You don't say

 

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had started a new Netflix series, Outlander. I'm always reticent to start a new series, particularly when I'm behind 6-7 seasons. However, Ms. Muse can be quite persuasive and the show did have some personal interest.

And as you'll see, that interest gets even more personal.

In the very first or second episode about a British Army nurse who time travels back to 18th century Scottish Highlands, we see Claire (our protagonist) being captured by Scottish rebels, who are sowing the seeds for the Jacobbite Rebellion.

Unsure of the English woman's roots or agenda, the men will often deflect and speak in their native Gaelic language. Or Celtic. I haven't done enough research to find out the difference. I only know that when I heard them speaking, I couldn't understand a word they were saying. 

Not unlike the feeling I get when they 'speak' the Queen's tongue.

What I did notice, was the tone, inflection and pronunciation had a distinctively un-UK feel to it. It reminded me less of sitting in a pub and listening to kilted gent reciting poetry from Robbie Burns and more like a contentious, loud dinner with my Bronxian relatives on Jerome Avenue. 

The dialogue was scattered with a lot of "chhhh's" and "yechhhh's" and "bluchhh's". Additionally, it had a certain phlegmy characteristic to it, that belied the unspoken formality one often associates with people from Brittania. 

And so I took to the Google.

Well faith and begorrah you can imagine my surprise when I found a whole Wikipedia (the amateur's, aka, lazy man's, research) page all about Dan. 

Dan, you say, who the hell is Dan?

I'm glad you asked. There is a popular theory that among the lost tribes of Israel, who spread from the Fertile Crescent to parts unknown, that one of the tribes, the Tribe of Dan, settled in Ireland. Jews in Ireland? Want to read more about it? 

Of course you do. 

Last year when I did some 23andme research, I discovered that many people from Scotland, including my mother's family from Paisely, also hailed from Northern Ireland, County Donegal, to be specific. And until recently I had always thought of my mother's family and my father's, sprinkled with heavy duty Hebraic seasonings, were from two separate worlds. As disparate as toothpaste is to a pint of Guiness. A stretched metaphor, but you get the gist.

Now, however, I see the similarities. 

For instance, my ears do not deceive me, and there are close to 1000 words of Hebrew and Gaelic and/or Celtic, that have similar linguistic roots.

That's just for starters. Anecdotally, you can also see that Irish/Scottish people and Jewish people place a high value on humor. It's probably not apparent from this piece, but trust me, having been in the company of both, I know this to be true.

There's also this notion of clannishness. How many times have you heard people, possibly even Joe Rogan, saying my people are guilty of clannishness (as if that's a bad thing.) Hence the obvious: 

Clan = Tribe

Tribe = Clan

And finally there's the commonality of frugality. I know I'd be stepping on thin ice here, so I won't. Besides, it's time I go to the grocery store for some week old fruit and off brand ground coffee.