Patrick  is one of my favorite grandparents. I know him as Pop. Born on March 26th, 1940, in County Cork, Ireland. He is my Mom’s dad. Pop has six brothers and four sisters. He is one of eleven kids. He grew up living on a farm in Ireland. Pop went to Ballygran Primary School, which is the same as our elementary school. His favorite subject was science. He attended school through the eighth grade but had to quit to get a job to help support his family. In fact only two out of the eleven kids went to high school.
         As a young boy Pop played Gaelic football. It is played very much like soccer except that you can handle the ball and some of the rules are a little different. He also played hurling. To play hurling you have a team of fifteen people, two goals, a slitter (the ball) and hurley sticks. The object of the game is to score as many goals as you can in a limited amount of time. He was involved in these sports throughout his teen years.
        “ It was like the slave driving days.” Pop remembers. He had tons of jobs because he lived on a farm. Some of the worst jobs he had were cleaning the cow stalls and milking the cows really early in the morning. He also had some odd jobs to make more money for himself. Most of the time the jobs were for farmer’s, so he ended up doing the same odd jobs as he did for chores at home. He was always doing something it could be chores visiting with family members, or just helping out. He was always busy.
        When he was twenty years old Pop moved to America to make a new start in his life. He lived with his older sister Nora and her husband and children for a while until he got a job and a place of his own to live. Soon after he arrived in this country he met a young lady named Patricia. At the age of twenty-two they were married on November 24, 1962. They had three daughters named Maureen, Lorie, and Madeline. Throughout the first twenty years of their marriage my Grandparents moved to Ireland and back to the U.S. twice. This made life very interesting and different for them as well as my Mom and her two sisters. Besides the fact that they did all of that traveling when they were younger, my Grandparents and their three daughters all live within fifteen minutes of each other and are very close. All of Pop’s daughters are now married and have families of their own. They now have six grandchildren and their names are David, Kevin, Jason, Michele, Brian, and Patrick.
           Pop is currently living in Kingsville, MD. He lives with his wife and my Great Aunt June. His house is very big and he has a huge yard. It is like a mini park with woods in the back. Currently he manages an apartment building in Baltimore City near Hopkins University. He also takes care of three rental properties in Baltimore City which he and my Grandmother own.
            One thing I will never forget about my Pop is what a great storyteller he is! When he tells a story you feel like you are right there watching the events unfold. He can make you laugh so hard that you cry. My Pop is a great guy! I wish you could know him like I do.