Irish in Ireland AMA

[SrSteveOskowski]

Following on from a Dane in Denmark, I'm Irish, living in Ireland AMA

Fiddle hold on to your fragrant thyme there now.

Do you have an Aunty Mary?

Does any Irish person not have an Aunty Mary?

Fiddle, you say that, but maybe they had groupies who asked nothing better than to have their easy listening thyme trifled with by Foster and Allen.

Who clearly have no first names. Well, I'm sure they do, only I'm not googling them.

I have an Aunty Mary, God rest her. And an Uncle Paddy.

I'm not Irish, however my mother was born in Dunnycarnie (sp?) and grew up in various parts of Dublin. My late granny lived in Coolock. One of my abiding childhood memories is Santa arriving in a helicopter on the roof of NorthSide shopping centre.
Anyone remember the swimming pool that was on top of it?

OK, I googled Foster and Allen because I am procrastinating doing some editing. Their names are Tony and Mick. But this is the explanation on Wiki of 'A Bunch of Thyme' (which went to number 1 in 1979, God help us):

Despite the romance and charm of the music and lyrics the song is in reality a warning to young women to protect their virginity. The girl in the song ultimately ignores the warnings and becomes infected with syphilis.

Syphilis??? Undecaying roses given to you by lusty sailors will never look the same to me again.

Fairly sure almost everyone has an Auntie Mary and an Uncle John. I have two uncle Johns.

Well Tony and Mick were obviously very bitter at being thrown over by Biddy and Mary for some swarthy sailors who sailed into town.

I hope Biddy and Mary had a grand old time sharing their thyme sprigs with those salty seadogs.

(1979 Ireland was a different country. Also number one that year were TWO songs about Pope John Paul: Viva Il Papa and Welcome John Paul II)

Fairly sure almost everyone has an Auntie Mary and an Uncle John. I have two uncle Johns.

I have various Aunty Marys but John seems.......a bit Protestant. Why would you call a child John when you could call them Seán?

I also have two Uncle Johns.

Patsy is a man's name.

Saying 'anseo' and having your name as gailge on the register!

Around us we have generations of Johns and Marys, and a bible-load of saintly middle names.

And a heap of people not known by any of their many baptised names, but something entirely different.

I have no aunty Marys, Bridgets but I do have an aunty Winnie, Kathleen, and Maggie, and 2 uncles of the same name.

Opies, never knew there was a swimming pool on top of a shopping centre in Ireland,

Donacarney is a village in the area known as East Meath in County Meath, Ireland, close to Drogheda and the border with County Louth. It contains one church, two estates, two schools, one pub and the DSE

I thought I was posh as a child going to swim in Smarmore Castle Ardee, which is now a private drug and rehab clinic which is apparently where Jeremy McConnell (ex BB) went to after breakdown of relationship with Stephanie Davis (Hollyoaks), not sure if before or after prison sentence

I had an Aunty Mary - but her real name was Maureen. She was married to a Joseph. There was no Jesus.

I have both an Auntie Mary and Uncle John

I have an Auntie Mary but no Uncle John. I feel like I'm missing something now :(

@FiddleFaddle
Why call them Seán when you could babtise them John but call them Jack instead! Very common in my part of the world (Munster). Not many Irish names in my parents generation, mostly saint type names instead.

Smurfy - there is a Donnycarney in Dublin too - north side. Opies - my dad grew up in Donnycarney! Must know those relatives of yours we have spoken about before. I will ask him.

And yes I remember the swimming pool at Northside. My dad still shops at Northside. My first ever job was working in Dunnes there the summer I was 16.

No auntie Mary or Uncle John here though.

I took the info straight from wiki. I didn't know there was 2.

Every day is really a school day.

I had an Auntie Mary and my dad was John.

I remember the excitement in my small rural school when my dad came to pick me up with the cattle trailer on the back of the car - think there were 10 kids in it going up tut road (about 1/3 of the school!)

I love that generation that got fabulous names like Cornelius and Thaddeus. Did their female contemporaries get any such fancy monikers are were they forever stuck with Mary and Eileen?

@FiddleFaddle, back then there were only about 6 names for women. Mary, Kathleen, Eileen, Theresa, Margaret and Bridget.

I had a great aunt called Eucharia, mind you.

Eucharia! Yikes!

Sounds like a skin condition.

I assume something to do with the Eucharist? But I nearly prefer it to Assumpta, Attracta and Concepta, the holy trinity of Catholic Auntie names. Or Gobnait.

I know a Gobnait actually who must be pushing 70 now. What an awful name to get landed with.
I'm bracing myself now in case someone comes along to tell me that they've got an Auntie Gobnait

@BeGoodTanya, cross post!