Words and Language

AND the accent and apparently they have a pot of gold too flowerjen! Did I mention the accent?

What's NOT to love about an Irish accent ?

Here's an example, my nephew. 50% Irish 50% Russian

My friend's father has a heavy brogue, even though he's been here forever. I still have to strain to understand. I play it back slower in my head.

Like conundrum!

Three sheets to the wind is just plain drunk.

i thought black irish where spanish sailors that got ship wrecker there centuries ago

my mother is black irish

My father is black irish. The term comes from when the Moors came to Ireland and mated with the women, creating darker hair, sometimes darker skinned Irish.

This message was edited Jan 12, 2010 6:09 PM

I drink a black Irish beer now and then!

You know, I always knew my dad was black Irish because he told me and he had the typical black hair and blue eyes. I thought it was from Spanish (Iberian Peninsula) descent, until my friend who also claims to be black Irish, explained to me that it was specifically from the Moors. I tried to look it up just now and found no reference to the Moors. In fact, the Spanish connection seems weak, too. Ho hum... I'm finding more and more that her facts that she's very passionate about aren't well researched.

Moor influence in Ireland?

i was certain i had learned that survivors of ships wrecks from the spanish fleet took up residence in ireland.

This is what I found....

Ireland was once part of the Moorish Empire; that is, the celts were Moslems, & there were black moors from N. Africa also present in Ireland. But the moors were expelled by militant Christianity -- this event is disguised in the legend of St. Patrick's expelling the snakes.

here is what i found - http://www.ireland-information.com/articles/blackirish.htm

there is no reference to moor's and a slight reference to spanish

Did some quick searching and found no reference to Moors in Ireland. The Celts pre-date Islam and I have never heard of any connection.

Love the phrase, 'scantily-clad'. Not sure why.

I know why! Duh! LOLOL!

HMMM!

Hmmm I wonder why?

^_^

Used another nice one today 'impinging'

as in, in this case," the sidewalk has not been cleared and there is building material impinging on the walk ". ( complaint to city re snow/ice not cleared . We are required to clear our sidewalks within 24 hours of snowstorm. This particular site, about which I have complained previously is being developed. Developers seem to think if nobody is living there then nobody uses the sidewalk!)

Reminds me of 'encumber'. My fire escape at my old apartment had a very old sigh saying to keep all 'encumbrances' off!

Perhaps your puppies might perchance 'impinge' on the building materials ^_^ (Totally just kidding! There's a law about puppy impinging too!)

I used to do that as a kid - not the bathroom part, we had a dictionary about 6 inches thick, must of been large print to fill up that many pages. Just flip it open and see what you get.

I used to sit on a dictionary placed on the kitchen chair to reach the table. I think it had a lasting effect.

Dahlia depends on what kind of puppy impinging we are talking about!

My husband, who has quite a fair complexion, had very black black hair, not brown but black (until it turned gray) and always thought or was told he was Black Irish (he is genetically 100% Irish). When he enlisted in the Air Force he put down his hair color as Black and was told only Negroes had black hair!

I see no one has quoted Wikipedia yet re Black Irish.

My contribution:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Irish

Nobody is 100 percent anything...

True! That's 100% correct.

There are no pure races. That is race as we know it because actually race doesnt exist either, but that is another story.,

In addition, there are no 'pure' ethnic groups. So much mixing has gone on that there is no such thing. That was one of the points of the National Geographic genetic project.

I was stationed in Iceland and all kinds of scientists would come there to study the people and geography because they are so cut off from everything, it is believed they may be close to being as singly racial as anyone can be, and even they are not 100 percent pure.

Desolate place, isn't it?

Isn't it Greenland that's desolate? I always remembered Iceland is green and Greenland is icy.

Oh yes - that's right. They were playing with the names!

Yep! Very little vegetation and the naval base was built in one of the most desolate spots. I made 6 quilts by hand out there.

I have just discovered this thread. Allow me to chime in:

I am french canadian. My name is Sylvain Forest (really) and I am a master gardener living in Palm Beach county, FL. In roman mythology, sylvains were the genies who took care of the forests. My parents knew nothing of this until my 6th grade, when my latin teacher ROTFL when he came across my name while taking attendance on the first day of school. I was mortified. I have gotten over it since.

Someone mentionned Roméo Lebeau. Might he have been married to Juliette Labelle?
True fact: I worked with a girl named Jocelyne Labelle Joly, which literally transates as Jocelyne the beautiful nice. What were the odds of a Ms. Labelle marying a Mr. Joly?

Sylvain.