irish twins

[Orion Montoya]

FWIW, my sister and I were born 53 weeks apart, and my mother always
told us that that extra week made us *almost* Irish twins, i.e. that
at least in her parts of western Colorado, Irish twins had to share a
birthday (or possibly be under a year apart). (Also FWIW, her father
is Irish).  It's possible she wanted to share this bit of dialect with
us without the ingnominy of having it applied to us.  But in (1/4 of)
a lifetime of telling people that my sister and I are "a year and a
week apart", I don't remember anyone telling me that we were Irish
twins.

This part seems to be accurate:

> "Their hair was generally uncombed, they did not use such superfluous
> things as stockings, their legs, as far as could be seen, were dirty; ...
> they were allowed to run wild, as dirty as pigs."

The 18 month cutoff seems reasonable for logistical reasons, but I
guess I have a strong predisposition to think that people are twins
only if they share a birthday.  A week is so long to an unstockinged
pig; I don't think my sister and I ever even had a joint birthday
party.

O.