Very Irish Things

[RocketPanda]

A thread of appreciation of things that only seem to happen in Ireland.

I was away for two weeks and a couple of days after I returned the postman knocked on my door with a big bag of packages ( they were sent from work, only two were very delayed orders). He realised I was away so instead of leaving them and risking theft or damage he stored them for me.

Anyone else any good stories?

Are baby bowls not a thing in GB?

No! But they should be

Loving this! I'm west of Ireland and DH is from the Deise. 'Well boy' is my BIL's mode of greeting to him.

Anyone remember going to the Missions at mass in the 80s?

My kids were the obnoxious type who only ate finger foods - regularly got them a baby bowl only to be disappointed at them refusing it. Really thought they were a normal thing!

Snap, I'm from the West and DH is from the Deise 😂

Was the missions where you went to mass for 9 days when the missionaries visited an area?

Yep, I remember it being on for 4-5 nights anyway. A priest from the missions would give a sermon and be looking for money. I also remember stalls set up outside the church selling holy things.

The flat cap of Michael Healy-Rae.

Police being called guards. English cousins thought this was hilarious.

Yolk for thing.

Thanks for clarifying!

Pantses 😂

I loved the 'Angela Merkel thinks we're at work' flag during Euro 2012. For me, it kind of summed up our irreverent sense of humour. In a strange twist of fate, one of the football fans married a German woman a few years later. Merkel was invited to the wedding but declined. However, she sent a signed photograph and a message https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49043260

With the decline in religious practice, I think a lot of the very Irish things that I grew up with have already been consigned to the past. Things like:-

• Wearing miraculous medals under your vest

• Prams with miraculous medals dangling from the hood

• The holy water font inside the front door - blessing yourself when you came into the house

• Friends/neighbours bringing back holy water from Lourdes

• Fish on Fridays

• The holy week observances - palms on Palm Sunday, everybody going around with ashes on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday, getting your feet washed on Holy Thursday, the stations of the cross which went on forever on Good Friday etc.

• The Corpus Christi procession

• People doing pilgrimages to Lough Derg

• The fear of the confession box

The Corpus Christi procession

The local bishop has brought that back.

It never went away round here . Rosary in Irish.

Padre Pio on the dash board. Medjugorg rivalling Lourdes. Holy Wells.

When someone is seriously ill Padre Pio's glove is brought to the ill person. My Dad was given 3 weeks to live and my aunt tracked down the person who goes around with the Padre Pio glove and it was placed in my Dad's hands, he lived another 16 years and a different cancer got him.

When my nephew died 3 years ago a person with Padre Pio's mask visited my sister with it to give her comfort.

Oh, that reminds me - the Turin shroud.

Relics of The True Cross for sick people as well?
I've a dim memory of wearing a scapular under your vest (had to look it up to see what it was...). I used to call it a scapula...

My father used to always add on 'May God rest his soul' when he used to speak of the deceased. The person could have died yesterday, a week ago, a year or ten or twenty years ago. It was accompanied by a bow of the head. 'May the Lord be merciful on him/her' was another one.

He was very quaint in his ways, was my father (God rest his soul!) and very catholic. He always observed the Angelus at 6pm, never missed mass or the Corpus Christi procession. We had a holy water font inside the front door and a picture of the Sacred Heart. My parents had the papal blessing on getting married.

Under my vest!* *That came across as a bit creepy!

What is this thing my Dad’s village has every year…a pattern, a patron? …it’s an annual memorial thingy at the village cemetery.

Also, ‘Month’s Mind’.

Very Irish!

Pattern - the annual blessing of the graves.

Moving statues.

Iconic TV ads

Harp - Sally O'Brien and the way she might look at you

Kerrygold - Who's taking the horse to France?

Yes, scapulars, got a present of a set when DC1 was born, she's a teenager now. Baby sized, put them in a box until the age she would have grown out of them. Very creepy, looked like a strangulation hazard. Was much happier to pin a little rosette with a miraculous medal to pram.

Shops that just sell holy statues and scapulars, miraculous medals, mass cards etc.

Also, I am always reading here on MN about school blazers for secondary school students. Here in Ireland, we have proper waterproof rain jackets with glow in the dark piping, reversible (for the weekend!) and fleece-lined, adjustable waistband, with three pockets on the outside (all zipped) and three pockets on the inside (one zipped and two velcroed) and a hole for corded headphones, embroidered school emblem and embroidered name or initials. Made of robust stuff. DC1's lasted all the way through 6 years of secondary school (bought slightly too big initially)and looks good enough still to pass on. Blazers are for representing school in competitions etc and provided on loan by the school. If DC wear the school jacket in the morning you can be confident they'll be warm and dry from head to hip no matter the weather.

Killinaskully - strain the spuds