I know that fiction is fiction and doesn't correlate directly to real life BUT I thought Jane Campion's "Top of the Lake" series was a very sobering portrayal of the horrific rape culture in a small NZ town.

Haha probably is!

I'm going let you finish - but Carlton Banks had one of the best mansions of all time!

Rachel's face in this picture just sums it up perfectly. Gleeful superiority. She'd kick his butt in tiddlywinks - never mind a duel.

I am stressed trying to figure out if I can adopt a dog and be the right kind of owner for a fuzzy creature.

Valid point on the current US lack of interest in Irish nationalism. I had to stop watching Sons of Anarchy due the ATROCIOUS Irish brogues and Foyle's War when the only Irishman they featured on the show was a bomb making villain/draft dodger.

Okay - I think we might need to start a production team to make this happen. Maria Doyle Kennedy would ROCK this role - and the ages are spot on as well. EXCELLENT casting choice!

I lost love for the show after Julian Fellows served up the worst Irish Republican ever. His crazy defiant act of vengeance for his oppressed nation was to pour a pot of smelly stuff on ONE British general?! What was his follow up plan - putting peas under the aristocracy's mattresses?

Sometimes I like to just put red wine in my little juice glasses....because it is juice from a fruit...so IT'S HEALTHY!

My rage response to Mr. "Won't Take No for an Answer" is triggered when they just start saying "Don't be shy!!". I've just flatly said no thank you - that is the opposite of shy!

Well in my defense I wasn't worried about any bodily harm - I'm just a huge chicken that would like to avoid meeting any otherworldly beings. The neighbor's donkey making a racket freaked me out enough at night - don't think my nerves could handle a banshee!

It really is - I love visiting it but the utter emptiness is like being in a different world. I think if there were banshees anywhere it would be Mayo!

I haven't but thank you for the recommendation! I'll have to read it with the lights on I think?

Co. Mayo, god help us!

This might not be a scary story but I was truly freaked out at the time.

I'm just going to sit here and wait for Papa Francisco to lay the ever loving holy smackdown on this guy. It is really nerve wracking to start assuming that the Pope will do the right thing again.... Deep breathes.

Very true - my FOB Irish grandfather was more upset that the first guy my uncle dated wasn't Catholic than the whole "he's dating a man" aspect of the equation. So I guess that is a ....slightly progressive stance?

She still was when I was going to school in the South not too long ago as well - don't worry.

I always just picture "ethnic" in that sense being used by some Chanel wearing society dame who is sipping Chardonnay and discussing why her grandson's new girlfriend won't fit in at "The Club".

Having gone to a Northeast predominantly Irish Catholic high school that had 28 versions of Katie or K/Catherine/yn in a class of 300 or so students - I'd say that ethnicity might be Irish.