Spending my Thanksgiving with family in Ireland

How one American celebrates America’s biggest holiday

JOHN FAY,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, November 23, 2011, 7:39 AM

Updated Thursday, November 24, 2011, 12:26 PM

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A family celebrate Thanksgiving

Photo by thanksgiving-wallpapers.blogspot.com

Somehow I like that. I like talking about Thanksgiving. I want people here to know about it. In fact, I think it would be great if Ireland took up the tradition.

Who doesn't need a day to take a time out from all the hustle and bustle? A day with no cards, no gifts, no nothing other than time? Time to reflect? What's not to like? And this year, possibly as much as any in the lifetime of anyone alive here today, Irish people could use such a break. It's bad here, but we still live in a safe and relatively wealthy country. We still have quite a bit to be thankful for. It's not Somalia.

Me? I'll be picking up our turkey later this evening and the whole family will sit down to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow afternoon (after school - life's tough for some). My stomach and I can hardly wait.

Happy Thanksgiving to you.

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Towngate | Nov 26, 2011, 08:08 AM EST

John Yank: Worth bearing in mind the early settlers adopted and adapted the Native American Harvest Thanks-giving Ceremony and made it their own. Perhaps the reason it 'refuses to leave American shores' is not for want of the US trying to 'export' it, but the fact that in the British Isles, at least, there is a tradition of Harvest Festival events in Schools and Churches where we give thanks for the bounty of nature.

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TheYank | Nov 24, 2011, 06:35 AM EST

edmundburke

Brain freeze. Fixed that date now. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

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edmundburke | Nov 23, 2011, 10:20 AM EST

In 1987, my cousins and I were in Dublin staying with our aunt on Thanksgiving. We had just celebrated our grandmother's 90th birthday in Mayo with plenty of family, so the urge to have a true American Thanksgiving was somewhat diminished. However, our lovely aunt made sure she cooked us a fine roast dinner in consideration of her American nieces and nephews, and we all appreciated it. After dinner, us cousins went down to the Leeson Street wine bars (then the rage). Upon entering one, we saw it festooned with American flags. It was celebrating American Thanksgiving night! We were amazed and delighted, and stayed until all hours. The bar served up turkey slices and cranberry sauce, so we felt we had indeed celebrated American Thanksgiving in Dublin.

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mikehoulihan | Nov 23, 2011, 10:01 AM EST

You got the date wrong, it's not Thursday Nov. 26th, it's the 24th!

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joycean | Nov 23, 2011, 09:35 AM EST

The Irish may have adopted American popular culture, but that was their choice. Americans don't dress, have popular movies, or singers so that other ountries will ape them. Many countries, like Canada, have their own version of Thanksgiving because those countries realize the value of being thankful for our blessings. If IReland doesn't, that may say something about the Irish.

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