Sunday, April 17, 2016

Irish steps and places very much alive in the U.S.

While browsing the net, looking through Irish  place-names that have been exported to America, I landed on some footage of a four-year Irish dancer, Oscar Donnelly,  performing the set dance the Kilkenny Races at a speed that would likely win the Kilkenny races. Take a look: http://www.irishcentral.com/culture/craic/4-year-old-Irish-dancer-could-be-the-worlds-next-Michael-Flatley-VIDEO.html          Prodigious, I'm guessing, we'll hear the name again..

Back to the place-names, I was checking out County Roscommon, only to find counties Clare, Wexford and Antrim also exist in Michigan. Apparently there are 21 Dublin towns is the U.S. and Galway town is in Saratoga County, New York as is Waterford town.  There are a number of Limericks, Kildares; Baltimore of course, Newry, Tyrone,  Killarney, Mayo, Letterkenny, Kilkenny, Bantry, lots of Avocas, Derry, Londonderry, Duncannon, Dundalk and many more. Not surprising, I suppose, as immigrants tried to cling to a little bit of home. There’s a list of Irish place-names abroad at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Irish_place_names_in_other_countries#Placenames_by_Irish_county

I'm particularly struck by the Killarney in Zimbabwe, listed on this page, not to mention Conamara in outer space. Let’s hope the Gaelic language is holding up out there.


Mind you it’s not been all one way, there’s a very small Boston in Co. Clare, and, very impressively, America sits snuggly, a townland in Co Roscommon.

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