For God’s Sake
I’m Irish on my father’s side, British on my mother’s side, but we don’t talk about that. My paternal grandfather was fiercely proud of his Irish roots. We had ordered a family crest from an ad in the back of magazine; it came back saying that we were British. “Look again!” my grandfather growled. Pursuing a more reputable source, we learned that our family name was originally O’Bannon and, thankfully that our roots are in Ireland. My Irish roots validated, I once chided a workmate, who was from Ireland, for not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day. “I’m Protestant,” he growled (must be an Irish trait), “we wear orange!” I may be half Irish, but I realized that I was totally ignorant about St. Patrick Day.