God in a pear tree: The hidden meaning behind "The Twelve Days of Christmas"

With Christmas only three days away, I just had to join footnoteMaven for her traditional blog caroling event!

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" depicted by artist Xavier Romero-Frias 

The song I've chosen here at A Light That Shines Again is a well-known favorite, yet behind the words we know so well there may be hidden meaning related to Irish history.

You'll find the lyrics in Irish and English below. Scroll down further to read my about my research into the background of this favorite carol.

To all of my readers: may your twelve days of Christmas, and your coming year, be merry!

~

Dha Lá Deag na Nollag (or) The Twelve Days of Christmas

Ar an chéad lá Nollag thug mo leannán dom patraisc i gcrann piorraí.

Ar an dara lá Nollag thug mo leannán dom dhá fhéarán bhreaca.

Ar an tríú lá Nollag thug mo leannán dom trí chearc fhrancacha.

Ar an ceathrú lá Nollag thug mo leannán dom ceithre éan ag glaoch.

Ar an cúigiú lá Nollag thug mo leannán dom cúig fháinne óra.

Ar an séú lá Nollag thug mo leannán dom sé ghé ag breith.

Ar an seachtú lá Nollag thug mo leannán dom seacht n-eala ag snámh.

Ar an t-ochtú lá Nollag thug mo leannán dom ochtar cailín ag bleán.

Ar an naoú lá Nollag thug mo leannán dom naonúr ban ag damhsa.

Ar an deichiú lá Nollag thug mo leannán dom deichniúr tiarna ag léim.

Ar an t-aonú lá déag Nollag thug mo leannán dom aon phíobaire dhéag ag seinm.

Ar an dara lá déag Nollag thug mo leannán dom dháréag drumadóir ag drumadóireacht.

On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree.

On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love gave to me two turtle doves.

On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me three french hens.

On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me four calling birds.

On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me five gold rings.

On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me six geese a laying.

On the 7th day of Christmas my true love gave to me seven swans a swimming.

On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me eight maids a milking.

On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me nine maids a dancing.

On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me ten lords a leaping.

On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me eleven pipers pipering.

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me twelve drummers drumming.

~

In the spirit of the true meaning of Christmas, I was planning to write a post about the well-loved carol The Twelve Days of Christmas. I had learned several years ago that the objects throughout the carol had hidden meanings - they represented various aspects of the Christian faith. I understood that the carol had been written for use by persecuted English and Irish Catholics during the time of England's Protestant reformation. Or so I thought...

After a little bit of research on the subject (much thanks to Douglas Anderson's Hymns and Carols of Christmas website) I have learned enough about The Twelve Days of Christmas to write a book, never mind a blog post. And, no, the background of the carol may not be exactly what I had thought. But it does have a fascinating history steeped in the joy and merriment of the Christmas season which traveled through several countries before becoming an international phenomenon.

The song probably had its origin as a French carol and was sung as a sort of "chanson de geste" by the medieval troubadours of France, according to The Folk Carol of England by Douglas Brice.

Elizabeth Poston writes in The Second Penguin Book of Christmas Carols that the earliest written version of the song appears in "Twelth Day", a 13th-century manuscript located at Trinity College, Cambridge. The Twelve Days of Christmas was first published in a children's book called Mirth & Mischief in 1780, with its first appearance in a collection of Christmas songs coming in 1868.

Just to clarify, the "twelve days of Christmas" refers to the period of celebration between Christmas day itself and Epiphany on January 6. The song was originally sung by the French on Epiphany, otherwise known as Twelth Night.

In its more recent history, The Twelve Days of Christmas song has become a favorite throughout the traditional Christmas season and now our modern extended secular Christmas season which gets rolling in late November (and perhaps even earlier) in some places.

As for the meaning behind the symbols, here is the story as best I could find it. It turns out that a Catholic priest by the name of Fr. Hal Stockert had done some research for a project years back. In the process he came across some letters from Irish Jesuit priests to the motherhouse in Rheims, France. According to Fr. Stockert's memory (he hasn't been able to relocate the letters) some of the documents had mentions of the symbolism of The Twelve Days of Christmas being used as a secret catechism for persecuted Catholics at the time. Fr. Stockert posted his findings online not "as a doctoral thesis", as he put it, but "simply as some delicious tidbit [he] thought the world would be delighted to share over a holiday season". (See more about his story at Catholic Culture or Catholic Information Network. For another interesting discussion on the topic and a list of the symbols, see this CRI/Voice webpage.)

