What Is An Irish Twin?

A childhood friend posted to Facebook about having Irish Twins, and while I felt like congratulations were in order, I'll be honest, I didn't exactly know what that meant! So, I looked it up.

My childhood friend, Samantha and her husband are expecting a new baby. This will be her third child. Her second was just born in October. She posted an ultrasound photo today and made reference to having Irish Twins. While I am very excited that Samantha is expecting another baby, I had no idea what Irish Twins are! So a Google search a later...

According to online sources like Urban Dictionary, the short explanation of Irish Twins is this: siblings born to the same mother within a 12-month time frame. So essentially, two concurrent pregnancies for mom and two children 10-12 months apart in age. Now my next question was why Irish Twins? Why not German or Scandinavian Twins? Apparently, in the early days of immigration to the United States, the term Irish Twins was actually meant in a derogatory way (not so in present day). In the 1800's, Irish immigrants had large families with the children all very close in age. The stereotype of these Irish Catholic families were that they were uneducated, didn't use birth control and lacked self-control which resulted in the above mentioned large families.

Regardless of all of this, I really just wish my friend Sam a healthy pregnancy and a beautiful new baby to add to her already beautiful family!!! ♥