Debunking St. Paddy’s Day
Slate posts David Plotz’s 2000 column about how little we know of St. Patrick.
Eamon Forde’s piece in today’s Times Online is perfectly sensible:
The celebration originally marked the arrival of the Catholic faith on Irish shores, but in an increasingly secular country, it now celebrates the futility of drunkenness. It says everything about what it means to be Irish these days that the biggest parades take place hundreds of miles from Irish soil where a once-proud diaspora’s celebration of its past has been hijacked by anyone who has seen The Quiet Man and wants to get noisily bladdered. They may as well wear their heart on their sleeves and pay a gaggle of pale-faced colleens with pigs under their arms to spray the streets with whiskey and potatoes.
Indeed. I feel ashamed to admit that I once spent St. Patrick’s Day watching The Quiet Man and eating corned beef and cabbage (not an Irish dish).
I now greet March 17th with dread. The options seem to be these: Join my fellow Catholic reactionaries in cloying piety, saying St Patrick’s prayer 100 times in his honor. Or join the revelers who wear green and white hoops under green and white bunting at the bar, even if they are Lithuanians and the bar is owned by Russians. Somehow I don’t think dear Patrick would recognize either as related to his life. I’m still searching for the mean between Lenten austerities and Erin Go Puke.
Surely, MBD, we can find the mean responsibly enjoying a few legitimate Irish pints (preferably not the Protestant Guinness!) — or glasses of whiskey — in a legitimate Irish pub (and not some half-assed DC “Irish” pub), sansdebauchery.
After an early morning Mass, of course!
Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig!
Are you so far removed from the way we Irish honor our patron saint? Go to mass, and have a nice meal with your family in honor of he who brought the words of our lord to our ancestors. Then have a glass or two (of what ever you drink) in the company of friends.
Whenever someone tries to put a green plastic hat on my head I decline the offer with, “Sorry, but only shanty Irish forget that it’s a saints day.”
I agree with both above: amongst many Irish, St. Patrick’s day is celebrated much like Thanksgiving in the US: dinner with the family, or extended family, some _sociable_ drinking and good cheer – probably Mass beforehand. I marched in my local parade as a member of the Civil Defence to show some civic pride. Sorry to hear your experience has been negative, and I sympathise; it’s just insulting to see booze crowd out respect for oneself, and for the day that’s in it. One of the most depressing experiences I ever had in the US was when a well meaning friend brought me to an “Irish” themed restaurant/bar, full of drunk Frat-boys using my homeland’s patron Saint as an excuse to get obnoxiously drunk (on _Budweiser_, for God’s sake.) With respect though, I do find this same obnoxious commercialism and overindulgence is what threatens most religious festivals such as Christmas and Easter also – it’s not just St. Patrick’s day.
Mr. Forde’s article bore a resemblance to one in the NYT a few days before. As I mention in my blog it too attacked Irish pubs and mentioned The Quiet Man and the Craic.
Here is a solution, simply pay homage to every Irish saint . Lift a glass on every day that an Irish saint is mentioned. Here is a lis t of feastdays. http://www.namenerds.com/irish/feastday.html
I am happy that my options still include a politician relative’s annual party with politics, pipe and drum bands and Irish step-dancing troupes. The Irish-Americana would certainly be wearisome and plastic otherwise.