What's in a name?

I've quickly gotten used to the fact that people over here have difficulty spelling my surname. This would never happen in Ireland, but then I've never had to try and pronounce some of these surnames before let alone spell them. That's not even mentioning the difficulty of getting the apostraphe of my surname (or the second capital) into a database. Bank of Ireland can do it, but not Homeland Security. Really!

But as I've said, I've gotten used to it. I don't mind people shortening Michael to Mike, my family tends to call me that. But most know me by Mick, and I still can't get over the fact that people don't know how to spell it. I've seen myself being refered to as Mic. Odd, as Nick isn't spelled that way. Also Mic is pronounced Mike to most.

Am I making to big a deal about this? NO, IT'S MY NAME!! Mic Oneal doesn't exist. I'm an Irishman, the US slang for which incidently is Mick, and that's my real name. Where's the confuddlement?

In Theory

The duplicity of the life and reality in the US has always amased me. Most of it seems to hark right back on US politics. Not because it's rooted in politics, I believe that politics just highlights the profanity of things.

Take this last month:

"Because Darwin's Theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is discovered. The Theory is not a fact. Gaps in the Theory exist for which there is no evidence. A theory is defined as a well-tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations. Intelligent Design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view."

- statement read out to the ninth-grade students in Pennsylvania

FYI: don't be surprised that I use BBC-Worldwide as my prime source of information, but more on that later.

So in the land is defined with teh separation of church and state, there are schools where in science class and in science-textbooks now compare the scientic theory of evolution with the reglious permise of Intelligent Design, or creationism.

I know that a theory is not a proven fact, and I don't think less of anyone because of which theory they think is most apt in this case. What amases me is that a government who designed a school system that doesn't have a religion-class allows advocation of a religious belief in a science-class. And then I read this:

"The US president told newspaper reporters in Texas that children should be taught about intelligent design so they could better understand the debate about the origins of the universe."

- Bush weighs into evolution debate By Jonathan Beale, BBC News, Washington

And I don't really disagree. But public-school is public-school, and sunday-school is not. Funnily enough, my all-boypublic-school, Catholic education in a prodominantly Catholic nation never mentioned Creationism or Intelligent design in Science.

Compliment?

It's always interesting to me how people react when they find out that I'm not actually one of them. I've always unconsiously softened my accent around non-Dubs. And after much and on-going trail and error, I've gotten used to switching my turn of phrase to American. Sure it's obvious to most that I'm not a local, but that doesn't mean they won't assume that this blue-eyed, white boy isn't american.

I'm also not used to the fact that when people hear that I'm Irish, they think I'm Irish-American. How and ever, when the truth comes out it's often met with questions, mainly:

What are you doing here? -OR- Why did you move here?

I'm used to the responses now, and the second I feel like I've heard them all:

May I say, you speak very good English.

And I should hope so!!

A Historical Day

Last Thursday the IRA made an announcement unlike any they made before:

The leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign. All IRA units have been ordered to dump arms. All volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means. Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever.

IRA statement, 28 July 2005

A comprehensive history can be found on the BBC's site focusing on the issue.