Let me state here and now, for the record, my name is my name, not a pseudonym. Why anyone might imagine that a person would deliberately take on a handle so unwieldy, if they did not have to . . .  well.  My pops was a Limerick and my brother is currently raising two more, so the receiving of books filled with cunning limericks or funny limericks or – heaven forefend – rude limericks, is a tradition that is likely to go on for some time in my family.

Not only is my name long (if you include my middle name) but a surname like Limerick seems always to prick folk into beginning nonsense rhymes they cannot finish, when they first meet me. I have had more, “There was a young woman from . . .” said to me than I care to recall, yet not one fellow has thereafter produced anything worth remembering.

It may be worth noting that there is another Alison Limerick out there – I have met her and her brother Edmund, who is a bona fide Lord. We are not related, she being a pretty, blond, blue-eyed woman (sister to Lord Limerick), me being none of those things but I am pleased to say, like me she is a good egg, a nice woman; smiley or was when we met many years ago. Out in Facebook and Twitter land there are other folk using my name, commandeering it for no sensible reason that I have been able to discern. Mostely they do not claim to be ‘Alison Limerick’ but are simply using that unique combination of letters, or so it seems. I have been told by a number of friends who were seeking me on-line, that they found strange, unrelated pages when googling my handle. Oh well, such is life. If I was an Ann Smith I would have no time to worry about the footie-mad fellow who has called his page Alison Limerick or the whoever-it-was who had appropriated the name on Facebook before I signed up, who had built the page (about me!) then walked away from it. I have had to number myself, as though I were a series or a sequel. Poor me you may think, however if I were Ann Smith, that number might not have been 1 but 199. There are (unfortunately for the Ann Smiths out there) one or two women with legitimate claims to the name.

In conclusion, I am what I am and what I am needs no excuses or silly rhymes, or questions asked about whether I come from Eire. I do not and although I have enjoyed every trip I have made to Ireland, (north and south) I have never lived there. I hope that clears up any outstanding questions upon the subject of my name. If it does not feel free to ask, however I do not respond well to . . . foolishness.

For those reading this who have no idea why I have been wittering on about Limericks, try this: