Saint Patrick's Day Quiz 2014

Here are questions a good Irish American should be able to answer. See if you have the right stuff for this St. Patrick's Day. To make it easy on you, these are true or false questions: (Answers are below)

1. ___Saint Patrick was kidnapped from Britain.
2. ___Saint Patrick's Breastplate is a coat of arms with a shamrock.
3. ___Trinity College is one of the oldest Catholic Universities in the world.
4. ___The Book of Kells is a beautifully decorated book of poetry.
5. ___Frank McCourt was born in Limerick.
6. ___The potato famine occurred in the late 1800s.
7. ___The Commitments is a famous movie about Irish Folk Music.
8. ___Saint Brigid was known for her generosity.
9. ___William Butler Yeats is a famous Irish Catholic poet.
10. ___Peat was burned to heat homes in Ireland.
11. ___Joseph Kennedy served as Ambassador to Ireland.
12. ___Jean Kennedy Smith served as Ambassador to Ireland.
13. ___The native tongue of Ireland is English.
14. ___The Hebrides are Irish islands.
15. ___There are no Mosques in Ireland.
16. ___The largest Christian Church in Northern Ireland is the Catholic Church.
17. ___Bing Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Going My Way.
18. ___St. Columba waged a battle that killed thousands over a literary dispute.
19. ___In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift suggested that the poor Irish might sell their children as food for the rich.
20. ___An estimated 1 million Irish died from the potato famine and another 1 million emigrated.
21. ___"Let's match-make America" is a line from the movie, the MatchMaker --given by  Milo O'Shea. 
22. ___When David Kelly talked about a "vulgar business" in the MatchMaker, he was talking about the fee for his genealogy research.

Copyright 2014, Sporting Chance Press

Answers below:

1. T--Saint Patrick was kidnapped from Britain.
2. F--Saint Patrick's Breastplate is a coat of arms with a shamrock. It's a prayer.
3. F--Trinity College is one of the oldest Catholic Universities in the world. It was established by the English queen as a Protestant institution.
4. F--The Book of Kells is a beautifully decorated book of poetry. Reproduces the Gospels.
5. F--Frank McCourt was born in Limerick. McCourt was born in NY, but his Irish parents returned to their native land and McCourt grew up in Limerick. McCourt passed away in 2009.
6. F--The potato famine occurred in the late 1800s. It occurred from approximately 1845-1849.
7. F--The Commitments is a famous movie about Irish Folk Music. The movie is about soul music sung by an Irish band.
8. T--Saint Brigid was known for her generosity.
9. F--William Butler Yeats is a famous Irish Catholic poet. Yeats was a Protestant who became a Nationalist--loved by almost all Irish.
10. T--Peat was burned to heat homes in Ireland.
11. F--Joseph Kennedy served as Ambassador to Ireland. Ambassador to the UK, Roosevelt wanted him to take the less-sensitive Irish job at the time just before WWII, but he pushed for the UK job.
12. T--Jean Kennedy Smith served as Ambassador to Ireland.
13. F--The native tongue of Ireland is English. It is Irish or Irish Gaelic.
14. F--The Hebrides are Irish islands. Scotland.
15. F--There are no Mosques in Ireland.  There are at least 12 mosques or Islamic prayer centers in Ireland.
16. T--The largest Christian Church in Northern Ireland is the Catholic Church. True--there are more Protestants, but those are from different churches.
17. T--Bing Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Going My Way.
18. T--St. Columba waged a battle that killed thousands over a literary dispute. Columba copied a manuscript containing Psalms without permission of its owner Saint Finian. When Columba lost the legal battle for his copy, he put together an army to retaliate. The loss of life was horrific and it brought shame and remorse to Columba who was essentially exiled from Ireland. The Irish loss was the Scots gain -- Columba became a great missionary to Scotland and established great monasteries there.
19. T--In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift suggested that the poor Irish might sell their children as food for the rich. He was being sarcastic, but seriously mocking some of the days thinkers.
20. T--An estimated 1 million Irish died from the potato famine and another 1 million emigrated. There are different estimates, but the losses were huge.
Copyright 2011 Sporting Chance Press,Inc.
 21. T--""Let's match-make America" is a line from the movie, the MatchMaker --given by  Milo O'Shea.  Milo O'Shea passed away in 2013.
22. T--When David Kelly talked about a "vulgar business" in the MatchMaker, he was talking about the fee for his genealogy research.  David Kelly passed away in 2012.

