Fellow Americans
Growing up in South Boston, I always wondered why everyone considered it the enclave of the Irish. People would ask me what part of Ireland the Neas' came from, which caused me no end of confusion. My Dad told me we were "Black-Irish" and my mother told me we were linked to Irish royalty. My grandmother (Mom's mother) was an O'Riordan, which translates from Gaelic into The Kings Bard or Poet. It took me years to weed through the legends and tall tales. Truth is I am an American mutt, just like many folks these days. While I am still proud of my South Boston, Irish heritage, I am also proud of the German, Slovenian, Northern Irish, Welsh and other ethnic groups linked to my family. As a girl growing up, my mother always shared the cultures of our neighbors and friends with me so that I "understood who they were." No one was ever "bad," simply different. Different was never a problem. It was OK to be different in Momma's eyes....