Not just an Irish thing. My husband's mother, of English and German descent, died shortly after he was born. My husband was close to her brother, but could never get him to talk much about his sister, apparently because it was too painful losing her at a relatively young age. Until fairly recently, most people thought if it hurt to talk about something--don't! (Unfortunately, as a result my husband knows much less about his mother than he might have.) Diane </HTML>