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Bit of Inspiration from Yeats

I came across a poem by William Butler Yeats that I thought was especially powerful and  I decided to make it into a poster.  I thought it turned out very nice.  Within a few weeks I'll have it up on my web site at sportingchancepress.com and people will be able to buy it along with other posters and the books that I have published as part of my business, Sporting Chance Press. But if you like this poster and would like to order a copy, two, three or more right away, just send me an email at lmj.norris@gmail.com with your shipping information and number of copies--I'll send the poster(s) with a bill.  The poster is 14" X 12" digitally printed on thick stock and suitable for framing.  The cost of the poster is $12, plus tax if applicable.  I will pay the shipping charges.  I roll them up and send them in a thick tube--either first class or priority mail.

Saint Patrick's Lorica

Photograph taken by my son, Daniel Norris

I love this prayer and I asked my son to set a portion of it up on a poster for my publishing business.  Within a few weeks I'll have it up on my web site at sportingchancepress.com and people will be able to buy it along with other posters and the books that I have published as part of my business, Sporting Chance Press. 

It has taken the better part of  year to develop and publish each new book that I've done.  We're a bit of a boutique publishing company.  If you like this poster and would like to order a copy, two, three or more, just send me an email at lmj.norris@gmail.com with your shipping information and number of copies--I'll send the poster(s) with a bill.  The poster is 14" X 12" digitally printed on thick stock and suitable for framing.  The cost of the poster is $12, plus tax if applicable.  I will pay the shipping charges.  I roll them up and send them in a thick tube--either first class or priority mail. 

 

Mass Today

We went to Mass this morning and it certainly did us good.  Afterward, my wife was talking about the length of Mass and that when she was a child her parish had very short masses because of the size of the church and number of parishioners to serve.  Our daughter who was with us this morning is a high school student.  She seems to enjoy hearing about stuff "back in the day," at least within reason. We continued to reminisce. 

Looking back at Mass as a kid, I mentioned going to Mass with my dad who for a while liked to go to the High Mass in our parish in Chicago.  The High Mass was very long and like all Masses at the time, it  was in Latin.  I remember being very young and trying to make sounds like I was reciting Latin---mimicking the adults around me were.  It was something like shishwa-shishwa-shishwa...

Second, I thought of my dad's devotion to God and his church.  He was an Irish Catholic cop whose mother, Mary Callaghan Norris, had him going to Novenas and other services as a small boy.  My dad was an extremely humble man and always in his own world at Mass.  Often the old school Catholics followed the prayers at Mass, but also said the Rosary between them.  You saw a lot of beads at Mass in those days.  I know this runs contrary to what is taught today about the Mass being a communal celebration, but a lot of old school Catholics were inwardly focused at church.  

My dad gave us a great example of how to look at the world and faith.  His faith was never very far from what was going on around him.   If we heard an ambulance, we'd pray that the person being transported would be OK.  If we passed a cemetery, as we did often in my neighborhood, we prayed a Hail Mary.  If someone mentioned that somone from the neighborhood was sick, there were more prayers.  But my dad never asked us to say them out loud.  We would just say them to ourselves as he did. There was never, ever any show with faith.  It was very personal.  That was how it was at that time.  

I loved so many things about my dad and tried to copy him.  I would often walk with my dad to church and try to imitate his gait.  He walked slowly with his feet pointing out.  On cold days I would walk behind him and use his big wide body to shield me from the wind.  As I got older, he consistently had a working car and we switched going from the later Masses to the  earlier ones.  He probably did it for my mom who was claustrophobic and had difficulty going to crowded services. If he took her to Mass very early, she could attend comfortably. If we went to the later ones, she would stand in the vestabule and seemed very uncomfortable.

My memories were very simple with respect to my dad's faith, but they were strong.  And when we went to Mass with Dad, he was always in a good mood after the service.  In good times, when Mass was over he would take us to a restaurant.   I'd order chocolate chip pancakes and a chocolate milk.