Since my genetics are Irish and Scotch/Irish, I’ve been reading a book about Irish History, listening to music on a CD where Tim O’Brien is singing Irish songs, and reviewing materials I wrote when I taught at Southwest State University (SMSU) and went with students on a Global studies trip to Ireland.

An article I have by Tim O’Brien named “The Crossing” has this sentence: “Bluegrass developed in Appalachia as the direct offspring of traditional Scots-Irish Music.” I would need to focus on music to write more about the idea. The book’s title is “10 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT IRISH HISTORY” by Ryan Hackney and Amy Hackney Blackwell, copyright 2007 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. The last page of the book (before the index) is a page titled IRISH BLESSING, and the first six lines are

May the road rise up to meet you

May the wind be always at your back

May the sun shine warm upon your face And rains fall soft upon your fields.

Until we meet again,

May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Once I did pay attention to where my ancestors lived, I noticed that the Scotch-Irish were typically described as shy and reserved (best case scenario), stern, stubborn, and dour. A personality trait comes to you at birth, and my ancestry notes that I have Scotch-Irish ancestors on my mother’s side and my father’s side. When we had Sunday dinner after church at Grandma and Grandpa Blake’s house (that’s the photo you see with this review) my grandma would tell us about her Cherokee ancestors.

A letter I wrote years ago to my great niece tells her about my ancestry and then refers to the Global Studies trip I was on to Ireland in 2000 when I taught at SMSU.

John O’Donohue was an Irish poet I’d like to quote (he passed away in January of 2008). The book I’m reading for this poem is “Echoes of MEMORY,” c 1994.

Messenger of Sight

I would send a raven

to your window with a green blade

to show you the flood that blinded

is gone down and my eyes can see

The torn sinews of the impoverished

Earth gasped in this white, winter light.

(The definition of sinew is “a solid resilient strength.”)

I also have notes from 2019 that relate to the Irish. In July of that year, five students from Ulster University in Northern Ireland were at SMSU. They presented an interesting program at the Whipple Gallery about the geography of Ireland, foods, music, language and sports.

The week they were here included attending a Milroy Irish baseball game, visiting Lingen Dairy Farms in the area, boating on Lake Marshall, and more. One day early in the week, Mike Lenz, as assistant professor of theater at the time, met with the students to help them “talk Minnesotan.” They each received a signed copy of Howard Mohr’s “How to Talk Minnesotan” and got to meet the author.

One time after they all ate a meal together, I shared some photos I took when I was in Ireland May 9-22, 2000, with the Global Studies Program trip for SMSU students.

When it was time for the students to return to Ireland, they were taken to Sioux Falls, S.D., to get their return flight to Northern Ireland.

I have sent for a book titled, “The Cats of Ireland,” by Seamus Mullarkey. As you may remember, my family living in my house now are three cats: Andy, Freddie, and Pandora.

From mysteries based in ancient Ireland by Peter Tremayne to :“The Festive Food of Ireland” (641.509415 ALL) to folk/world music on CD “The Sailor’s Cravat: Irish Traditional Music & Song” by Paddy O’Brien, you can find a pot o’ gold’s worth of materials at your Marshall-Lyon County Library marshalllyonlibrary.org.