Monday, November 20, 2006

Ha Ha

My brother Michael was doing some browsing in Wikipedia - (I'm assuming after seeing the Eastwood link on my 'confectionery' post because he submitted a comment there) - and came up with a lovely little tidbit that I simply must share. There is a certain beloved family member listed towards the bottom of the history section of this East Syracuse page.

Michael "Mickey" Wrenn was my mother's cherished father. I, sadly, never got to meet him, but he's been a very big presence in my life nonetheless. He's, not least of all, the sole reason I am able to live here in the UK. Ha Ha, (as all of the grandchildren called him), was an Irish immigrant to America. Solely through ancestry, I have been allowed to obtain my Irish passport, thus giving me European Union citizenship.

Because of the grim history between England and Ireland, and the affect it had on him, Ha Ha apparently wasn't the biggest fan of England. Ireland was still part of the UK during his youth in the early 20th century. His temperament is understandable when you consider he was brought up in a country whose population steadily continued to decline after the potato famine, and whose everyday people undoubtedly held very fiery opinions about the English. I can only hope he would have given me his blessing in the end.

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