While on our travels we were told a story which I have not been able to verify. According to a local, Irish music was lost in Ireland during the post famine years. But it was preserved in America with the immigrants. The advent of radio and phonograph records brought the music back to Ireland, where it took root again.

After our short visit, I could take root there again, easily. The food is great, the people are lovely, and the country is gorgeous.

Yes, they are strong, and they love to laugh.

We flew into Heathrow, and made the long trip to the Aer Lingus terminal. Finally we found it, and as we stepped inside, Michele exclaimed,

“Will ya look at all the Paddy faces!”

And in the blink of an eye, looking at the tableau of waiting passengers, I saw the Irish as three major tribes: The aforementioned primordial Celts, the blondish Vikings, and the dark-haired descendants of castaways from the Spanish Armada, the Black Irish.

It’s an oversimplification to imply that’s all there is to Irish genetics. For one thing, the Irish have been wanderers for a long time. They flee harsh conditions, sometimes stay away for generations, but eventually the genes flow back, bringing along an infusion of mingled genes.

It’s really their culture that unites the Irish, anyway. Nothing strengthens the tribe like the oppression of the British and the contempt of prior-arrival Americans. It took 800 years to make the Irish. They’re strong.

Proud member of the Corca Laidhe Tribe of southwest Ireland.

By the way, Irish Genetics are fairly complex, there are “Dark Irish” who have Spanish or Iberian roots.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/irish-ancestry-dna-map-ireland-vikings-genetics-science/

They were considered backward, lazy, violent, and had carried all the political troubles of their homeland here to their ghettoes, where they dominated certain professions like the police by organizing into tight political blocs. And they had a foreign, subversive religion that required their allegiance to an Italian Pope. They drank too much, bred like rabbits and they talked funny. Their accent was considered barbarous and coarse. “Help wanted. Irish need not apply.”

But they were lucky. They looked like everybody else, and (if they lost the brogue) after a few generations of penny whistles, jigs, St Patrick’s Day, leprechauns, tenors, “Danny Boy”, Riverdance and U2, they started to fit right in. And they did seem to have a talent for music and literature. Today, their speech is considered lively and charming.

I was not familiar with Dolores O’Riordan. But I’ve listened to her music on Youtube, and she struck me as a lovely and talented young woman who died much too young. I once fell in love with a remarkable Irish-Italian girl with a beautiful voice. Miss O’Riordan’s fans and countrymen have my sincerest sympathies.

“Magnificently Irish” was half inspired by her resemblance to my second ex-wife, born and raised in Ireland, and most importantly, representing the primordial Irish stock: A tow-headed, bronze-haired Celt with captivating eyes. And half, or more, by that magnificent Irish gift for music, putting their own unique twist on it, no matter the genre, you hear it and know it’s somehow Irish. See, for example, The Corrs, my last Irish music crush.

Back to YouTube…