Bertie’s Former Assistant is not in Kansas
From the beginning to the end of this article on our Taoiseach’s questionable financial affairs, we find that Bertie Ahern’s former secreatry Grainne Carruth, is not in Kansas.
Having lived for over 8 years not in Kansas myself, I find this journalistic device quite comforting, if, obviously, cliched and lazy.
About an hour into her second day of giving evidence to the Mahon Tribunal, Grainne Carruth dissolved into tears.
“I just want to go home,” she sobbed, like a latter-day Dorothy from the ‘Wizard of Oz’ yearning for the peace of Kansas.
But there was no way out for Bertie’s former secretary. No pair of red shoes to click together, no good fairy Glinda to magic away evidence of sterling transactions into Bertie’s account and no Toto by her side.
And while people in ireland are no more interested that the city I lived in, Kansas City, is in Missouri not Kansas, than people in KC were interested that England is not an island nor Wales part of Ireland, I am enjoying knowing that more and more people in Ireland are not in Kansas.
She stepped down from the stand and back into her private life. She had more or less stuck to her story and, if her former boss gets caught up in a coming tornado, she had done her best to minimise any damage. But Grainne Carruth knows one thing for sure — this tribunal is a serious business, and she’s not in Kansas any more.
See More about Ireland, Kansas City and the Names of Places:
• Irish Place Names
• Ireland and/or Éire
• Celtic Festival Moves Islands
• Irish Immigrants and Bad Birds
• How Do You Find America
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Neither is Kansas in Arkansas, nor Arkansas in Kansas. And Arkansas is pronounced Arkansaw, not Ar-Kansas. However, people from Arkansas are referred to (when they’re mentioned at all ) as “Arkansans”. Unless they were BORN in Arkansas, in which case they frequently refer to themselves as “Arkansawyers”.
I’m still trying to work out “Kansas Citian” as opposed to “Kansas Citizen”.
Considering the ones I know, I think folks from Cork ought to be called “Corkers”, but I’ll bet they’re called “Corkonians”. I already know what Cork people call people who live in Dublin!
Yes Corkonians. Not to be confused with Cork Onions. But generally speaking people from Dublin don’t talk too much about either.
I cycled through a town called Kansas. In Oklahoma. People in Kansas the state familiar with it (it’s in the north east of Oklahoma) tended to it as “Little Kansas”.
Some people have told me that though the state of Arkansas is pronounced Ark-an-saw, the Arkansas River is pronounced Ar-kansas.