County Kilkenny

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Irish countryside

The Fighting Irish – Is Your Irish Surname Mentioned Here?

Céad Míle Fáilte – and welcome to your Letter from Ireland this week. Well, the early summer is truly underway here in this part of Ireland. The cherry and apple blossoms are coming to an end, to be replaced by that beautiful light shade of green you see in the trees. A great time of…

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Is this the First Irish Canadian?

In last week’s letter from Ireland, we talked about the “Irish Diaspora” and I asked what part of the diaspora you came from. Well – the response was second to none (that’s very good in Irish parlance!). I spent until last Thursday reading replies that traced the tracks of many of your Irish ancestors. So…

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Born on the 4th of July

Were you, or a member of your family, born on the 4th of July? We asked our Facebook readers and 6 of you said YES! So, today, we’re going to look at Georges family name – and the Irish family names of our 6 Yankee Doodle Dandy readers. One of the most interesting things about…

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What Are the “Approved” Irish Names in Your Family?

Many Irish families seem to feature multiple instances of the same forenames e.g you might find dozens of Johns, Marys or Richards – but very few Joans, Timothys or Michaels. This cumulative effect is often down to “Irish naming patterns” – but sometimes families have a special place for some given names. Last week, I…

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Two Irish Women

Céad Míle Fáilte – and welcome to your Letter from Ireland this week. Well, the early summer is truly underway here in this part of Ireland. The cherry and apple blossoms are coming to an end, to be replaced by that beautiful light shade of green you see in the trees. A great time of…

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