13th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The 13th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on Irish vacations, and you can read more about it here. The topic for the 15th edition will be on the 2nd summer reading challenge, and you can read more about it here. Enjoy!

12th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The 12th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on "Irish names," and you can read more information about it here. Enjoy!

9th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The ninth edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read the edition here. The topic for the next edition is "Irish culture is loved worldwide. It is no secret that the love of Ireland is not exclusive to those with Irish blood running through their veins.For this edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture, Small-leaved Shamrock invites you (whether you have Irish heritage or not) to share what you most love about Ireland and the Irish people."

(I do not know when the entries for the next edition are due, but when I find out, I will update the post.) Enjoy!

Update at 7:12 a. m.: Information on the upcoming edition can be found here, at the new blog for the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture.

Irish Ghost Tales: A Book ...

Although I now know that I have some Irish or Scot-Irish ancestors, I cannot report about any family traditions or superstitions from those ancestors since very little was passed in my family. So, in lieu of not having any family tales to share, I'll just write about a book I read several years ago instead.

Several years ago (when I was probably in Middle school), I visited a used bookstore, and bought a book that had caught my eye. The book I bought was True Irish Ghost Stories by St. John D. Seymour, and it was a thick paperback. (I forget what year my version was printed, but it was probably of a reprint of the second edition, since the book included the first ans second edition prefaces in it.) Obviously, one can tell from the title, the book is about Irish ghost stories, and the stories come from different areas of Ireland. As I think about this book, I'm starting to realize that is a really strange book. In the first preface, the author, who turns out to be a Catholic priest, writes that he wrote the book primarily because he could not find any books on Irish ghost stories while he could find books on English ghost stories. I find it highly unusual that a priest would have written this book, let alone have an interest in this subject, and because of that fact, I find the book to be very odd.

As I haven't read this book in several years (probably since I was a freshman in high school), I don't recall all of the stories in this book, but I can still recall some details of some stories. Of course, I really do not like thinking about this book or the stories in it due to the fact that the stories will bother me for some time after I've read them. I do not know what it is, but every time I read this book, I have this creepy feeling that I'm being watched by something, and I don't like the feeling. Since I become frightened every single time that I read the book, I have stopped reading it. (Yes, this type of stuff never fails to scare me.) When I told my dad about how the book scarred me, he mentioned that the Irish were known to be heavy drinkers and that I should keep that in mind when I read the stories. Even though I tried to keep that in mind, I still could not, and can't, keep the book from giving me the creeps. So, as you can imagine, I do not recommend this book for children as it could give children nightmares, and I do not read the book anymore. (I'm not kidding.) So, that's my caveat about this book.

Since I do not have any family tales of Irish ghost stories to tell, this is the best I could do for this topic.

Sixth Edition Of The Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The sixth edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The next edition of this carnival is on Irish literature, and you read more about the topic here. Enjoy!

So, What Does It Mean To Be Irish?

What does it mean to be Irish? I've thought about this question for a few days, and I'm still not sure of an answer. Whenever I try to answer the question, I start to think about stereotypes of the Irish, but I don't believe that those stereotypes answer the question since these stereotypes could describe other cultures as well.

So, I don't know what I would say. It is hard for me to answer that question as very few traditions or customs were passed down in my family, especially when it comes my British ancestry. (I have ancestors from the main areas of the United Kingdom.) So, when I think about Irishness, I think about Irish music, red hair, leprechauns, and whiskey. Obviously, those images do not come close to answering the question. I guess the best way for me to obtain an understanding of Irish culture, I will have look for and read books on the subject.