from our Official Irish Correspondent!
Dear Susan,
I’m very happy ’bout the Irish correspondent thing!!!!!! Yippee!!!!!! Do I get diplomatic immunity? Do I get a chain of office? Or am I mixing it up with ambassadors? (Did I spell that right????) *accepts position with tears*
[Yes, you get both diplomatic immunity and chain of office. I don’t actually know what chain of office is, but it sounds like something you should have in your capacity as Official Irish Correspondent.]
And now, it’s your daily Irish history minute with your host…Graci!
WAY back in ye old days (around the time of Queen Elizabeth) the people of ye old Britain decided to make a trip over to ye old Ireland. They liked us sooooo much they decided to plunder our land and take us over. A few centuries later the Irish Republican Army (don’t know why they called themselves that) formed. They were Irish men and women who were tired of having the English in here. This was in the 1920s. They decided to have a mass revolution, but in the end it only took place in Dublin.
Basically, to cut a long, long, LONG story short, they took over the GPO the GPO is the headquarters of An Post, which is the Irish Canada Post), and refused to move out until Ireland was given to the Irish. There are 32 counties in Ireland, but we only got back 26. The remaining 8 counties are still technically part of England, but peace talks are under way to get back the 8 counties.
As for Bono… Bono is no longer cool (last time I checked he’s still Irish), because even though what he does for Africa is so cool you need a coat, he’s a bit annoying at this stage. Like, RTE (that’s the Irish national TV station) went over to Africa and not a SINGLE person there knew who Bono was!!!! Also, BONO? Kind of dorky. *phone rings* “Franco? Whadya mean I have to retract that??? NO!” Sorry, I have to argue with the imaginary Franco.
Still A VERY Happy Fan,
Graciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii (I was trying to do a Taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarzan yell)
PS: Here’s another Irish slang term for you: Knackered. Means: tired, exhausted, wrecked, you get the picture.
PPS: When’s Alice McLeod, Realist At Last coming out?
[That’s a good question. I’ll look into that. As you can see, I’m completely on top of all my business affairs… Perhaps you could lend me Franco.]
PPPS: The reason your books are distributed under a English publisher here are because we are a veeeeeeeeery small country, and there aren’t enough readers/writers to support a proper publishing industry, so we just buy all the English books, and most Irish writers get a UK deal.
PPPPS: There are a FEW Irish publishers, but they all get government grants, so they publish anything. Your books three words long? Don’t worry, they’ll publish it in Ireland!
[I can hear all the aspiring writers now hitting Google to find out how they can go about getting Irish citizenship.]
PPPPPS: Franco says I have to make my letters shorter.
PPPPPPS: He also says I have to have less PSs.
[Franco needs to be more flexible.]
PPPPPPPS: I’m sure in Canada McGregor is perfectly normal. I’m pretty sure that you’d think some of OUR names are weird.
PPPPPPPPS: OK, I’M GOING TO STOP WRITING NOW!!!!!!!
PPPPPPPPPS: I’m pretty sure you’re tired of me now, so I’ll stop.
[Not even close. But if you have to go, I understand.]
PPPPPPPPPPS: Before I go, have a award for reading all this!
[Thank you. Very kind. And, as always, an excellently funny and informative Graci letter/report from Ireland.]