A Man’s a Man For A’ That

Tonight we celebrated Scottish poet, rebel, activist, ladies man Robert Burns. There were songs, poems, whiskey, bagpipes, haggis, lots of men in kilts. It was great fun. Several of the performers read in the Scots dialect, which was lovely but incomprehensible. We started with the piping in of the haggis, and the traditional haggis blessing:

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.
(see link for rest of the poem)
http://www.robertburns.org/works/147.shtml

The poem "A red red rose” was sung by an older man to his wife. "To a mouse” was read by another older man who told a great joke about Rev. Chris visiting a Paul Mulholland in the hospital. Chris approached one man in a bed and asked if he were Paul. "Alloway's auld haunted kirk,” the man answered. He went into another room and asked if the man were Paul. "Mungo's mither hang'd herself” the man said.
He finally found a doctor and asked if they were on the mental ward. The doctor replied that they were on the Burns unit.
Ba dum dum.

One of our guitarists played Mull of Kintyre accompanied by Violet McBride on the bagpipes. Another sang: A Man’s a Man for A’ That. It’s a lovely song, youtube version below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2pGWkjwOBw

FWIW, there’s such a thing as vegetarian haggis. And it’s wonderful.
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