Stephen Rea

Official White House photograph by Pete Souza; Photo credit: Wikipedia

I is for Irish…as in there is some innately mischievous and clever about an Irishman. Perhaps it’s the accent, perhaps it’s the stereotypical inclination to drink and scrap and tell wry jokes. My father comes from Irish stock and he certainly fits the mold, minus the accent, being from Virginia bootlegger stock. His mother’s maiden name was Gillespie which is the root of my pen surname, Gillian. (Claire Gillespie dot com had already been nabbed.) Her ancestors came to America, as did many other Irish, during the potato famine.

I’ve always been fascinated by the Irish and Ireland, so much so that my urban fantasy novel in process, My Fair Vampire, features a multi-centuries old Irish vampire named Donovan, who is challenged with teaching his new prodigy from New Mexico all the ins and outs of vampirism. My other in process novel, Sins of Our Mothers, features a rather nasty bunch of IRA zealots from the eighties.

Sadly, I’ve yet to visit Ireland. It’s definitely on my bucket list though. From the lush green countrysides to the busy cities, from the quiet villages to the boisterous pubs–I wanna see it all. I want to hear the ancient language. Believe it or not, I once audited a class in Gaelic when in college. I guarantee you I was the only business major in attendance. LOL

Look at all the famous Irish actors too: Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Michael Fassbender, Gabriel Byrne, Ciaran Hinds, Richard Harris, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Stuart Townsend, Stephen Rea, Cillian Murphy, and that doesn’t even count the ones of Irish descent who aren’t from Ireland.

Musically, we have the Brennan family–Enya, Maire and siblings from Clannad.

I’ll leave you with this single from Maire: