Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Happy... Happy... Day! All right, I'm back in the States... And am again allowed to be a little insane about my Irish heritage... Whilst living in England... I had to be an "American" and couldn't celebrate my ancestry as much as we Yanks are used to doing. I was always asked by my Brit friends why Americans were always so insane about their ancestry.

A common complaint was: "If you ask an American what they are, they never say 'American' they always say stuff like 'Irish-American' or 'Polish-American.' Why is that?"

I never really had a great argument for it... It really is a bit silly. However... I think the main reason for the "hypenisation" of our great countries people, is our connection to our shared immigrant-based population. All "Americans" (except of course for our Native American friends) are FROM somewhere. In Britain... If you are "born" in Bristol... You're English. Full Stop. Doesn't matter if you are black or purple, or even if your parents were American... You're just English, 'cause you were BORN there.

There's good and bad things about both systems... But I'm not going to go into them, as I'm trying to write a "St. Patrick's Day" blog today... So... On with it.

First... Photos!!! That's right... As a photographer who's actually LIVED in Ireland for a while... I have some of those... I pulled the images off of a few old CD-R's and thought I'd share a few with you all.


Derry (or Londonderry if you're English) No. Ireland - 1999


Dun Laoghire, DART station - 1999


Kissing the Blarney Stone, Blarney, Co. Cork - 1999


Derry Crenellation - 1999
This is one of my actual "art-works." A piece that has been altered digitally.

Hope you liked those... And now... For folks trying to get in the mood for St. Pats:

• The History of St. Patrick's Day

• Leprechauns

• Guinness. 'Nough said.

• The Irish in America

• Gaelic

• Irish Music

• Jamie's... Yum.

• And for the aftermath: Hangovers

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone... It's a great day for the Irish!



-- T