TOM WILLS PRODUCTIONS: No. 156:Twenty-two snakes

MEGHAN, 2' x 3' June 2012

There are 22 snakes on this dress. Can you find them all? It's tricky. Some got past me!

This was little Meghan.
Now, she is Meghan McCarthy, a McDonald High School Class of 2012 valedictorian, and this drawing is her graduation gift.

The graduate, who is headed to Mount Union College.

She is, among other accomplishments, an Irish step-dancer who has competed in the United States and Ireland.

Click on all photos to enlarge!

She qualified six times to dance at the World Championships of Irish Dance.
At school she also was a member of National Honor Society, and the Varsity Track Team.
She is the daughter of long-time friends Therese and Patrick McCarthy.

But, back to the snakes ...
She need not check her suitcase on the way home from Ireland for snakes on a plane.
It seems there really are no snakes on the island.

An American Girl doll wearing ... snakes!

St. Patrick gets the credit for chasing them into the sea. But research suggests that Ireland never had snakes. They haven't successfully migrated across the open ocean.
"At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so [there was] nothing for St. Patrick to banish," says naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

This dress started it all for Meghan, although I can't help but think that snakes on a kid would make her dance faster, just out of fright.

100 percent cute. But mom may have had her dress pinned up. A few snakes are hiding ...

The actual dress. Upon close examination, there actually are 22 entwined snakes. Two on the chest, two on each sleeve, and four on each dress pleat.

So, what's the deal with the snakes?
According to her mother, who is not Irish, Theresa ("Tessie") Burke designed the dress. Burke has had Burke School of Irish Dance since about 1965. Asked about the symbolism, Burke told us it represents that "the trinity never ends.”

Therese McCarthy adds: “Each certified teacher designs their own school dress that is not allowed to be used by any other Irish dance school in the world. I've been told through the years the designs are based on the Book of Kells (the "illuminated" bible from Irish monks back centuries ago. We actually saw it in Trinity College in Dublin) ... The letters are the ornate Celtic drawings.”
Now we know!

The McCarthys already have a sketch of Meghan and her brother Patrick hanging in their home, also from their childhood. I did it years ago and took a picture of it when we visited them today.

Patrick and Meghan, 2001

Their father, who is very Irish, is godfather to my daughter Emily. He has my sketch of the Trumbull County Courthouse in his office at the courthouse, where he is a magistrate. He apparently also has some of my other 25-year-old doodles, most of which are off-color and date from our days as newspaper reporters, and he should burn them.++