I am actually a quarter Irish, but a lot of people can claim some Irish ancestry… we’re a prolific bunch! I have always wanted to visit Ireland and maybe I’ll be lucky enough someday. In the meantime the library has some wonderful items that can take you there in a virtual-armchair-travelling kind of way.
One of my favorite all time movies is “The Quiet Man” with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. Lush Irish scenery and beautifully filmed. And those accents…Swoon!
A great read for the more historically minded is the book “How the Irish Saved Civilization” by Thomas Cahill. It focuses on the period between the collapse of Rome and the beginning of the Middle Ages, between the end of the ancient world and the beginning of the medieval. As the great libraries of Europe were looted and burned by Germanic invaders, much of the literature of Western civilization was saved by unlikely Irish scribes, only one generation past illiteracy. Under the leadership of Patrick, a former slave who became a missionary bishop to Ireland, these scribes copied thousands of manuscripts that served as the repositories for Greco- Roman and Judeo-Christian culture, later carrying them along as they went forth to Christianize Europe.
So maybe have a green beer and bring a little Irish into your life!
Lisa