March 20, 2009
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all roads lead to Eire
For a country so small, Ireland has a massive population! And most of it has moved out of the country ~ ourselves included. Lately we have been running in to all sorts of people that claim to be Irish or an Irish heritage. I’m not saying this is bad, it just seems that in a six degrees of separation game you would only get to maybe level three before you hit Ireland lately.
Just last night I was standing in a check out getting bits for the house and the gentleman behind me asked, “Are you Irish?” Totally shocked about the whole question and this must have been obvious from the look on my face, Yer Man points at my jumper on which is the shamrock. We stumbled through a conversation in which I explain I lived there for four years as my husband is Irish. … he never did say where he was from once I said where I lived …. hmmmm.
Earlier yesterday I was hoop jumping for a Gov’t agency and when it came out that I have only been living back in Canada for the past several months, and the agent I was dealing with commented that the person in the next cubicle was leaving for Ireland the next day to visit her parents, who live just outside Dublin.
But I find it very …. ironic that such a small country that is almost bursting at the seams and losing agricultural land for the growing population, has such a large ex-patriate community. Really it is amazing!
