Mr. Serpent,
On one of your first posts, you said that you named your whistles “Serpent” for a reason that you wouldn’t divulge. You’ve been here long enough now, I think it’s time you shared it with the rest of the class.
John Mac
Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought he had divulged that: “Serpent” was a nick give to him by a friend as a joke because Bill is Irish and there are not serpents in Ireland. So it’s a cutsy thing, you see, putting the serpents on his “Irish” whistles.
And why aren’t there any serpents in Ireland you ask? It was St Pat, of course:
St Patrick was a Gentleman
(Sing to Maggie on the Moor)
Saint Patrick was a gentleman
He came of decent people
Built a church in Dublin town
And on it put a steeple
His father was a Gallagher
His mother was a Brady
His aunt was an O’Shaungessy
And his uncle was a Grady
The Wicklow Hills are very high
And so are the Hills of Howe, Sir
But there’s a hill much higher still
Much higher than them both, Sir
On the top of this high hill
Saint Patrick preached a sermon
That drove the frogs into the bogs
And banished all the vermin.
There is no mile in Erin’s isle
Where dirty vermin musters
But there he put his dear forefoot
And murdered them in clusters
The frogs went hop, the toads went top
Slapdash into the water
The snakes committed suicide
To save themselves from slaughter
One hundred thousand reptiles blue
He charmed with sweet discourses
And dined on them in Killaloe
In soups and second courses
Where blind worms crawling in the grass
Disgusted all the nation
Right down to Hell with a holy Spell
He changed their situation.
No wonder then them Irish lads
should be so gay and frisky
Sure Saint Pat he taught them that
As well as making whiskey
No wonder that the patron saint
Should understand destillin’
For his mother kept a shebeen shop
In the town of Enniskillin
Oh was I but so fortunate
As to be back in Munster
I’d be bound that from that place
I never more would once stir
There Saint Patrick planted turf
Cabbages and praties
Pigs galore m’ghra m’stor
Altar boys and ladies.
Christy Moore, on The Iron Behind the Velvet
Well, Bloomy got most of it right - except that me extraction is Scottish with jest a tetch of Irish. 
The serpent on the whistles is the actual joke.
BTW, I’m changing the ™ to a new serpent impressed as a Celtic knot. People who have the old hand-engraved ones, keep 'em, 'cause someday they’ll be worth summat - probably to your Great X 5 grandchildren, but…
Cheers,
Bill Whedon
I understood that St Patrick was of Romano-British stock, and only ended up in Ireland after being kidnapped.
So I doubt very much the Gallagher and Brady parentage claimed in Bloomy’s verses.
Kind of ironic that Ireland’s most famous Saint wasn’t in fact Irish at all…
It’s true there aren’t any snakes in Ireland though.
On 2002-10-17 10:20, Martin Milner wrote:
I understood that St Patrick was of Romano-British stock, and only ended up in Ireland after being kidnapped.
"I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many. My father was Calpornius, a deacon, son of Potitus, a priest, of the village Bannavem Taburniæ; he had a country seat nearby, and there I was taken captive.
"I was then about sixteen years of age. I did not know the true God. I was taken into captivity to Ireland with many thousands of people—and deservedly so, because we turned away from God, and did not keep His commandments, and did not obey our priests, who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought over us the wrath of his anger and scattered us among many nations, even unto the utmost part of the earth, where now my littleness is placed among strangers.
“And there the Lord opened the sense of my unbelief that I might at last remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my abjection, and mercy on my youth and ignorance, and watched over me before I knew Him, and before I was able to distinguish between good and evil, and guarded me, and comforted me as would a father his son.”
–from The Confession of Saint Patrick
[ This Message was edited by: walden on 2002-10-17 14:47 ]
On 2002-10-17 10:20, Martin Milner wrote:
Kind of ironic that Ireland’s most famous Saint wasn’t in fact Irish at all…
Good thing Wellington was English, eh?
Josef, Patrick, and Mary. :roll:
/bloomfield
[ This Message was edited by: Bloomfield on 2002-10-17 11:26 ]
On 2002-10-17 10:35, Walden wrote:
“I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many. My father was Calpornius, a deacon, son of Potitus, a priest, of the village Bannavem Taburniæ; he had a country seat nearby, and there I was taken captive. …”
Very cool, Waldy. Thanks. So the gentleman part is correct, at least.
On 2002-10-17 11:25, Bloomfield wrote:
On 2002-10-17 10:20, Martin Milner wrote:
Kind of ironic that Ireland’s most famous Saint wasn’t in fact Irish at all…
Good thing Wellington was English, eh?
Josef, Patrick, and Mary. :roll:
Who said he was English? Of course being born in Dublin doesn’t prevent one from having British nationality…and the whole of Ireland was part of Great Britain in Wellington’s time.
If we relied on Englishmen to get our nation moving, we’d still be banging the rocks together!
[ This Message was edited by: Martin Milner on 2002-10-17 11:51 ]
Although raggle taggle kilts (more like ill-fitting togas) go back a fair way, clan tartans were largely invented, manufactured and marketed by an Englishman around 1830 long after the clan system stopped meaning anything much. They were promoted in Scotland by a couple of Scotsmen known to be congenital liars. If my views about the role of kilties in preserving Scottish Gaelic culture aren’t already known they soon will be. Barrrfff. Has anybody designed a MacWindsor tartan especially for the artist currently known as Prince Charles? Well, get cracking.
Got a scholarly quote to add a touch of class to my claims Walden?
[ This Message was edited by: Wombat on 2002-10-17 12:09 ]
Here’s a funny story:
A friend of mine here at work and I were talking about things Scottish, and he told me this story.
You see his father in law was very determined to bring up all his kids with a strong link to their heritage, so he had all the boys learn the bagpipes and all the girls learn Highland Dancing. He also taught them all Scottish history and had them take Scots Gaelic lessons. When all the kids were raised he decided to trace his lineage and put together a family tree. To his total surprise he actually found out that he was not Scottish at all. It turned out that he was actually Irish…
People in my family thought they were Skye McLeods and went out and bought tartans. Without knowing what they were doing, obviously, they bought war tartans. Then I discovered that the family connection is to the Lewis branch, not the Skye branch. Traditionally, the two McLeod clans were deadly enemies. Wearing the war tartan (invented by an Englishman) of your deadly enemy? Plenty stupid, eh!
The current chief of the Skye McLeods is married to a Yugoslavian. Jelena McLeod has a nice ring, doesn’t it? Are we still doing that number on Celtic names?
I though St. Patrick was Welsh - anyone know better?
PR
On 2002-10-17 13:20, Paul Reid wrote:
I though St. Patrick was Welsh - anyone know better?PR
Maybe this is the time to quote this little aphorism:
The Austrians’ greatest historical accomplishment is that they have made an Austrian out of Beethoven and a German out of Hitler.