So it turns out that the carol, not necessarily written as a tool of faith, may have actually been used that way. Whether or not this was the case, thanks to this song we now have an interesting and memorable way to remember various aspects of faith.

Here are the symbols, according to the Catholic Culture webpage:

• true love = God Himself
• partridge in a pear tree = Jesus Christ
• 2 turtle doves = Old and New Testaments
• 3 French hens = faith, hope and charity (the theological virtues)
• 4 calling birds = the four Gospels and/or the four evangelists
• 5 golden rings = the first five books of the Old Testament (Pentateuch)
• 6 geese a-laying = the six days of creation
• 7 swans a-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and/or the seven sacraments
• 8 maids a-milking = the eight beatitudes
• 9 ladies dancing = the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit
• 10 lords a-leaping = the ten commandments
• 11 pipers piping = the eleven faithful apostles
• 12 drummers drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed

As the twelve days of Christmas draw near, I hope you'll take the time to read the story of the "Partridge's" birth written by one of the "four calling birds" in one of the "turtle doves". Make sure you obey the "ten lords a leaping", and I wish you a holiday season filled with "French hens!"


The article originally appeared here at A Light That Shines Again as part of Thomas MacEntee's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2007 and 2009. 

Language fun "galore": Working on my Hiberno-English

When (thanks to Colm Doyle's Corcaighist) I came across Gaelchultúr's Language Placement Test on the Irish language, I thought I would at least give myself a chance to try out one or two questions. One quick look at the test made me think otherwise. I decided right then and there to "make quick the road" (an Irish phrase meaning "to head home before trouble begins") and instead work on my Hiberno-English as a starting point.

What is Hiberno-English? This phrase refers to English as it is often spoken in Ireland. Another way of looking at it is this: Hiberno-English is English spoken in the style of the Irish language. The syntax of the two languages is very different (in fact Irish syntax is very different from most Indo-European languages). A native Irish speaker automatically gives their own twist to the use of the English language. That is how Hiberno-English came about.

Let me give you an example. The Irish language does not have words that translate directly to yes or no. If you would like to reply negatively or positively to someone's question, you must rephrase the question and make a full reply.

For example, if asked "Are you coming for dinner?" a Hiberno-English speaker might answer, "I am" intead of "Yes". If asked, "Is your friend coming with you?" they would be likely to answer, "She's not" instead of "No".

In Hiberno-English, someone who can speak a language is refered to as "having a language". This phrase borrows from the Irish translation. As further explained on Wikipedia's Hiberno-English webpage, the sentence "She does not have Irish" is translated as "Níl Gaeilge aici", literally meaning "There is no Irish at her". Sadly, I realize that I "do not have Irish". The way that sentence sounds makes it seem like I could just go out and get it. If only learning a language was so easy!

According to the History of the Irish Language webpage,

The version of English spoken in Ireland, known as Hiberno-English bears striking similarities in some grammatical idioms with Irish. Some have speculated that even after the vast majority of Irish people stopped speaking Irish, they perhaps subsconsciously used its grammatical flair in the manner in which they spoke English. This fluency is reflected in the writings of Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and more recently in the writings of Seamus Heaney, Paul Durcan, Dermot Bolger and many others.

The distinct Hiberno-English may today be losing some of its hold over Ireland, particularly within younger age groups and in urban areas, yet the impact of the Irish language on its birthplace (and the world) remains.

After all, who ever referred to Cork County? Of course, the correct name is County Cork - a result of the original Irish word order. The same is true of lakes and rivers, such as Lough Neagh (the largest lake in the United Kingdom) and the well-known River Shannon, Ireland's longest.

Cork itself appears to have its own "dialect" of Hiberno-English, recognizable by its commonly generous use of emphasis words. Here's an example, in case you are in need of a good insult:

"You are a howling, thundering, rampaging, galloping, creeching langer, so you are!"

