A Wee Bit o’ Irish Culture

Tales from Old Ireland

So I’m about 1/4 Irish.  

(And 1/4 Mexican + 1/2 German.  Amish-German, to be exact.  But that’s definitely a story for another day…)  Mr. Native Texan also boasts some UK heritage.  Not from Ireland exactly, but close enough to make the Emerald Isle dear to his heart.

Even without familiar ties to St. Patrick’s homeland, it’s still fun to celebrate the holiday honoring Ireland’s Patron Saint. 🙂

Here at the Yankee Homestead, we’re gearing up for March 17th in typical style…with children’s literature!  

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I’ve also got our Celtic music ready, along with special emerald-green-streamer-pom-pom-things for our annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.  There are tentative plans to make GF Irish soda bread, and I’ve got special green shirts for the boys to wear on the 17th.

We’re all set!

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*NOTE: I’ve made a noteworthy addition to the list of children’s books: Tales from Old Ireland by Malachy Doyle.

Here’s what I love about Tales from Old Ireland {with 2 CD’s}:

• Malachy Doyle is a prolific, award-winning, Irish author.
• The illustrator, Niamh Sharkey, is Irish, and the current Irish Laureate for Children’s Literature (2012-2014).
• Maura O’Connell, who narrates the stories on the CD’s, is an internationally acclaimed Irish folksinger.
• There is bagpipe music on the CD’s!
• The stories are a nice mix of traditional Irish folk tales and the author’s original tales.
• Older Brother has LOVED listening to these stories!  In my opinion, the stories are suitable for about 5 and up, depending on the child.  (I really hesitate to assign age ranges to books, because it’s SO relative.)
• Little Brother has made it through most of them, too, while strapped into a carseat. 🙂
• The book has a handy pronunciation guide for Irish names from the stories.

Note: Some of the stories contain “intense” details, and not all of them have happy endings.  These aren’t Disney-fied versions, folks!

If your library doesn’t carry the book or CD’s, you might like to buy a used copy.  AbeBooks is one of my favorite sources for used books–they’ve currently got several reasonably priced book+CD sets.

 Erin go bragh!

How do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?

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