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The Irish Connection

There was an oft-repeated story about the Lacsons being of Irish descent. An uncle attributed this to the fact that the Lacsons had a coat-of-arms from Ireland that dated back to an earlier period.

While many of the Lacsons I know share the Irish love for spirits (the liquid kind), I have always been skeptical about the Irish connection because I had yet to meet a Lacson who looked vaguely Caucasian - never mind Irish.

I recently spoke to a grandson of General Aniceto Lacson and he was able to shed some light on this subject. Apparently, the origin of this story can be traced back to a practical joke the general played on a Spanish journalist.

Gen. Lacson was on a trip to Spain upon the invitation of King Philip and journalists happened to be present during one of his meetings with the king.

General Lacson was quite tall for an Asian man which led one of the reporters to inquire about his uncharacteristic stature. He decided to have some fun with the fellow so he told the reporter that his ancestors were originally from Ireland and that his original name was Leighson. Because the Filipinos couldn't pronounce Leighson, it was eventually 'philippinized' into Lacson.

Gen. Lacson thought that was the end of the story but the reporter decided to do some research on Irish families and found a family coat-of-arms from the Leighsons of Ireland. The story about the  discovery of the "Lacson" coat-of-arms was uncovered by a Lacson who happened to work for the Philippine consulate in Madrid sometime in the late 1970 or early 80s.

When the story reached the Philippines, one of Aniceto's granddaughters then recalled hearing the story about the reporter who thought we were of Irish descent.

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