Irish Dancing Memories

Although I can claim no Irish lineage, I was properly enculturated into all things Irish when I attended an Irish-Catholic grade school while growing up. We were not your typical uniformed-clad Catholic-grade school; this Catholic school was home to several Sisters of Mercy from Meath, Ireland. Sister Rosario Delaney arrived in the United States for her American-teaching assignment in 1964. By 1979 (the year I was in the 3rd grade) she was promoted to Principal. Sister Rosairo is STILL principal today, although rumor has it that she is eagerly anticipating retirement and return to her beloved Ireland.

If you can picture this, in addition to our studies, the nuns schooled us in Irish dancing. Yes, the nuns would actually demonstrate (in full habit) how to properly kick up our legs when doing an Irish jig. Although I can no longer remember the names of the different dance steps and routines that we performed, I can recall dancing on-stage (in our homemade costumes) during the annual St. Patrick's Day festival like it was yesterday. As patrons dined on corned beef and cabbage served in the basement cafeteria, the girls would perform their dance routines while the boys sang Irish tunes. I can still hear the boys singing, "When Irish Eyes are Smiling."

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, today, my little ones started off the day with some sugar-coated cereal...Lucky Charms. This was followed-up with a lunch of scrambled green eggs and ham. For dinner tonight we are having homemade baked potato soup! Yum! Here are a couple pictures of my own two lucky charms. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!


Ben was a huge fan of the green eggs and ham...Mary not so much.


Even on St. Patrick's Day, my "sunflower" kid sports ruby slippers!


Trouble!


So Sweet.