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Monday, July 25, 2011

What's the plural of "Faux Pas"?

What's the plural of Faux Pas? Because I'll need to know... I committed two of them in the past two days.

The first was among friends. At a cookout the other day, one of the local Northern Irish folks was having trouble conceiving of the fact my name is Will. I said, "I'm William the Second," thinking nothing of it as their eyes grew wide. I'm thinking, What?! My name is William Glen Briggs II. I'm WIlliam II. Apparently this was good old King Billy to the Norn Irish and a person of quite hostile contention between the protestants and catholics in the 17th century. Fine. Right. Good. Sorry folks! My name is Will.

The other one was a bit more obscure and yet potentially serious. I had decided to walk down to one of the local churches where one of the teams were putting on a kids club. Having been here plenty of times to know all about the colors, religions, flags, political affiliations, and conflict there-betwixt, I have NO idea why I did what I did today in choosing my wardrobe. But I didn't notice it until I walked onto a street which was emblazoned with red, white, and blue flags, banners, and other paraphernalia. I naturally knew I had walked into a protestant-claimed area loyal to Great Britain.

It was only then I noticed the colors I was wearing. It was a green Hurley shirt with gold writing under which I had a long-sleeved white shirt. I was wearing the complete colors of the Republic of Ireland's green, white, and gold flag. The colors of the Catholics who tend to stand for union with the Republic further south. I was also to learn later that Hurley is the name of an exclusively-Catholic sport much like hockey. The distinction between the political affiliation of these games here is that a catholic would see picking up a hockey stick as sacrilege and vice-versa. Oops.

I picked up my step and prepared my best, clearest American accent but thankfully did not encounter anyone on that particular street. My slip up did, however, explain some of the odd looks I had received from people on the street today. I'll be a bit more thoughtful in planning my attire over the next few weeks...

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