Good morning listers, Please accept my apologies for diverting from the topic of genealogy but I just felt compelled to share this with you. I have a love of Irish music and dancing, inherited I guess from my wonderful grandmother. As a young girl in Ireland she was reportedly and excellent step-dancer and performed at many local events and won many prizes in competition. By the time I arrived in this world she was past middle age and suffered with arthritis so she didn't dance anymore. But whenever the Irish tunes played anywhere within her hearing, her face lit up, her hands clapped and her feet tapped as she regressed into her "memories" She and I used to listen to Irish records when I was growing up and I too still start moving in rhythm when I hear them. Last night I was watching (for the umpteenth time) a video I purchased a few years back when I went to see a performance of "Riverdance" and it brought back to mind my dead grandmother...and a poem she used to repeat over and over to me. It went like this: The Irish Dancer I am of Ireland And of the Holy land Of Ireland Good sir, pray I thee, For of Saint Charity Come and dance with me In Ireland (Anonymous (14th cent.) I am the first generation born in this country (my parents arrived in 1926) but I return to my roots whenever possible even though I no longer have any known relatives left over there. But it always "seems like home" and I always make sure to go somewhere where there are Irish dancers performing. As I sit back and watch there shining faces I "dream" the face of my grandmother up there. If God and my health permits I plan to go back again a year from this month. By then I will have saved up enough out of my pension to be able to afford to go again "one more time" Again...apologies for rambling off topic, but Ireland and my family (all of whom are gone now) have been much on my mind of late. Michelle-Vt. USA

Actually I thought your remarks very much on topic and a wonderful tribute to your dear grandmother. Her love of the Irish music is the very heart of what Irish genealogy is all about. This is a lovely poem - I've not seen it before. Margaret