Erin Go Braugh!
Hi, remember me? I have been fully intending to post actual stuff. But in lieu of that, right now I give you -
At first, I was just going to list Irish and Ireland-born celebrities, most of whom are more or less obvious, due to their names and/or accents - Bono, (and I have some interesting trivia on him we'll come back to later) Roma Downey, Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Colin Farrell, Kenneth Branagh, Pierce Brosnan, Ralph Fiennes. (and if I really loved you, I would make this a picspam. But I'm lazy today, so you're just getting the trivia - none of the pretty. Deal with it.)
INSERT - (Before I forget again, Bono trivia: (besides that he is responsible for the origin of the "I blame Logan" trend, making him, in fact, the ultimate scapegoat - but, off-topic) Born Paul Hewson. Nicknamed "Bono Vox" by a friend who got it from a hearing aid store in Dublin. The original moniker meant "good voice" in cockneyed Latin. Later shortened it to "Bono.")
But then I started looking at Irish-American celebrities. And there are a LOT. And not just those with names like "O'Connell"
But, first, some more random trivia: According to the 2000 United State Census 30,528,492 persons claim Irish ancestry, 10.8% of the total American population. This is more than SEVEN times the population of Ireland itself, which was 4 million in the year 2003.
Irish-Americans are the largest ancestral group in Washington DC, Delaware, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
The states with the largest Irish-American populations are:
1. California- 2,611,449
2. New York- 2,451,042
3. Pennsylvania- 1,981,106
4. Florida- 1,645,585
5. Illinois- 1,511,569
Which state has the lowest, you ask? That would be Hawaii with only 4.4 percent. (I guess the Irish are worried about sunburn - all that red hair and freckles, you know.)
Anyway, given that one out of ten Americans have Irish blood, it shouldn't be surprising that many current (and past!) celebrities have a touch of blarney.
Such as:
Tim McGraw, Harry Connick Jr, Martin Sheen (and therefore Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez), George Clooney, Robert Redford, (Mmm, those blue Irish eyes are nice, aren't they?) Mary Tyler Moore, Bill Murray, Kevin Kline, Tom Clancy, Mary Higgins Clark, also the Barrymore clan, and Ron Howard. (Funny note, I found a 2001 St. Paddy's article on this very subject which included the paragraph Remember Far and Away, the gripping feature film starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman that explored Opie's Irish heritage? Me neither, but I thought it was worth a shot. Heh.)
Hold a wake for these Irish-but-no-longer-with-us individuals:
Some are obvious, such as Flannery O'Connor, George M. Cohan, Gene Kelly, (and Singing in the Rain co-star Donald O'Connor)and Oscar-winning director John Ford (born Sean Aloysius O'Feeney), also at least 9 former Presidents including John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, Gregory Peck, CS Lewis, Henry Ford, Daniel Boone, Davy Crocket John Wayne (and his perennial leading lady Maureen O’Hara, naturally), Billy the Kid, Judy Garland, James Cagney, Bing Crosby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ed Sullivan.
Another dead Irish-born celebrity? The MGM lion. The original film feline was born and raised in Dublin. Now there's some good dinner-party conversation.
What would we do without the Internet?
-- Ooo! Now my randomly-already-on-my-harddrive Irish soundtrack is playing "The Wild Rover" - one of you VM4ers out there knows this - who is it? I can't remember. Sing with me! ("And it's no, nay, never" *clap-clap-clap* "No, nay, never, no more...")
At first, I was just going to list Irish and Ireland-born celebrities, most of whom are more or less obvious, due to their names and/or accents - Bono, (and I have some interesting trivia on him we'll come back to later) Roma Downey, Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Colin Farrell, Kenneth Branagh, Pierce Brosnan, Ralph Fiennes. (and if I really loved you, I would make this a picspam. But I'm lazy today, so you're just getting the trivia - none of the pretty. Deal with it.)
INSERT - (Before I forget again, Bono trivia: (besides that he is responsible for the origin of the "I blame Logan" trend, making him, in fact, the ultimate scapegoat - but, off-topic) Born Paul Hewson. Nicknamed "Bono Vox" by a friend who got it from a hearing aid store in Dublin. The original moniker meant "good voice" in cockneyed Latin. Later shortened it to "Bono.")
But then I started looking at Irish-American celebrities. And there are a LOT. And not just those with names like "O'Connell"
But, first, some more random trivia: According to the 2000 United State Census 30,528,492 persons claim Irish ancestry, 10.8% of the total American population. This is more than SEVEN times the population of Ireland itself, which was 4 million in the year 2003.
Irish-Americans are the largest ancestral group in Washington DC, Delaware, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
The states with the largest Irish-American populations are:
1. California- 2,611,449
2. New York- 2,451,042
3. Pennsylvania- 1,981,106
4. Florida- 1,645,585
5. Illinois- 1,511,569
Which state has the lowest, you ask? That would be Hawaii with only 4.4 percent. (I guess the Irish are worried about sunburn - all that red hair and freckles, you know.)
Anyway, given that one out of ten Americans have Irish blood, it shouldn't be surprising that many current (and past!) celebrities have a touch of blarney.
Such as:
Tim McGraw, Harry Connick Jr, Martin Sheen (and therefore Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez), George Clooney, Robert Redford, (Mmm, those blue Irish eyes are nice, aren't they?) Mary Tyler Moore, Bill Murray, Kevin Kline, Tom Clancy, Mary Higgins Clark, also the Barrymore clan, and Ron Howard. (Funny note, I found a 2001 St. Paddy's article on this very subject which included the paragraph Remember Far and Away, the gripping feature film starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman that explored Opie's Irish heritage? Me neither, but I thought it was worth a shot. Heh.)
Hold a wake for these Irish-but-no-longer-with-us individuals:
Some are obvious, such as Flannery O'Connor, George M. Cohan, Gene Kelly, (and Singing in the Rain co-star Donald O'Connor)and Oscar-winning director John Ford (born Sean Aloysius O'Feeney), also at least 9 former Presidents including John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, Gregory Peck, CS Lewis, Henry Ford, Daniel Boone, Davy Crocket John Wayne (and his perennial leading lady Maureen O’Hara, naturally), Billy the Kid, Judy Garland, James Cagney, Bing Crosby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ed Sullivan.
Another dead Irish-born celebrity? The MGM lion. The original film feline was born and raised in Dublin. Now there's some good dinner-party conversation.
What would we do without the Internet?
-- Ooo! Now my randomly-already-on-my-harddrive Irish soundtrack is playing "The Wild Rover" - one of you VM4ers out there knows this - who is it? I can't remember. Sing with me! ("And it's no, nay, never" *clap-clap-clap* "No, nay, never, no more...")