"Rob", or Rab as my Scottish son-in-law spells it, is one of the diminutives of my first name. In my family, Robert is the first name of the first son in every generation since coming to the US. Infact at one time, there were four us at one table. Now, we are down to two.

"Irish", because my grandfather always told us "there are only 2 kinds of people in this world...those that are Irish and those that wish they could be!"...even though he was half Irish and half German.

I have since learned that my ancestors were hired in Scotland as gallowglasses and guards of the original O'Neill and stayed in Ireland.

Rob