Tales from the West Texas Dust (St. Patrick's Day Special)

When our Contributing Editor for Irish Culture asked me about writing for the St. Patrick's Day Event, I was immediately met with two problems: (1.) I don't observe the holiday due to my personal religious convictions; and (2.) most of us out here couldn't care a hoot about it anyway.

But then realizing that I had absolutely nothing else to write about and noting that there could be others of Irish descent who do care about their traditions, I decided as a public service to you, the reader, to let you in on a few sites that I surfed recently on both Yahoo and Infoseek originating from here in Texas that might be of interest to our Irish friends. The results were very surprising, indeed. Here's a synopsis of what I found.

First, if you want to check out the history of Ireland (both Republican and Unionist), you might want to check out the University of Texas's Irish History site at http://wwwvms.utexas.edu/~jdana/irehist.... to see what really happened during the Great Famine. It also has links to documents, timelines, and other sites of interest. But if you'd rather check out that nation's literature, you can go to http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Partheno... (Anne Cooke's Home Page) to pursue your scholarly interests in that realm.

Also, don't forget about the 17th Annual Irish Festival (http://www.celticfaire.com) that's coming up fairly soon. And of course, we need not neglect a Texas Panhandle town named after a shamrock. Shamrock's Virtual Irish City site (http://www.geocities.com/~shamrocktx/ind...) will give details on their annual St. Patrick's Day festivities and will even have a picture of the largest water tower in Texas. (Just note, though, that patience will be a virtue with using that site. I found it a little slow to access for my taste.)

Want to polish up on your dance steps for those jigs and reels? The McTeggart Irish Dancers of North Texas (http://www.fastlane.net/~springer/mct.htm), the Irish Dance Center (http://www.reelsnjigs.com) and the Emerald School of Irish Step Dancing (http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/7589) might prove to be of some assistance. But if you simply prefer to tap your feet to the music, go to the following sites if you need more info on Celtic music:

(a.) http://www.cyberramp.net/~scma/ (This is the site of the Southwest Celtic Music Association. This site provides you access to their newsletter, information on the North Texas Irish Festival, a list of Celtic music performers and venues, and links to related sites.)

Go To Page: 1 2