Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Erin Go Bragh

An Old Irish Prayer






Give us, Lord, a bit o sun



A bit o work and a bit o fun



Give us in all the struggle and sputter



Our daily bread and a bit o butter



Give us health our keep to make



And a bit to spare for other's sake



Give us, too, a bit of song



And a tale and a book to help us along



Give us, Lord, a chance to be Our goodly best, brave, wise and free------



Our goodly best for ourselves and others



Till all men learn to live as brothers






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In honor of my Irish heritage: My Family's Coat of Arms & the Irish spelling of my last name









Arms:
Argent a holly tree eradicated proper, on a chief Azure a lion passant between two trefoils slipt OR.



Crest:
A lion's head erased Azure collared gemelles Or.



Motto:
fortis et egregious [Brave and distinguished].







This coat of arms was officially granted in 1662, but is probably much older than that.









Today my family can be found in almost every county in Ireland but they are still most numerous around Carlow, Kilkenny, Cork and Leix.












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What shall I say about the Irish?



The utterly impractical, never predictable,



Something irascible, quite inexplicable, Irish.



Strange blend of shyness, pride and conceit



And stubborn refusal to bow in defeat.



He's spoiling and ready to argue and fight,



Yet the smile of a child fills his soul with delight.



His eyes are the quickest to well up in tears,



Yet his strength is the strongest to banish your fears.



His faith is as fierce as his devotion is grand



And there's no middle ground on which he will stand.



He's wild and he's gentle, he's good and he's bad,



He's proud and he's humble, he's happy and sad.



He's in love with the ocean, the earth and the skies,



He's enamored with beauty wherever it lies.



He's victor and victim, a star and a clod,



But mostly he's Irish and in love with his God.






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May the luck if the Irish be with you today & everyday. May you find you own "pot of gold" at the end of your personal rainbow. May your life hold more sunshine than rain. And, May love fill your heart alway & forever.
Blessed be...



5 comments:

country girl said...

My mom's family came from Cork. My other half is from Trondheim, Norway. Sort of the yin and yang of cultures. Our corned beef is already cooking in the crock pot. My sister and her husband adopted two boys from Korea many years ago. So dinner tonight will have more Asian diners than caucasians. My nephews have never had corned beef. One nephew is married; she's Hmong. Never had corned beef either. Gotta speak to my sister about that.

Jennifer Chronicles (jenx67.com) said...

This is the best Irish post I've read today, and as you can imagine there have been many. Our family's coat of arms is that same color of blue - with a litle more yellow. How neat!

I loved both poems, but the last on describes my siblings and me to a "T." Erin Go Bragh!

Jennifer Chronicles (jenx67.com) said...

Good morning!!! I'm doing some blog housekeeping. can you do me a favor? i messed up on the google friends connect thing. i have you on one list and not the other. if you have time, can you join the one labeled "really nice folks" at the bottom of my blog in the righthand column? sorry to bug but I don't want to delete the folks on the one list. thank you!

Dr.John said...

I take it your Irish.
Thanks for sharing the poems.

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