THE HOLIEST DAY OF THE YEAR

Ahhh...another beautiful day in Ireland. It's the rain ya know.

I could not let the day go by without a brief mention of me Mum. If we went out and she was asked, "Would you like a drink?'" She would say, "I'll be havin that Irish wine." And people would say, "Well, I didn't know they had wine in Ireland." And...she would laugh and say, "it's that old Irish whine...I wish the English would go home."

Another favorite, was when she was asked if she had a drinking problem by one of our neighbors. Mum turned and said, "Well, I have always viewed it as more of a solution then a problem."Finally, Mum always said she hated AA, Alcoholics Anonymous. She said it was for "quitters."

Every year on St Patrick"s Day she cooked corn beef. I asked her if Corn Beef was invented in Ireland. She said no. She told me we eat to remember. Mum said that people were starving during the potato famine, 1845 -1855. The English hoped to starve all of Ireland to death and be rid of the Irish people. Nobody would do anything to help. Europe ignored the problem. But, the Quakers, in America sent barrels of Corned Beef to Ireland. And we will be eating Corn Beef tonight to remember the million plus Irish men, women, and children who starved. Long before CNN and the Holocaust, the English let a million people starve. They gave away free one way tickets to America. Just to get people to leave. Today, more Irish live in America then Ireland.

Tough people the Irish. I miss you Mom.