Dear Family and Friends,
Many of you asked to to see videos of me Irish dancing on St. Patrick's Day this year. I am sorry for the delay in uploading the video. I have been under the weather a bit with allergy season this year. I know, I know, I NEVER have allergies, but for some reason they have grabbed hold of me this year. Summer cannot come soon enough!!
Below is a video of me Irish dancing at the Great Harvest Bread shop on March, 17, 2012 in Lafayette, Louisiana. I was dancing with my Irish dance school, The Ryan School of Irish Dance. Hope you enjoy the video....and if you see any dance mistakes please do not let me know. Hey, no one is perfect....including me!
Love Always,
Amanda
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Paddy NOT Patty
All over the world, especially in the United States, people have St.Pat parties or say Happy St. Patty's Day on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th. This is a huge mistake as will now be explained. When I was living in Ireland last year, I had a very good friend named Patrick AKA Paddy. When we first met I remember asking him, "Do you spell your name Patty or Paddy?" He gave me this evil look and said "Paddy." Then I received a lecture on the difference between Paddy and Patty.
Recently a friend sent me link to a very interesting web page called paddynotpatty.com or http://paddynotpatty.com/. Below are paragraphs taken from the website.
Each and every year millions of Irish, Irish-ish and amateur alcoholics are needlessly distracted from their Holy Tradition of drinking themselves into a stupor in the name of Saint Patrick, a Roman Briton slave holding the dubious honour of bringing Christianity to an island that would use it as another convenient excuse to blatter the hell out of each other for centuries.
The source of this terrible distraction?
An onslaught of half-hearted, dyed-green references to St. Patrick's Day as St. Patty's Day. It gnaws at them. It riles them up. It makes them want to fight… you know, more than usual.
It's Paddy, not Patty. Ever.
Saint Patrick's Day? Grand.
Paddy's Day? Sure, dead-on.
St. Pat's? Aye, if ye must.
St. Patty? No, ye goat!
Paddy is derived from the Irish, Pádraig, hence those mysterious, emerald double-Ds.
Patty is the diminutive of Patricia, or a burger, and just not something you call a fella.
There's not a sinner in Ireland that would call a Patrick, “Patty”. It's insulting. It's really as simple as that.
Also....
Shamrock isn't just any auld piece of clover: it's three-leafed. It ended up a symbol of Ireland because tradition holds that St. Patrick used shamrock to teach the Trinity.
The source of this terrible distraction?
An onslaught of half-hearted, dyed-green references to St. Patrick's Day as St. Patty's Day. It gnaws at them. It riles them up. It makes them want to fight… you know, more than usual.
It's Paddy, not Patty. Ever.
Saint Patrick's Day? Grand.
Paddy's Day? Sure, dead-on.
St. Pat's? Aye, if ye must.
St. Patty? No, ye goat!
Paddy is derived from the Irish, Pádraig, hence those mysterious, emerald double-Ds.
Patty is the diminutive of Patricia, or a burger, and just not something you call a fella.
There's not a sinner in Ireland that would call a Patrick, “Patty”. It's insulting. It's really as simple as that.
Also....
Shamrock isn't just any auld piece of clover: it's three-leafed. It ended up a symbol of Ireland because tradition holds that St. Patrick used shamrock to teach the Trinity.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Love Always,
Amanda
Some of the information contained in this blog came from the website paddynotpatty.com. I do not own any rights to this material.
Campbell, M. (2010) 'The Provisional Government of Paddy, Not Patty to the People of the New World', Paddy Not Paddy Blog [accessed 16 Mar 2012]
Thursday, March 15, 2012
More Irish Facts!!
1) The Titanic cost $7.5 million to build in the year 1912.
2) Ireland has the second highest number of lawyers per capita in the world, after the United States.
3) It was customary at ancient Irish weddings for a couple's clasped hands to be tied together by a rope as a visual representation of their union, which could explain why getting married is often referred to as "tying the knot."
4) Divorce was banned in Ireland from 1937 until 1995.
5) Today, the average number of children per family in Ireland is 2.7465. From the 1940's to the 1960's it was 10.
6) There are at least 5 different accents in Dublin alone.
7) J, K, Q, V, W, X, Y, and Z are not used in the Irish alphabet, which only has 18 letters.
8) The sparkling crystal ball that drops in New York's Time Square on New Year's Eve features hundreds of custom-designed crystals made by Ireland's famed Waterford Crystal.
9) The greatest distance between any two points in Ireland is 302 miles. However, if all of the stone walls from the country's neolithic and megalithic sites were lined up end to end, they would stretch for a quarter of a million miles.
10) When the Abbey Theatre opened in Dublin in 1904, part of the building that housed it had previously functioned as the city morgue.
2) Ireland has the second highest number of lawyers per capita in the world, after the United States.
3) It was customary at ancient Irish weddings for a couple's clasped hands to be tied together by a rope as a visual representation of their union, which could explain why getting married is often referred to as "tying the knot."
4) Divorce was banned in Ireland from 1937 until 1995.
5) Today, the average number of children per family in Ireland is 2.7465. From the 1940's to the 1960's it was 10.
6) There are at least 5 different accents in Dublin alone.
7) J, K, Q, V, W, X, Y, and Z are not used in the Irish alphabet, which only has 18 letters.
8) The sparkling crystal ball that drops in New York's Time Square on New Year's Eve features hundreds of custom-designed crystals made by Ireland's famed Waterford Crystal.
9) The greatest distance between any two points in Ireland is 302 miles. However, if all of the stone walls from the country's neolithic and megalithic sites were lined up end to end, they would stretch for a quarter of a million miles.
10) When the Abbey Theatre opened in Dublin in 1904, part of the building that housed it had previously functioned as the city morgue.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Love Always,
Amanda
All facts came from the book Little Facts About Well-Known Places - Ireland by David Hoffman.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Irish Facts
St. Patrick's Day!! My favorite time of year! This year, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I have decided to tell you a bit about Ireland. I recently came across a book in Barnes and Noble and knew the information it contained would be very useful indeed. Did you know.......
1) There are 2 billion pints of Guinness sold annually worldwide.
2) There are 198 calories in a pint of Guinness - less than a pint of skim milk or orange juice.
3) Ireland has the highest per-capita rate of tea consumption in the world. The average number of cups consumed by the average Irishman daily is six.
4) St. Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17 because that is the feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he died on March 17 in the year 461 AD.
5) The harp is the symbol of Ireland.
6) Legend says that each leaf of the clover means something: the first is for hope, the second for faith, the third for love and the fourth for luck.
7) Gaelic is Ireland's national language. Only in the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) areas of Ireland will you find that Irish is used as the everyday language. In all other parts of Ireland, English is the spoken language.
8) One million gallons of cream are used each year to make Baileys.
9) Ireland has twice as many cattle as people.
10) Since 1969, artists, writers, composers, and sculptors living in Ireland have been exempt from paying income tax.
More facts to follow soon!!
Love Always,
Amanda
All facts listed above came from the book Little Known Facts About Well-Known Places - Ireland by David Hoffman. Facts were also taken from the website http://ezinearticles.com/?20-Interesting-and-Fun-Facts-About-Ireland&id=2017486.
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