My husband and I were in an Irish pub earlier, and I was ogling a map of Ireland on the wall, and rattling off different things with which I could associate their names.

Note: this list is NOT all inclusive and does not list every single Irish county! Fun fact, did you know Michigan has a few counties that share their names with counties in Ireland? Those include Antrim, Clare, Roscommon and Wexford.

Now let’s get on with some word association fun, shall we?

Antrim

Short’s Brewery – Antrim County, MI (Bellaire) ⇓

Clare 

Three options! You can go with the Molly Ringwald “Claire” in The Breakfast Club,  ⇓ or…

Claire Danes, ⇓in “My So-Called Life.” I had someone randomly tell me years ago that I talk like Claire Danes! I’m not sure if that was a compliment or not… or…

Clare, MI ⇓

Cork 

Steve Martin in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in the “cork on the fork” scene… ⇓

Derry 

The events in Stephen King’s It ⇓ take place in the fictitious town of Derry, Maine.

Down

Two choices! Hugh Downs,  ⇓ host of 20/20 from 1978 to 1999, or:

System of a Down ⇓

Dublin

My goodness, my Guinness! ⇓

Galway

James Galway, aka “The Man with the Golden Flute,” aka you better call him SIR!

Kerry

Massachusetts Senator and Vietnam vet John Kerry, also a former presidential candidate ⇓

Kildare

Actor Richard Chamberlain as Dr. Kildare, which aired 1961 to 1966 on NBC ⇓

Limerick

Comedian Andrew Dice Clay, who was known for his filthy limericks… ⇓

Mayo

One of the many goofy lines from the movie Airplane! ⇓

Monaghan

Domino’s Pizza founder – and former Detroit Tigers owner Tom Monaghan ⇓. He sold 93 percent of the company and gave up day to day operations of Domino’s in 1998. After that, the dress code at his company became more casual (I know because I waited on some of the celebratory employees, including women who FINALLY got to wear pants to work)! The original Domino’s location is still standing in Ypsilanti, MI and now houses a burger joint called Got Burger.

Tyrone

Film actor Tyrone Power  ⇓ died at the age of 44 while filming a dueling scene in the movie Solomon and Sheba in Spain.

Waterford

Waterford crystal. What ELSE? OK, maybe there are two things, here’s the first thing, a Waterford crystal clock (similar to one my husband and I got for a wedding gift) ⇓

Waterford, MI. Which I don’t really know much about… ⇓

Wexford

Wexford Irish cream ale ⇓ In the early 2000s, I went through an “imported” beer phase and fell in love with this beer! I still enjoy cream ales – Original Gravity Brewing Co. in Milan, MI is one of the few microbrew joints that serves a cream ale. I’ve jokingly called it the “Conjugal Visit Cream Ale” since Milan is home to a penitentiary!