Many years ago around the time of a St. Pattys Day, I asked my Grandmother what she could tell me about Leprechauns and shamrocks.
"Oh Honey" she says, "I don't know anything about them"
"But you're Irish" says I
"Yes" she replied "But we're Orangemen"
"Orangemen, what are Orangemen?" I asked
"We're Protestants, the others are Catholic" she said.
I was around 16 years of age then and that was the first time that I had heard anything of the sort. She was born here in the states in the late 1800's to Irish immigrant parents and had older siblings that were born in Ireland.
She was a grand lass that never had a bad word for anyone, though I do recall her saying that somebody would "steal the pennies off a dead mans eyes".......not sure who she was referring to.
Seems that the 'troubles' lose their impact over here in a short generation. Sometimes it takes an outside aggressor to unify the divided too.
Mecca's which way?
