In The Name of My Forefathers !!

It's that time of year again , my friends , when the teary - eyed Green Folk .... leprechauns in their belfries and shamrocks growing out of their coat lapels , nostrils and earlobes ..... congregate at the local teach tábhairne to belt out a few verses of Danny Boy or Mother Machree while belting down great quantities of green beer and uisce beatha ........ all this because Saint Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland .... and the English sailed us out many centuries later on the despicably criminal death ships to the Americas !!! .......bountiful land made of green cheese and overflowing with Bailey's and Tullamore Dew !!

Now some of these fine folks might start boasting their Irish ancestry and identity by claiming that their kin had taken part in the Tain Bó Cualinge ( Cattle Raid at Cooley ) and were still on the enemy's most wanted list ..... but please don't believe them as the Cattle Raid at Cooley is the greatest saga in Irish mythology.  A few may even arrogate direct ancestral ties to some Irish lord , baron or earl .... but there once again I say "caveat "... beware ! as those terms are English aristocratic titles and , in no way , correspond to traditional Irish political vocabulary or categories. The only two true Irish terms for the leader or chief of a traditional clan or sept  and his / her deputy chief have always been "taoiseach "and " tánaiste " and are in current use even today . The present Taoiseach of the Dáil Éireann ( Assembly of Ireland ) is Brian Ò Comhain ( Brian Cowen ) and his backup tánaiste is Máire Ní Cochláin  ( Mary Coughlan ). The acting uachtarán or president is Máire Pádraigín Bean Mhic Ghiolla Íosa ( Mary McAleese ........ Mary Patricia , wife of the son of the servant of Jesus ! ). Now there 's a heraldic family name !  Shame on the conqueror , his scribes , tax collectors and shipping agents for masacring our surnames beyond  recognition !!......... among other " misdemeanors " of the sort