Ordinary living: "Irish soul is tough and scrappy"

 For North Jersey readers, "Irish it up for me!" describes soulful bonds within an Irish family as experienced by Gene Myers. Myers quotes Thomas Moore:

"'The Irish are among a select few remaining on the earth in whom an alternative, soul-filled approach to ordinary living is still alive,' author Thomas Moore.

Soul may seem at odds with green beer and red hair. But Irish soul isn't lofty. It's rooted in real life. Irish soul is tough and scrappy. It comes from a people whose pride kept them strong in the face of colonization. It helped them claw their way up from the bottom at Ellis Island."

Myers also shares, "Considering the 'deep soul' of the Irish, Thomas Moore writes, 'It basks in tradition and finds its heaven in family  . . .'" In 2009, Myers published this post on the Joy of Life blog.