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Get ready for Barack O'Bama to claim someone in his family is Irish.
Been there, done that.
From May, 2011:
"He stressed the strong ties between the two countries — fostered in part by millions of Americans with Irish ancestry — and also paid tribute to his own Irish forebears by visiting the village his great-great-great-grandfather came from."
Saint Brigit of Kildare, or Brigit of Ireland (variants include Brigid, Bridget, Bridgit, BrÃd and Bride), nicknamed Mary of the Gael (c. 451–525) is one of Ireland's patron saints along with Saints Patrick and Columba. Irish hagiography makes her an early Irish Christian nun, abbess, and founder of several monasteries of nuns, including that monastery of ‘Kildare’ Ireland which was considered legendary and was highly revered. Her feast day is the 1st February, celebrated as St Brigid’s Day or Imbolc in Gaelic Ireland, one of the four quarter days of the pagan year, which marked the beginning of spring, lambing, lactation in cattle, etc.
Brigit may have been born in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. Because of the legendary quality of the earliest accounts of her life, there is much debate among many secular scholars and even faithful Christians as to the authenticity of her biographies. According to her biographers her parents were Dubhthach, a Pagan chieftain of Leinster, and Brocca, a Christian Pict and slave who had been baptised by Saint Patrick. Some accounts of her life suggest that Brigit's father was in fact from Lusitania, kidnapped by Irish pirates and brought to Ireland to work as a slave, in much the same way as Saint Patrick. Many stories also detail Brigit's and her mother's statuses as pieces of property belonging to Dubhthach, and the resulting impact on important parts of Brigit's life story.
The Vita outlined Brigit’s early life. It says that Brigit’s mother was a slave, and Brigit herself was born into slavery to a druid. From the start, it is clear that Brigit is holy. When the druid tries to feed her, she vomits because he is impure. And thus a cow is assigned to sustain her. As she grows older, Brigit performs many miracles, including healing and feeding the poor. Saint Brigit is celebrated for her generosity to the poor. According to one tale, as a child, she once gave away her mother's entire store of butter. The butter was then replenished in answer to Brigit's prayers.
The ceremony was performed, according to different accounts, by one or other of the bishops Mel (d. 487) or Mac-Caille (d. c.489), the location probably being in Mág Tulach (the present barony of Fartullagh, Co. Westmeath). Mel also granted her abbatial powers. She followed Saint Mel into the Kingdom of Teathbha, which is made up of sections of modern Meath, Westmeath and Longford. This occurred about 468. According to some sources, Bridget was ordained bishop by Bishop Mel at Mag Tulach, and her successors have always been given Episcopal honor.
Brigit's small oratory at Cill-Dara (Kildare) became a center of religion and learning, and developed into a cathedral city. She founded two monastic institutions, one for men, and the other for women, and appointed Saint Conleth as spiritual pastor of them. It has been frequently stated that she gave canonical jurisdiction to Saint Conleth, Bishop of Kildare, but, as Archbishop Healy points out, she simply "selected the person to whom the Church gave this jurisdiction", and her biographer tells us distinctly that she chose Saint Conleth "to govern the church along with herself". Thus, for centuries, Kildare was ruled by a double line of abbot-bishops and of abbesses, the Abbess of Kildare being regarded as superior general of the monasteries in Ireland.
Brigit also founded a school of art, including metal work and illumination, over which Conleth presided. The Kildare scriptorium produced the Book of Kildare, which elicited high praise from Giraldus Cambrensis, but which has disappeared since the Reformation. According to Giraldus, nothing that he had ever seen was at all comparable to the book, every page of which was gorgeously illuminated, and he concludes by saying that the interlaced work and the harmony of the colours left the impression that "all this is the work of angelic, and not human skill".
There is evidence in the Trias Thaumaturga for Brigit's stay in Connacht, especially in County Roscommon and also in the many churches founded by her in the Diocese of Elphin. Her friendship with Saint Patrick is attested by the following paragraph from the Book of Armagh: "inter sanctum Patricium Brigitanque Hibernesium columpnas amicitia caritatis inerat tanta, ut unum cor consiliumque haberent unum. Christus per illum illamque virtutes multas peregit". (Between St. Patrick and Brigid, the pillars of the Irish people, there was so great a friendship of charity that they had but one heart and one mind. Through him and through her Christ performed many great works.)
Last edited by Ibginnie; 03-04-2013 at 04:04 PM..
Reason: hotlinking
Sir Samuel Ferguson (10 March 1810 – 9 August 1886)
Ferguson was born on 10 March 1810 at 23 High Street Belfast. Educated at Belfast Academical Institution and Trinity College, Dublin, he studied at Lincoln's Inn London, before being called to the Irish Bar in 1838. In 1848, he married Mary Guinness, a member ofthe brewing family, and their home at 20 North Great George's Street Dublin, became a hospitable focus of intellectual and artistic life. Ferguson practised on the North-East Circuit, taking silk in 1859.
As a young man, Ferguson contributed to Blackwood's Magazine, and a notable early poem was 'The Forging of the Anchor'. The influential Dublin University Magazine published his eerie poem 'The Fairy Thorn'. He met the poet James Clarence Mangan and scholars such as John O'Donovan and George Petrie, and drew extensively on Irish mythology for poems such as 'The Tain Quest' and 'The Death of Dermid'. Lays of the Western Gael (1865) and Congal (1872) opened up territory later explored by W. B. Yeats, who called Ferguson 'the greatest poet Ireland has produced'. More successful though, are love songs such as 'The Coolun' and 'The Lark in the Clear Air'.
Deeply interested in antiquities, Ferguson wrote many papers for the Royal Irish Academy, becoming its president in l882 .His major work, Ogham Inscriptions in Ireland, Wales and Scotland, was edited for posthumous publication (1887) by his wife. Politically, he began as a unionist, but later founded the Protestant Repeal Association and sought to restore an Irish parliament. Although not a contributor to The Nation, his 'Lament for Thomas Davis' is a sympathetic tribute to its founder. However, his unease at nationalist violence was evident in 'At the Polo-Ground', a poem on the 1882 murder of the chief secretary and under-secretary in Phoenix Park, Dublin. Ferguson gave up his legal practice in 1867, becoming deputy keeper of the public records of Ireland. His thorough reorganisation of a neglected department was recognised in a knighthood in 1878. He died at Howth, Co Dublin, on 9 August 1886.
Last edited by Ibginnie; 03-04-2013 at 04:05 PM..
Reason: hotlinking
Actually there isn't a thing incorrect about the thread politically or otherwise despite your hopes. If anything the problem with the thread is not many people have taken the time to post anything of value. Given the opportunity to trumpet "white culture" I would think that you of all people would take full advantage of the opportunity.
On this the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War we would be remiss in mentioning the invaluable contribution of Irish immigrants who fought and died to preserve the Union. In particular the the Irish Brigade that fought in every major battle of the eastern campaigns from the Peninsula to Appomattox Court House.
Consisting of regiments from Boston, New York and Philadelphia the Irish brigade suffered losses only exceded by the 1st Vermont and the Iron Brigade. This sacrifice was given despite the fact that these immigrants were regarded as being barely one wrung above the social and biological ladder of the people that their fight served to eventually free from bondage.
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Irish history month
