long way to Tipperary

Scottie Bowman (bowman@mail.indigo.ie)
Tue, 13 Jan 1998 00:20:38 +0000 

	Well now, Jim, that was an imprudent assumption.

	One way or another, out of my 69 years - 58 of them 
	(including the latest 34) have been spent in the cities of 
	Dublin, Waterford or Cork in the Republic of Ireland.  
	As a result, my acquaintance with Irish culture has been 
	both more extensive & more intimate than was good for me. 
		`Yerra, get away out of that,' they keep insisting. `You're 
	as Irish as any of us.' 
		`What a damnable cheek.  Get down, you bastards.' 
		`Come on, stop acting the bloody eejit.  That's just feckin' 
	codology.  Come on, come on, come on.  Admit it. You're reely 
	cultured just like we's....'

	So it goes.  The endless entreaties.  Decade after decade.  
	The only explanation I can find is that, after the unseemly 
	departure of all their greatest writers, they're prepared to 
	accept almost anything as a replacement.

	Scottie B.