Everyone is Irish

Happy St Patrick's day to all those Irish people and all those that are Irish for one day of the year ( like me). I remember one great St Pats day - we went to New York for the parade and had a wonderful day although my Husband of Irish decent did not even have one green beer - or a beer of any sort for that matter as we were having such a great time we just could not spare the time - not even for lunch and so had a Chinese meal for dinner !!! God Bless gwen

Happy St Patrick's day to all those who celebrate! I'm of Irish descent, both my parents were born in Southern Ireland. I remember, we always used to have shamrock sent from 'home' for this celebration, and also little badges to pin on our lapels with things like harps in the colours of the Irish flag. Does anyone else remember this? I wish I'd kept those little badges, they bring back such memories of childhood!

Liz

I'll be popping out for one green beer tomorrow after SPeech Night at school. Believe me, I'll need it by then!

Happy St. Paddy's Day to all! Katherine

Happy St Patrick Holiday , to those who have it mirjam

Thank you, Mirjam! I don't really 'celebrate' it, it's just 'there', grin. Noreen

Dear noreen i was always facinated by the idea of this day ,,, And i loved the symbolic use of Green . mirjam

My father (100% Irish descent) always wore his shamrock & harp tie to work on March 17.

There was the funniest article in the Baltimore Sun Food section last week, Irish & Irish-Americans lamenting the ruin of traditional Irish soda bread by people who put all sorts of other things into it, and a Jewish man wrote to the editor that he sympathized, having seen soft squishy "bagels" with exotical like sun-dried tomatoes in them for years now!

And I have just sent off my annual letter to the Sun saying that in a town so full of Irish politicians, it's a disgrace that their reporters and editors can't spell "St. Paddy" correctly. If there's a St. Patricia, it's news to me. ;)

Me, too, Mirjam. The symbolism is quite interesting, Patrick using a clover to explian the trinity. The green bothers me, though, in that the RC church has symbolically been the 'green' in Ireland, and the Protestants have been symbolically 'orange'... Hugs, Noreen

'there',

The orange representing Protestantism was from your (so to speak) very own William of Orange, Protestant son-in-law of the Catholic King James II, being invited to replace James on the throne, to rule the United Kingdom as William III jointly with his wife, Mary II, after some years of civil war for both political and religious reasons. The Irish flag, a green, white, and orange tricolor, represents both religions with the white middle stripe standing (somewhat forlornly) for peace between the two.

Thank you Noreen for enlightening on that ,,, I always thought Green was for the Fields , had no idea there was Orange in Ireland as well ,,,,, mirjam

Hi Those badges are still sold in Ireland in the run-up to St Patricks Day .In Ireland we had a lovely day with parades in all the cities and most towns and villages .Bands ,Irish Dancers ,people in mythical costumes,hurling ,football and camogie teams ,decorated floats ,depictions of St Patrick ,etc .In our little seaside town we had a Mass in the Irish language .Our Monsignor has a wonderful command of the language .And I wore green !Dancinanne in iRELAND > >

Hi Dancinanne, it was fun to see someone from Ireland posting about St. Patrick's Day. Do join us again.

Hallo , Dancinanne ,, from where in Ireland are you ? maybe you can tell us about the traditional Irish knitts , which i admire so much ? mirjam

Liz I still have a little clear glass heart with a green shamrock painted in the middle , hanging on a pin which I used to wear - it actually belonged to my great grandmother -and none of my relatives on my mothers side were even in any way Irish nor on my fathers side for that matter as they were all English - however Frank 's father was born in Thirless and came to Australia as an adult and his mother's parents were also irish - and I can say there are times when Frank is as Irish as Paddy's pigs !!!! God Bless Gwen

Sampot the mention of !00% Irish reminded me that Frank went off to lunch yesterday with a badge saying " I am 1005 Irish - more or less" and over this he draped a string of glistening shamrocks. He wore sunglasses in the shape of huge shamrocks and more shamrocks in his hat - I guess someone might just figure that he is Irish God Bless Gwen

Ah Noreen that is like me - it is just there God Bless Gwen

Dancinanne, this sound like something I must put on my list - St Patricks's day in Ireland - I just love Irish ( and Scottish) music, so this sounds like a fun thing I must do sometime. I must seek out a village such as yours - Mass in the Irish language followed by all the fun sounds like a must for me. Oooo I must start saving my pennies right away - We are off to Perth the day after tomorrow so I will have to see how economically we can do that so that there might be some left over !!!*** Thank you for telling me about this God Bless Gwen

That sounds lovely, Gwen!

Liz

I'm really glad to hear you can still get them, dancinanne! I bet I could get them on the internet if I tried hard enough - mum would be pleased as she still gets homesick, especially at this time of year! On the other hand, maybe we should all go for a spring break in Ireland and celebrate there!

Thanks for your reply, it was nice to hear from you

Liz