Well, it's the end of St. Patrick's Day, and I haven't done anything particularly Irish. I don't eat corned beef (don't think I've ever seen a vegetarian version) and had no potatoes or cabbage around the house. I don't drink green beer as a matter of principle, and besides, I'm working tonight. I did, by happenstance, put on a green t-shirt, but it's pastel. The only kelly green clothing I own is a set of green scrubs, but they're old and I didn't feel like pulling them out.
The day did get me trying to look a bit up on my Irish ancestry, though. My given name, Emuel, is supposed to be an Irish variant of Emmanuel. It was given to my great-grandfather by his mother, whose family was from County Cork, and I am the fourth with the name. I decided a few years back to return to the original pronunciation of AYM-ul, rather than continue saying it EM-yoo-el, as it had come to be pronounced, in deference to my heritage.
Great-great-grandma Kate was a Coveney, which is apparently a big political family in County Cork. One of them is even a member of the European Parliament. It's uncanny that this Simon Coveney and I could very easily pass for brothers, but after so many generations I'm not sure how much you could call it familial versus plain old luck of the genetic draw. I'm not sure where my lineage branched off of that tree, but we're a much more pedestrian lot, by comparison. We're also Protestant, which is probably part of the reason this day has never been so big a deal in my family. The Cork Coveneys are Catholic, so I'm not sure where or why the schism occurred, but I would imagine it'd make for an interesting story. Maybe one day I'll get a chance to track it down.
I've been able to make good progress this evening on the snail hat and should be finished with it in fairly short order. Picture to follow.
1 comment:
Your lucky to get an Irish name . . . I just got a typical Catholic bible name :( I'm making up for it by giving my cats traditional Irish names :)
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