(Warning: it might not be a good idea to use this on your friends.)
Now it's time for me to put the kibosh on. In closing, I thought you might enjoy a reminder of some of the words that the English language has borrowed from Irish. Where would we be today without galore, phoney and smithereens?

I hope that this little introduction to Hiberno-English got you thinking, and that you'll find time to dabble in a little bit of Irish slang yourself.

Need a good starting place? Try Slanguage: A Dictionary of Irish Slang by Bernard Share and A Dictionary of Hiberno-English by T.P. Dolan, both recommended by Corcaighist's Colm Doyle.

Go n'éirí an t-ádh leat! (Pronounced guh nye-ree un taw laht)

The best of luck to you!

This article was originally published here on April 25, 2008 as Sad news: there is "no Irish at me".  It was written for and included in the "Irish language" edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture entitled "A little Irish language, a bit of Blarney...".  You can also find that edition of the carnival reposted on the carnival's blog.

A little Irish language, a bit of Blarney...

Céad Míle Fáilte!

"One-hundred thousand welcomes" to the 5th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture!

Today is St. Ciarán's Day! Well, one of many St. Ciarán's days celebrated throughout the Irish calendar year. It turns out that Ciarán (or Kieran) is quite a popular Irish name, particularly for saints.

Ready for a little introduction to the Irish language (An Ghaelige), its cousin Hiberno-English, and the Irish way with words? If you are a new student of the language of the Irish people or just curious about Irish ways and words, you'll find info galore among the following articles. If Irish is your native tongue, I hope you'll find some fun reading our little tribute to the language.

So settle back, do your best impression of a good Irish brogue, and join us as we laud the language of the bards of Ireland!

You might think that my interest in Irish Gaelic and my idea to focus an edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture on it stems from my vast personal knowledge of the language. If you thought so, think again! As much as I'd like to begin to understand the Irish language, I realize that anyone hearing me try to pronounce anything more than "Céad Míle Fáilte!" would probably say, "Níl Gaeilge aici". (Translation: "She does not have Irish.") Read more about my limited Irish language skills and a little introduction to Hiberno-English at my post Sad news: there is "no Irish at me" here at A light that shines again.

Want to hear from an Irish speaker who knows his stuff? Colm Doyle, a language teacher from Ireland living in Estonia, has a knowledge of and devotion to the Irish language and languages in general. His contribution to our carnival is on his blog Corcaighist (he has three - one of which is written in Irish). Ambasadóirí na Gaeilge - Ambassadors of the Irish Language is, as he states, "a post about the importance of every single speaker of Irish in ensuring a future for the language." Wonder what the status of the Irish language is today? Want to hear one insider's perspective on the issues that it faces within Ireland and to learn about its spread outside of the country? Read the words of this Irishman who "has a grá for the language" and finds that it "warms the cockles of the heart and brings a tear to [his] eye".

Colm's post makes mention of the "political, emotional and societal baggage" which the Irish language carries today. For an introduction to a good resource on the history of the language see my post entitled "Sticks and stones can break my bones... here at A light that shines again. The book I've found takes a look at the background behind today's state of the Irish language through a look at primary sources that tell the story of its history back to the year 1366.

If you are personally interested in learning to speak a little Irish yourself, be sure to get a reliable teacher. It can be dangerous to depend on someone else to teach you their language, as Colleen Johnson illustrates with her story Gabh Mo Leithscéal or Pardon Me. What do you get when mix an Irish grandmother from County Clare with an appreciation for a good laugh, a slew of similar-minded Irish folk, and a naive young granddaughter visiting from the United States? You guessed it: trouble. Read Colleen's post to "feel her pain" as she tells the story of her embarrassing Irish language moment.

If you are like Barbara Joly and myself, your Irish immigrant ancestors go back a little farther in the generations and your family's experience with the Irish language passed on before your arrival. In a tribute to Tipperary, one of Barbara's family's counties of origin, Barbara shares the story of her heritage as she knows it in Tiobraid Árann and I at Our Carroll family Genealogy. Her post includes an explanation of the background of the well-known song It's a Long Way to Tipperary and introduces another Tipperary musical tribute that is much prefered by the Irish.

