Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home. May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam. May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures. May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours!~ An Old Irish Blessing

My maiden name is Irish. My dad’s name starts with ‘Mc’ and my mum’s ‘Mac’ so l’m a ‘Mc-mac’ (sounds like mic-mac). The popular belief is that Mc is a distinctively Irish prefix while Mac is exclusively Scottish. I think it has as much to do with religion and whether your family spoke Gaelic- 'Mac' meaning ‘son of’. While doing family research l have found that the spelling of a name can change through the years- from Mc to Mac and then back again. Even the end of my father’s name changed with his grandparents from ‘ie’ to ‘y’.

Half my father’s family were from Ireland as were my mother’s side. Dublin, Banbridge, Seapatrick, Cork etc., just some of the places the family were from in Ireland. I call myself Scottish as l was born and raised here but know that my roots are Celtic.

When my mum’s granny came over from Ireland as a wee lass she performed her Irish dancing for Queen Mary at Stirling Castle. Her name was Sarah Neill and her mother was Sarah Finlay.

Sarah Finlay married William Neill on 31 Aug 1872, St. Luke’s Church of Ireland, Belfast, County Antrim. Sadly out of ten children, at the end of this Sarah’s life (54 years), she only had 3 children near her. Infant mortality was high in those days – l do not know how she would have coped. Four of her children had died as infants another wee girl at only 8 yrs. Later two of her daughters, Annie and Fanny emigrated to America.

Now Annie and Fanny became Mormons. My Mum remembers driving back from a Mormon funeral with her parents. Mum’s dad, Charles Mackenzie though it was strange that during the funeral they chanted, ”There she goes and here she comes!” as a sort of valediction. Being that the Mackenzie’s were Brethern they thought this was quite hysterical and mum remembers her parents giggling at it on the drive home.

Sadly l have found it difficult to go as far back with my family history on the Irish side and really need to visit to do a bit more research and therefore proceed further.

My own dad attended the Belfast Bible College in the late 1950's where he was head boy.

Have a great day and don’t forget to ‘drown your shamrock’!

This takes place on St. Patrick's Day, when the shamrock that has been worn in the hat or lapel is removed and put into the last drink of the evening. A toast is proposed and then, when the toast has been honoured, the shamrock is taken from the bottom of the glass and thrown over the left shoulder. Sláinte!