Scrump, yes, I got that "Con and Brendan are indeed two different people but what I was referring to was that the Irish "Con Shine" [with Con being a nickname for "Conleth" or "Conláed" and "Shine" being a last name] is one person and the character called Shine who appears in a lot of African American toasts is another character.

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M Ted, thanks for the info re the connection between toasts and Blues lyrics. I also think that some of the lyrics from toasts become folk sayings and, of course, many folk sayings are integrated into toasts.