History ...or Fantasy?

You never know where your mind will go when you glance at Ravelry. This time, it was Tir Chonaill by Kate Davies that caught my eye.  I love beautiful Fair Isle work and found myself daydreaming about a few of Kate's gorgeous designs. 

But the thing that really grabbed me was the name of the design.  A few miles west of St. Thomas lies the village of Tyrconnell with the cemetery of Colonel Thomas Talbot.  Talbot, who was granted much of the land in Southwestern Ontario in the early 1800's, was Irish.  According to Kate, "Tir Chonaill is the name of the last independent Gaelic sovereignty in Ireland: a kingdom which, until the flight of the Earls in 1607, covered most of what later became County Donegal". 

Doesn't it just fit that a man who was handed all of this virgin wilderness in Southwestern Ontario might fancy himself head of his own little Canadian "kingdom" ...and name his village after an historic one?  It seems perfectly plausible to me, considering his reputation as a despot and land baron.  Actually, I have no idea if Talbot even named Tyrconnell ...but it certainly was fun imagining this scenario. 

And maybe my bit of daydreaming was even more fun because of personal history.  Tyrconnell was the stomping grounds of my maternal grandparents in the early 1900's, and one or two generations before them, while Kate's home of Edinburgh was the birthplace of my father and generations before him.  I love connections, degrees of separation and all that ...
...hmmm ....I'd better take another look at that rams and yowes blanket ...and peerie flooers ...and sheep heid ...and dollheid ...and blaithin ...and ....