In Police and Fire Depts., a Bit o’ Brogue Survives
Firefighter Jerry Kennelly of Squad 41 in the South Bronx is from Limerick City, Ireland. He said he had toned down his accent, but fellow firefighters still struggled to understand him.
“What er ya doin’, boyo?” the policeman might inquire. “Do n’t be standin’ there,” the firefighter would command. “Get away with yee now.”
It is the Irish brogue, an unmistakable pattern of speech that was once so common among New York City policemen and firefighters that they became stereotyped in the American psyche as tough, garrulous and widely admired guardians of the public order who could spout lilting Irish aphorisms while wielding handcuffs or a fire hose.
But the brogue has become rarer with the depletion of the reservoir of newly arrived Irish recruits who for generations were pressed by their families into joining the Police and Fire Departments as soon as they qualified for United States citizenship.
“We still have a sprinkling of guys, but the faucet isn’t running like it did,” said Paul McCormack, deputy inspector of the police housing bureau in Brooklyn, who arrived in New York from County Donegal in 1986, joined the department in 1990, and is now its highest-ranking officer to have immigrated from Ireland.
Tags: irish, radio
Monday 17 Mar 2008 | Mack | Uncategorized
Here is one for you…Mexican St. Patrick’s Dayhttp://ptlia.com/Forms/Main/Default.aspx?L=en-us&P=Editorials6Historically correct.
Americans aren’t telling the pubs across the Big Pond to invest in a little something we like to call refrigeration, so please let us delude ourselves into enjoying what we think is the holiday with weak green-dyed beer and the odd parade or two. kthxbai
It’s pretty clear to me that the Clintons have come to terms with the fact that Hillary won’t get the nomination and, just as they did in 2004 (think Wes Clark), they gave it to the republicans so that she can run in 2012.
Tesla was a wierd little coked-up tweaker thats why
Another edition of the original online newsletter devoted to collecting international stories about birds in the news.
Is it just me or anyone else read that as macaroni?
hey, the local bar celebrates today so I celebrate today.
Next thing I will hear is that Edison was the inventor of the ‘Incandescent Light Bulb’
There are the geniuses and there are the business men.
Supreme court gave tesla credit for the radio in a huge patent suit. Only ignorant people think Marconi invented the radio.And with so much other stuff people are really ignorant about, I gotta say the Tesla/Marconi thing is low on the list.