So it's an American holiday really but it's the only one where I can say this:
I'd like to honor Bernard Tierney, b1798, apparently in Castleblaney, County Monaghan. He is for my family what is fondly known in Irish geneaology as the immigrant ancestor -- person beyond whom no records exist due to the loss of historical documents in the Irish civil war. We know he was smart enough, or perhaps poor enough, to leave Ireland *before* the Potato Famine. We know that 18th-century coal mining was an improvement in his circumstances, since he stayed in Scotland doing that work for decades. We know that he must have insisted on spelling the name of his town, as he was the only Irishman in the entire city of Ayr whose place of origin in that census is not simply "Ireland." The county historian for county Monaghan tells me that there were no Tierneys living in Castleblaneyeither before or for fifty years after his birth, so we surmise that his parents had already been evicted from their land and were passing through on their way to Belfast. Tierney, I am told, is a name from the south of the south of Ireland. (County Mayo perhaps?) It means "lord," or "lordly." Ironic, when you consider the above. We figure that in the eighth century, someone must have owned a cow..... Here's to Bernard Tierney, ornery bastard. And survivor. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:292073 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
