This seems to be the time of year when everyone talks about their Irish ancestry. What is it they say about the Irish? Their greatest import is their people. I, too, am one of the millions of Americans that carry that Irish DNA. My mother is a Dunn. Her people came from County Mayo. My father is of Irish descent, too. His great grandmother was Margaret Brown Harris(photo). She emigrated from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia to live with her son and my great grandfather, James Harris in Bar Harbor. She was a hard drinking woman who smoked a clay pipe and lived well into her 90's. Her father, Philip Brown immigrated to Canada from County Wexford, Ireland. Her mother, Marie Lejeune dit Briand was of French descent, but Margaret spoke her father's native tongue, Irish Gaelic. My grandfather was a great story teller and some of his favorites were about his Irish speaking grandmother. Margaret was Catholic and was not fond of her protestant daughter-in-law, Charlotte. Every morning, Charlotte would tap on the kitchen stove pipe to let Margaret know that breakfast was ready. Well, one morning Margaret was especially resentful of her son's wife and dumped the contents of her chamber pot on the stove pipe. My grandfather said it was the worst smell. Things got so bad, the priest needed to stop in and have a little talk with Grammie. While Margaret was a bit of a trouble maker, she was a hard worker too. As an old woman, she would scrape the needles off balsam fir branches to make sachets. Her hands would be red and raw from the sharp needles. Like many Americans, my family's heritage is diverse and descends from all the continents of the world except Antartica and Australia. That's just a little snippet about one of my family lines for this St.Patrick's Day.
