europe began to experience a blight of dry brown rot on potatoes, but nowhere was it more keenly felt than in Ireland, where roughly half the population was utterly dependent upon the food source. From 1845-1852 the blight led to a failed crop which led to famine and death and mass emigration. One million would die of starvation, and two million would emigrate, ravaging Ireland's population to lows that have never fully recovered even to modern day.

Exhibit D) Protestant versus Catholic, and other prejudices alive and well at the time
History does indeed repeat itself. In every society where one group subjugates another, it can only do so if the common belief regarding the subjugated is one of inferiority, or even dehumanization. The Third Reich did this to Jews, Slavic peoples, Russians, and any of non-Aryan genetics. The American settlers regarded the indigenous people as savages. They sold Africans as slaves and decided by law they were only three-fifths of a human. The Egyptians enslaved the Israelites and enacted extermination policies when their number exceeded Egyptian ability to control them. Age-old sins of greed and pride cloud the vision of entire people groups at such sad times in history. And so it was for the Irish Catholic peasants. They were regarded as lazy, ignorant papists, somehow responsible or deserving of the disaster which had befallen them. And so relief efforts were virtually non-existent.

For a brief time, Queen Victoria and the British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel worked to repeal the Corn Laws in order to alleviate some of the suffering and starvation, but Peel's success in subsidizing grain for Irish consumption had limited effect at best. His successor overturned much of what he accomplished, and what began as a crop failure became a politically engineered famine. 

Some good came out of the ashes of this fiery trial for the Irish people. For one, Ireland has always led the world in famine relief efforts ever since. In addition, Irish culture has spread far and abroad because of the mass emigration during this time. And of note, the exact blight which caused the potato crop ravages is now widely considered to be extinct. 

If you have Irish ancestry, I would love to hear any stories you have of great (great) grandparents who escaped the Potato Famine. Share in the comments below any thoughts or stories or remarks for a random chance to win a $15 Amazon gift card. I will draw the winner with the help of random.org and post one week from today on the sidebar. The luck of the Irish go with ye!

mom and Grandpa Cronin

I'll start by sharing of my great grandfather, John Cronin. He was born in Ireland, I believe in County Cork, in 1849. I'm not certain exactly what year he and his family emigrated to America, but it was during the Great Famine. He grew up in New York City, and enlisted at the age of fifteen in the NY Fighting Irish 69th regiment in the Civil War. He served in the Color Guard, and saw action at the Siege of St. Petersburg, and was present at Appomattox and at the Grand Review in Washington D.C. after the war. He helped organize the St Patrick's Day parade in later years in Manhattan. Family legend has it that it was during his last participation in that parade that he contracted pneumonia and subsequently died. My grandfather, Vincent Cronin, was his seventh son. Vincent's youngest child was my mother, Alicia Cronin (Talvi). I am her youngest. So that is how I have only four generations separating me from that tumultuous time in Irish and American history.

I am roughly half Irish. I married a good Irishman, as my married surname says. And I have to admit, I not only love Irish history, but I actually love potatoes, too. As a kiss from heaven, our only daughter was born on Saint Patrick's Day. Katie Megan Maher, in fifth grade, dressing up to present her biographical report on on Saint Patrick.

Slainte! (Good Health)

 Post Script from last month's post about dogs: Meet the Maher's newest addition, "Bailey", AKC Bailey's Irish Cream. She is a brown and white Landseer Newfoundland. 

Kathleen L. Maher’s first literary crush was Peter Rabbit, and she’s had an infatuation with books and fictional heroes ever since. She has a novella releasing with Barbour in the 2018 Victorian Christmas Brides collection, featuring her hometown of Elmira, NY. Her debut historical “Bachelor Buttons” was released in 2013, and incorporates her Irish heritage and love of the American Civil War. She won the American Christian Fiction Writers' Genesis Contest for unpublished writers, historical category, in 2012.

Kathleen and her husband raised their three children in an old farmhouse in upstate NY, along with a small zoo of rescued dogs, cats, and birds. They run an art business in their spare time and enjoy spoiling their grandchildren on the weekends.

Find Kathleen on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mahereenie
And on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/kathleenlmaher