While we're on the subject of Tipperary (Tiobraid Árann in the Irish language), stop by for a visit to Smoky Mountain Family Historian. Lori Thornton gives a little introduction to learning about Ireland and County Tipperary from an outsider's perspective in her post It's a Long Way to Tipperary. Lori's surprise at the name of Killarney reminded me how easily things can be misconstrued in translation. A tip for would-be Irish geography students: check out an introduction to irish placenames such as DoChara's or About.com's. You'll be feeling better about visiting Killarney and all places starting with Kil- or Kill- knowing that they are named for woods or churches and not what you might have first feared!

Back to the topic of Irish grandmothers, Thomas MacEntee of Destination: Austin Family shares fond memories of his great-grandmother's and other relatives' attempts to ensure that he knew of his Irish heritage. His post, entitled Irish Words, Irish Ways, is a tribute to the "gift of gab" that he received from his relatives and through which he learned many beloved family stories. As Thomas states, "my family didn't use Gaelic words but as you can see, they were schooled in the Irish tradition of storytelling". I hope that the Irish way with words is more of an inherited trait, yet as Thomas shows, it sure helps to be schooled in it by a dedicated Irish grandmother!

For a little more on Blarney, that famous Blarney stone, and some treasured Irish proverbs from another Irish grandmother (Janice Brown's "lovely gram") visit Cow Hampshire to read New Hampshire: Blarney Spoken Here. Janice also shares a few suggested links on the Irish language including an Irish dictionary and an online translator.

Janice's post mentions that in New Hampshire - as in many places influenced by the Irish - "you can't help but hear wee ghosts of the lilting Gaelic language in the current accents, and in certain words still used". It is a language that won't die easily. As I mentioned in my post about Hiberno-English, it carries on in the speech of those who now speak another language. Shades of it also remain, as we have seen, in the "gift of gab" of many who had a story-telling grandmother of Irish descent.

It is my hope, as I have written in my article The death of memory, that the Irish language will overcome its modern obstacles and remain a part of the Ireland of the future, as well as a keeper and reminder of our beloved Irish culture and heritage.

In closing, I wish you all an Irish blessing:

Saol fada chugat!

Long life to you...
...and long life to the Irish language!

Go maire an Ghaeilge go deo!

For an introduction to the upcoming 6th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture, see What does it mean to be Irish? over at Small-leaved Shamrock. Hope to see you at the carnival!

"Sticks and stones can break my bones...

...but words can never hurt me!"

This childhood chant is familiar to many of us in a different context, yet I thought of it as I pondered the long history of Ireland and the struggles it has had over the centuries with conquerors and foreign tongues.

Words, it seems, do have the power to hurt a person - and to hurt a people.

Since I have a limited understanding of the full historical context of the struggles of the Irish language, I was happy to find a book that provided firsthand, through primary sources, a look at the relatively recent history of the language and its troubled life.

Tony Crowley's The Politics of Language in Ireland 1366-1922: A Sourcebook is a compilation of texts covering six centuries worth of Irish lingual history. From the Statute of Kilkenny in 1366 to the constitution of the Irish Free State in 1922, these historical documents provide a glimpse into the complex history of Ireland and its language.

Crowley states in the book's introduction:

The story of the relations between the two main languages of Ireland over the past 600 years is quite as complicated as the history of the political relationship between Ireland and England (and later, Ireland and the United Kingdom). Quite as tortuous and characterised just as much by rivalry, confusion, misapprehension and bitterness, as well as fascination, apparently inevitable attraction, and striking achievement.

It is, by any standards, an extraordinary history and the aim of this collection is to provide access to it.

Crowley's introduction goes on to warn against "simple versions of history" which are "dangerous, though not as pernicious as the belief that all versions of the past are equally acceptable". Crowley states that:

In the case of the history of the relations between the languages of Ireland, however, the intent of the selection [of primary sources in the book] is to show that the reality has been much more difficult, convoluted...and complex, than has often been thought.

The history of language in Ireland is an important topic with much application to modern events today. We all have a lot to learn.

Sad news: there is "no Irish at me"

When (thanks to Colm Doyle's Corcaighist) I came across Gaelchultúr's Language Placement Test on the Irish language, I thought I would at least give myself a chance to try out one or two questions. One quick look at the test made me think otherwise. I decided right then and there to "make quick the road" (an Irish phrase meaning "to head home before trouble begins") and instead work on my Hiberno-English as a starting point.

