Reply #25: Yeah, but you didn't mention that Kinsale and Cork City are

[pink-o]

freakin GORGEOUS!!! I was ther with my friend who was looking up her grandfather in order to get Irish citizenship--and her last name happened to be Collins, so I made sure everyone there knew I was with her (Very few Irishmen have last names of my persuasion--except maybe for Bob Geldof :beer: )

Anyway, I also remember the men were gorgeous as well, while the women were plain and nothing to write home about. My kind of country!

Another interesting factoid: My aunt, raised Orthodox Jewish, married a New York City 2nd generation Irishman. His sister's husband owned PJ Clarke's bar in NYC, a total hotbed of O'Mafia activity. They took up monthly collections for the IRA, while also supporting Joe McCarthy in the Senate...??? Go figure. Obviously, a few years ago, but definitely strange bedfellows!

The Irish tend to live on the edge of creative/crazy anyway, with quite a few of them going over. Luckily, my aunt and uncle never had kids, what with Irish lunacy and Jewish navel-gazing neurosis, my poor hypothetical cousins woulda stood no chance!