This time of year (St. Patrick’s Day), I am so reminded of my Mother’s mother, my gramma, Adelaide McCabe Dodge. Her parents came from Ireland and landed in Auburn, NY in the mid-1800s. They were Roman Catholics from County Cork, I believe. Every so often, I would hear Gram refer to the “Black Irish.” As a child, I presumed that she was speaking about me … half-irish, half-West Indian. there was nothing negative in the manner in which gramma spoke … now, I think she was simply referencing the Protestants in Northern Ireland. I am glad that it didn’t sound as if she didn’t like the Black Irish because I loved her a lot and might have been hurt otherwise.
My older cousins are invited to make corrections to any of this.