Editor’s note: Eileen Roddy is visiting friends and family in the United Kingdom.

I’m not surprised to learn that the Irish spend nearly $115 million on tea annually. Four days into visiting my birthplace, Derry City in Northern Ireland, I was “tea-ed” out. Visits to homes of friends and family required drinking compulsory cups of tea. Assurances that I’d already imbibed several pots fell on deaf ears.

“Och, sure you’ll just have a wee cup in your hand,” I was told, “and a wee biscuit.”

Once served, the conversation started, and a year’s catching-up on lives divided by states and oceans was shared.

Derry folks are especially interested in American life since most of them claim relations – distant or otherwise – here. Ships carrying immigrants from Derry and neighboring county Donegal left its ports for America as far back as 1720 and continued through the years of the Irish Great Potato Famine (1845-49.)

During World War II, some of their descendants were among the 6,000 servicemen who arrived in Derry in 1940 to set up the first American naval base in Europe. Despite the war, the Americans’ arrival created a celebratory atmosphere in Derry.

“All those handsome, smiling, white-toothed sailors – just like the movies – set our hearts fluttering,” my mother recalled.

“When Bob Hope and Al Jolson visited, we were star-struck.”

She also remembered the exceptional generosity and optimism of the Americans who made war rationing easier to bear.

On Independence Day and Thanksgiving, the U.S. sailors rented local theaters, invited Derry children to watch cartoons, and served ice cream and chocolate. At Christmas, they hosted parties complete with Santa and gifts.

My father, a Merchant Navy seaman, who served on the North Atlantic convoys, was grateful for different reasons. He experienced firsthand what the Americans did to protect Northern Ireland and its coastline from Nazi invasion. An American flag, presented to the people of Derry on Nov. 25, 1945, takes pride of place in St. Columb’s Cathedral and pays tribute to all who left home and country to serve others. Many Americans settled in Derry or returned postwar to renew friendships and research their Irish roots.

As to be expected, Derry isn’t short of teahouses and pubs, where conversation flows as easily as the beverages. The merest hint of an American accent will invite the question, “Where’ye from?” If your name sounds remotely Irish, attempts will be made to trace your history on the spot, with the assurance that somebody will know someone who knew your family, or who had ties with Derry. You’re likely to be invited to have another cup of tea or a glass of frothing Guinness “on the house” just because you’re American.