We American-Irish will lay some claim to the exciting victory of the New York Giants over the New England Patriots in yesterday's Super Bowl XLVI. The Head Coach of the Giants is Tom Coughlin. His Offensive Coordinator is Kevin Gilbride. And the team owner is John Mara--Irish-Americans all. Coach Coughlin comes from Waterloo, New York, about twelve miles as the bird flies from where my Coughlin's settled when they arrived from Ireland. Before Waterloo, Coach Coughlin's ancestors came from County Cork, Ireland. I don't know if we are distant cousins or not--but my ancestors came from West Cork and landed in Cayuga County, New York (Scipio Town, more precisely). The only false note in our cousin-ship is that Tom apparently pronounces his name "COFF-lin," whereas we say "COG-lin" (my Dad and Grampa pronounced it more like COCK-lin, as it's pronounced in West Cork). So, yes, I would say we are cousins and I'm happy with his success and Super Bowl victory; not so happy about the way he pronounces his name.
By the way, I heard that Cork, Ireland is celebrating the Coughlin victory with an early spring--a festooning of early spring flowers!
p.s. My nephew Tommy Coughlin, the
real Tom Coughlin of Mentor, Ohio, should try to make a few bucks off Coach Coughlin's victory!
The above photo is from Tom Coughlin's
Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Coughlin. Coach Coughlin is on the right and Coach Gilbride is to his left.
