Happy Father’s Day Mam!

Leprechaun with rainbow (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Growing up in my house, we celebrated Father’s Day with our mother. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do have a father, I just don’t have much contact with him and as such, my mother raised us playing the role of both mother and father.

Now, not a lot of people are aware of this but in Ireland, Mother’s Day falls in March whereas in Canada, Mother’s Day is in May and with Father’s Day in June, her birthday in December and Christmas following shortly after, my mother makes a mint off me and my brother!

When I was younger and living in England, my mother surprised me one St. Patrick’s Day by bursting into the busy pub I was in dressed head to toe as a leprechaun. I was not expecting her to be in the same country as me, let alone in the same pub as me. From that moment on, I was known as ‘the leprechaun’s daughter’, a name I’m sure a few still remember today.

In fact, I’m 100% positive some people still remember it. I was in China two years ago with a friend sitting in a hostel reception. The hostel we were staying at was far away and we were only popping in to pick up our friend from her hostel for dinner. As I was sitting on the ripped couch pondering what food we were going to eat a girl sat down next to me. We exchanged pleasantries, asked the usual questions of what are you doing in China, where do you live, oh Korea, me too, what do you do…etc. At the time a large majority of Korea-English teacher were milling around China as we were all on a Lunar New Year break from school so it wasn’t unusual to bump into someone from a neighboring town.

The girl and I continued our conversation and we got around to where we went to university. A strange subject change since it had been roughly 7 years since I’d graduated but I went with it anyway. After explaining I lived in England but I’m from Ireland and blah blah blah, she stops, looks at me and says:

“Did your mother once dress as a Leprechaun in a pub for St. Patrick’s Day?”

Yep, some people just never forget.

Last year, when The Canadian One and I took our first trip to Ireland together, my mother picked us up from the airport dressed, again, as a leprechaun. She wasn’t hard to spot when we bounced through customs and baggage pick-up all jet-lagged and sticky from the travelling. My brother stood next to her proclaiming to have had ‘nothing to do with this’.

This all brings me to today’s post, here’s a man I feel my mother would get along with: Meet Dale Price.

Every morning during the school year, Mr. Price dressed up to wave goodbye to his son Rain as he got on the school bus and the results are hilarious.