What is Hiberno-English? This phrase refers to English as it is often spoken in Ireland. Another way of looking at it is this: Hiberno-English is English spoken in the style of the Irish language. The syntax of the two languages is very different (in fact Irish syntax is very different from most Indo-European languages). A native Irish speaker automatically gives their own twist to the use of the English language. That is how Hiberno-English came about.

Let me give you an example. The Irish language does not have words that translate directly to yes or no. If you would like to reply negatively or positively to someone's question, you must rephrase the question and make a full reply.

For example, if asked "Are you coming for dinner?" a Hiberno-English speaker might answer, "I am" intead of "Yes". If asked, "Is your friend coming with you?" they would be likely to answer, "She's not" instead of "No".

In Hiberno-English, someone who can speak a language is refered to as "having a language". This phrase borrows from the Irish translation. As further explained on Wikipedia's Hiberno-English webpage, the sentence "She does not have Irish" is translated as "Níl Gaeilge aici", literally meaning "There is no Irish at her". Sadly, I realize that I "do not have Irish". The way that sentence sounds makes it seem like I could just go out and get it. If only learning a language was so easy!

According to the History of the Irish Language webpage,

The version of English spoken in Ireland, known as Hiberno-English bears striking similarities in some grammatical idioms with Irish. Some have speculated that even after the vast majority of Irish people stopped speaking Irish, they perhaps subsconsciously used its grammatical flair in the manner in which they spoke English. This fluency is reflected in the writings of Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and more recently in the writings of Seamus Heaney, Paul Durcan, Dermot Bolger and many others.

The distinct Hiberno-English may today be losing some of its hold over Ireland, particularly within younger age groups and in urban areas, yet the impact of the Irish language on its birthplace (and the world) remains.

After all, who ever referred to Cork County? Of course, the correct name is County Cork - a result of the original Irish word order. The same is true of lakes and rivers, such as Lough Neagh (the largest lake in the United Kingdom) and the well-known River Shannon, Ireland's longest.

Cork itself appears to have its own "dialect" of Hiberno-English, recognizable by its commonly generous use of emphasis words. Here's an example, in case you are in need of a good insult:

"You are a howling, thundering, rampaging, galloping, creeching langer, so you are!"

(Warning: it might not be a good idea to use this on your friends.)

Now it's time for me to put the kibosh on. In closing, I thought you might enjoy a reminder of some of the words that the English language has borrowed from Irish. Where would we be today without galore, phoney and smithereens?

I hope that this little introduction to Hiberno-English got you thinking, and that you'll find time to dabble in a little bit of Irish slang yourself.

Need a good starting place? Try Slanguage: A Dictionary of Irish Slang by Bernard Share and A Dictionary of Hiberno-English by T.P. Dolan, both recommended by Corcaighist's Colm Doyle.

Go n'éirí an t-ádh leat! (Pronounced guh nye-ree un taw laht)

The best of luck to you!

The death of memory

There is a Mexican saying that we die three deaths: the first when our bodies die, the second when they are lowered into the earth, and the third when we no longer remain in the memory of any of the living.

It was only three generations after his own that Patrick Tierney's descendants lived much of their lives never having heard their great-grandfather's name. They were born less than a half-century after his death in 1900, yet they had no knowledge of his life or any of its details.

Thanks to the discovery of census records, vital records, city directories and a newspaper obituary he has been "brought to life" again within his own family.

Such a tragedy - to so quickly lose the memory of a man who had paved the way for his family to own the American dream through his own sweat, tears and often immigrant shame. Lost was the knowledge of his beginnings in Tipperary, of his childhood triumph over the death-dealing famine, of his struggling beginnings as an immigrant in a country that didn't want him.

I am thankful to be able to know the name of my great-great-grandfather Patrick and to have a small glimpse into his life and times.

In the resurrection of his memory and the telling of his story, I hope to continue to pass his life down through the generations.

As the loss of one man's memory left a void in those who had come into his family a few generations after him, the loss of the Gaelic language has left a void in the Irish people - yet on a much grander scale.

