Gaelic Wisdom for the Warrior

Am fear a thug buaidh air fhéin... thug é buaidh air namhaid.   (as Gaidhlig Albanach)

An fear a thug bua ar é féin.... thug sé bua ar namhaid  (Gaeilge) 

The man who conquers himself... conquers an enemy.   

The Gall-Ghaeil

Love the illustration above.  It appeals to me.  I do not know who tagged on the clever saying, but I like it.  The young folk tell me this is an illustration from some 'game' they play with computers or Eboxes or something similar.  Pé sceal é....   I am this great fortune of know a lot about my ancestry. I descend from warrior stock, from a warrior caste.  I have the advantage of working with our McCain DNA project and access to primary sources about my own family from the late thirteenth century to we migrated to the New World.

We originate in mid Argyll, in what is now called Kilmichael Parish.  That is the Dunadd areas for you with map savvy.   This area was home to a people called the Gall-Ghaeil, or 'stranger Gaels.'  They were a Gaelic people who became über influenced and joined with the Norse in their lands.  It was a peaceful joining, marriages, etc., worked out well for both parties. Pé sceal é.... they gave rise to a peculiar phenomenon, i.e. Gaelic Vikings.  This in time gave rise to the Gallóglaigh and Redshanks, and pretty much is the story of my family.  We are those people today.

Nice illustration.

Gray Catbird

Today a Gray Catbird came to the feeder.  For a couple of weeks I have been hearing 'kittens' out in the woods beside my apartment.  We have a stray cat that we feed, and she has had kittens, so I thought they must be hers.  But every time I went out to look... nada, níl cat amhain ann. So... the arrival of the Catbird explains all.  It does mew like a cat, incredibly so.  Mystery solved.  Nice bird.

The Indigo Bunting

This very handsome fellow has been visiting the feeder of late, the Indio Bunting.  Very beautiful.  They are fairly common here in north Mississippi.

Chuck-will's-widow

The Chuck-will's-widow, one of my very favourite birds.  We have many of them here in the wooded hills of north Mississippi.  The locals usually call them, quite incorrectly, a Whip-poor-will.  Why?  Well, the two birds are very similar and do have similar calls, but to the experienced ear they are quite different. We do have some bona fide Whip-poor-wills in north Mississippi, but 99 times out of 100, what one hears at Twilight and at night, is the much more common Chuck-will.  Last night one was about ten feet from my bedroom window, singing his sad strange call.    It eats primarily insects, particular those active at night such as moths, beetles, and winged ants. It will also eat small birds and bats, swallowing them whole; its mouth opens very wide.  It is an odd looking, yet beautiful bird.

The Path of the Gods

Perun

 the gods only go with you if you put yourself in their path. And that takes courage....

Mary Stewart, The Chrystal Cave

Words of Odin

As a child I discovered the Norse Sagas and the Eddas.  They started me on the path, I still love them. The wisdom below, a suggestion from the Allfather.... 

Praise day at even, a wife when dead,
a weapon when tried, a maid when married,
ice when 'tis crossed, and ale when 'tis drunk.


(from the Eddas)

Birds in North Mississippi early Spring

Current set of birds observed in or near my wee feeder in the last week or so.... House finch, Golden finch, Cardinal, mourning dove (actually, under the feeder), Chickadee, Tit Mouse, Junco, Wild Turkey. White Throated Sparrows (my favs), Robins, Mocking birds, Blue Jays, come for water only at the feed station.

Маккейн Уголок

Новости и вид из Dixie....

Irish Coffee, the Real Story

There is a common and widely held myth that Irish Coffee, that most wonderful of restoratives, was first created in the bar in Shannon Airport. It is true this luscious, Gaelic concoction, was served there at a very early date. But… it wasn’t the first place to serve this wonderful drink, it actually originated in County Donegal at Jackson’s Hotel, in Ballybofey.

There was a seaman named Joe Jackson, a Derry man, who served in the Merchant Navy during World War II. It was his misfortune to be on a ship that was torpedoed in the north Atlantic. When he was rescued he was suffering from exposure and was revived with a high proof drink made from coffee and rum, which was a Navy practice of the day. The rest of Joe Jackson’s service was in the eastern Mediterranean and there he was exposed to drinks containing cream, sugar, and spirits.

With the war over Joe returned home to Ireland and married a woman in the catering business in Ballybofey. Joe purchased a hotel in Ballybofey and calling upon his experiences during the war, began to experiment with new drinks. One of the specialties of the house was an ‘Irish Coffee’ which was made of strong black coffee, sugar, Irish whiskey, and then a layer of cream on top. This was circa late 1940s.

In the early 1950s a Scottish motoring magazine published an account of Joe Jackson’s Irish Coffee. The drink was replicated, according to lore, on 10 November 1952, in the bar of Shannon airport, but this was several years after Jackson’s Hotel served the drink. Perhaps it was a public relations coup or perhaps Donegal was in those days too distant and away, for whatever reason, the Shannon airport origin for Irish Coffee began to take root.

The real story is Irish Coffee is the creation of Mr Joe Jackson and was first served at Jackson’s Hotel in Ballybofey, County Donegal, where they still serve it today, exactly as it was created by Joe Jackson in the late 1940s.

Barry R McCain (c) 2008