Gemma O'Neill being the most gracious host I have ever encountered shared her house, her food, even gave up her bed for me. Years back, as the Republic of Ireland representative for the Indigenous Peoples World Forum, she spent some time at Pine Ridge. There, she met Dave Bailey - representing the Northern Cheyenne. Through Jeffrey and Mary, members of the Ancient Order of Hibernia and of Holy Family who my husband met at Adoration of the Blessed Sacramanet, I was introduced to Dave -- thus, the connection. And, interestingly, Gemma is quite fond of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (my daughter's name) - sporting pictures of her all over - yet one more interesting connection.
At Gemma's house, I met most of her children -- Fran, Simon, Rachel, Mansin, and Oisin; as well as Manny, and dogs Bruce and Smooshy (sp. ?) as well as a few of the girlfriends, boyfriend, and assorted comings and goings of friends (mostly Oisin's). I never did understand the name of their cat - or how to pronounce it. Seems he and his twin were adopted by the family as 6 week old kittens, one named 'naughty' because of his mischievousness, the other named 'good' due to his nice disposition. As they got older, the 'good' kitten became very wild in it's nature, and the once 'naughty' cat (who survived) became quite lovely in nature. When the wild cat died prematurely, they switched names. Of course, I was quite content to spend a great deal of time on the kitchen floor petting and scratching dog ears, bellies, etc... for most of the weekend.
Seems Smooshy, a medium-sized long haired version of Benji is bilingual; he understands both English and Irish commands. Everyone delighted in asking Smoosh to "dun an doras" - which means "close the door" - and Smoosh would comply by jumping up on her hind legs and closing the door with her front paws. By the end of the evening, after lying on the couch for about 1/2 an hour, Smooshy wasn't so compliant. She'd had enough of showing how bilingual she was.
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