In honor of St. Patrick's Day and the contributions of the Irish

to the art of conversation, I have shaped this issue of

"Better Conversations."

"For an Irishman, talking is a dance."

--Deborah Love

"She had lost the art of conversation but not, unfortunately, the power of speech."

--G. B. Shaw, Irish Playwright

Lighten someone's day with a funny story.

Humor is often the best medicine for stre

BLAR-ney (noun) 1. Smooth, flattering talk 2. Deceptive nonsense (verb.)

2. Deceptive nonsense (verb.)

to cajole with flattery; wheedle

(After the Blarney Stone in Blarney Castle, Blarney, Ireland)

A limerick is a five-line poem with a strict rhyme scheme (aabba), which intends to be witty or humorous, and is sometimes obscene with humorous intent. It may have its roots in the 18th-century Maigue Poets of Ireland and is named after Limerick, the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland.

An example of a limerick:

The limerick packs laughs anatomical

In space that is quite economical,

But the good ones I've seen

So seldom are clean,

And the clean ones so seldom are comical

"I was always unlawful; I broke the law when I was born because my parents weren't married."

George Bernard Shaw

Ireland is famous for its pubs, poets, playwrights, and palaver.

Irish pubs have been opened throughout the world, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, from Boston to Frankfurt, Johannesburg to Beijing. They generally have a lot in common with pubs in Ireland.. A key feature of Irish pubs is the ambiance - the atmosphere of congeniality and good humor, most usually enhanced by song and colorful talk.

Irish poets are world-renowned, like W. B Yeats (Nobel Prize, 1923) and Seamus Heaney (Nobel Prize, 1995)

Irish playwrights include George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, and Oscar Wilde.

Irish palaver (aka cajolery, sweet-talk, blarney) is mastered by a great many Irish men and women.

The pubs serve as a perfect setting for mirth and talk. Palaver, including story-telling, lively debates, joking, and cajoling are the currency of socializing -- leavened, of course, by a few pints of Guiness. The love by the Irish of the English language and its Irish masters like James Joyce stimulate an intense cultural motivation to play with language and compete to be the best.

As drama critic T. E. Kalem wrote in response to Brendan Behan's 1958 play Borstal Boy,

"The English language brings out the best in the Irish. They court it like a beautiful woman. They make it bray with donkey laughter. They hurl it at the sky like a paint pot full of rainbows, and then make it chant a dirge for man's fate and man's follies that is as mournful as misty spring rain crying over the fallow earth."

Scintillating talk and playful banter are a top priority among the Irish.

"There is an Irish way of paying compliments as though they were irresistible truths which makes what would otherwise be an impertinence delightful."

--Katherine Tynan Hinkson

Other nations have different cultural priorities. Such as France: cuisine, wine, fashion. Italy? Music and art.

And Ireland? Words and Talk.

Nations have models that exemplify their best. France (Dior, Chanel, Escoffier)

(Words this issue: 781 Est. Reading Time: 3 minutes

Loren Ekroth ©2010, all rights reserved

Loren Ekroth, Ph.D. is a specialist in human communication and a national expert on conversation for business and social life.