With the departure of a language goes the loss of the heart of a culture and much of its deep heritage. The British must have known that as they forced the Irish to suffer for use of their native tongue. Perhaps they considered it the only way to truly fight the headstrong Irish - by taking from them the shared language and heritage that was their strength.

The Oxford Companion to Irish History, a dictionary-like reference work on all things Irish edited by S.J. Connolly, has an entry on the Irish language (see language) which reads as follows:

The shift from the indigenous language (Irish) to the language of the conquerors (English) weakened the attachment of the Irish to their own country. Indeed it can be argued that the loss of the Irish language is the decisive event in Irish history, since it altered radically the self-understanding of the Irish and destroyed the continuity between their present and their past.

The loss of the Irish language is not only a concern with regard to not being able to understand old Irish records and literature. Its loss is the departure of the ability to view the world from a truly Irish perspective, since the differences in vocabulary and syntax of other languages cause the speaker to view their world in a different way.
I'm not a resident of the Gaeltacht nor do I have an understanding of all the current complexities in the efforts toward promoting the use of the native language of the Irish people. I do know, however, that this language of my ancestors has a beautiful uniqueness that cannot be matched, particularly to the ears and eyes of those of us with Irish descent. My hope is that the Irish language will find its life continually sustained and that it will not come near to approaching its first death as a spoken language, not to mention the death of its memory.

Go maire an Ghaeilge go deo.

(Literal translation: That lives the Irish [language] forever.)

Great-great-granddaughter's note: Patrick Tierney's name in proper Irish Gaelic is Padraig Ó Tighearnaigh. Since at the time of his birth immediately before the Great Famine, the language was spoken by about half the population of 8 million people (according to The Oxford Companion to Irish History) - many in County Tipperary - chances are good that this was his given name.

Time for a little Gaelige!

Is fearr Gaeilge bhriste ná Béarla cliste.

I'll take comfort in the Irish Gaelic proverb above as we get ready for the 5th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. It means: It is better to have broken Irish than clever English. My Irish Gaelic is certainly at the broken point, if you can even consider it in existence. I'm new to the language of my Irish ancestors.

Irish Gaelic is still alive in the Emerald Isle today (and outside of Ireland as you will read in our carnival). Have you ever come into contact with Irish Gaelic? Have a story to tell about your experience with an Irish Gaelic name or proverb? Join us for the 5th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture to be hosted here at A light that shines again. The theme is Irish Gaelic (or your experience with it, no matter how limited) and the deadline is Sunday, April 27. Hope to see you there!

Thanks to Wikiquote's page on Irish Proverbs for the proverb at the beginning of this post.

Dust off your Irish Gaelic for the carnival!

Doing your spring cleaning (glanadh an earraigh)? Dust off your Irish Gaelic dictionary and help us air out a few new words and phrases in time for the the Irish Gaelic edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture.

It is springtime! The time has come to put away the winter clothes (tá an t-am tagtha éadaí an Gheimhridh a chur ar leataobh) and bring some Irish Gaelic out into the fresh air!

Hope you'll join us for the 5th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture here at A light that shines again as we honor the beauty of the Irish language with a focus on Irish Gaelic names and words.

• Has the charm of the name of a place in Ireland always called to you to visit someday?
• As a child did you secretly wish you had the Irish name of a great-grandparent instead of the name you were born with?
• Do you have a story to tell about someone with an Irish surname?
• Is there an Irish proverb that you have always loved to let slide off of your tongue in its original language?

Join us for the carnival. The only prerequisite is that your post must tie in with our focus on the Irish Gaelic language.

Posts for this edition of the carnival are due April 27. Submit your entries here. The carnival will be posted at A light that shines again on St. Ciarán's Day, April 30. (Well, one of the St. Ciarán's days - there are actually 14 in the calendar of Irish saints. Now there's one popular Irish Gaelic name!)

There is no better way to revive Irish

than for a crowd of people to spread it.
~ Douglas Hyde

Wishing you a Holy Easter!

"May God bless you at Easter,

and keep you all year through.

May God give you all the faith you need,

to make your dreams come true.

May His love and wisdom always help,

to guide you on your way.

May His light shine down upon you now,

to bless your Easter Day."

Beannachtaí Ná Cásca oraibh!

May the blessings of Easter be upon you!