Celebrating the Irish
March 17th is one of the most delightfully play full days of the entire year, especially if you are Irish. However, most people aren’t...but decide to be; turning into leprechauns on this special day partying hardy, drinking green beer and wearing costumes or at least a splash of green!
Guess the backyard baby chickens can claim “Irish” since they were born on March 17th in 2019! They grew up so fast!
I can hear so many of my friends touting facts about their kids, and their grandkids. Guess those chickens, turning a year old on St. Patrick’s Day, can also claim “family” status! As you may or may not remember, we started out with 12 chicks, wanting to end up with eight and guess what, there are still 11 of them!
There’s only one more thing that needs to be told here and absolutely celebrated on St. Patty’s Day... from baby chicks of 72 hours old, the first egg was laid four months later and today, at the age of one year old, 11 hens have provided 1,423 eggs (in only eight months). We have been able to supply six households with fresh eggs most of the year! Still love those backyard babies and would do it again if ever I could.
Now on to leprechauns... The “fun-est” St. Patty’s day event for me was a Gay Pride parade in Dallas on Greenville Avenue. Parade participants were all dressed to the nines in various shades of green, strutting their stuff as you’ll have to imagine and throwing green Mardi Gras beads.
Everybody was frolicking right along with the guys and laughing at various stunts as they rode and walked by. The highlight of the parade was the “Squad of Lawn”! As they marched in cadence being called by the leader, the guys stopped right in front of us and did a routine with, what I would call, the old-fashioned type of lawn chairs...lightweight aluminum with light woven plastic fabric.
Every one of those guys was so spot on and perfectly in sync as they tossed the chairs like batons...into the air as they spun around, back and forth, behind their backs, folded and unfolded them, sat and jumped out in perfect time. No music, only a called cadence.
We laughed so hard and thought about all the work they had put into designing the routine, the perfection accomplished as well as just the antics of the sweet guys! It was indeed the “top of the day” for our group as we walked up and down Greenville Avenue stopping into each and probably every Irish Pub...bar... (didn’t matter if it was Irish or not) along the way, sipping and trying various green drinks and beer. The best day ever! I decided to become an Irish patron!
Was there really a St. Patrick and if so, why would we want to celebrate him? We were all inquisitive and asked several people along the street! One lady, named Gillian O’Rourk, actually knew the facts and told us that St. Patrick was a Catholic Saint.
Really? We wondered if he ate green clover shaped cookies and drank nippy mugs of green suds? She went on to say she was actually from Ireland and knew a bit more than any of us happened to have learned. Obviously with a name like Gillian O’Rourk, she wasn’t Spanish!!
She said Patrick was born in the year 387 AD in Britain. “What, he wasn’t even Irish?! Wait just a minute!” That part of the world was actually part of the Roman Empire. She went on to say when Patrick was in his early teens, he ran into a bunch of pagans from Ireland who made him a slave and drug him off to their homeland where he ended up working for about six years.
Even though he was a slave, he fell in love with the Irish people. He eventually escaped his captors and after he made his way back to his family, he decided that one day he would return to Ireland.
Patrick, back in Britain, studied the Catholic religion and was eventually ordained a priest and then a bishop. Once he was a bishop, the Pope (Celestine I) appointed him to be an apostle to Ireland.
So, Patrick headed back to Ireland and encountered so many obstacles as he made his way through the countryside. The pagans were afraid of Patrick and didn’t want anything to do with Christianity. They actually didn’t want to give up their power and be obligated to convert.
The existing monarch at the time was King Laoghaire who was not in any way going to convert, however, most of his relatives did. And, slowly as Patrick went from town to town getting rid of the idols, the old religion went out as well and he ushered in the Catholic Church. In 444 AD, the very first cathedral of Ireland was constructed. Wow, Ms. O’Rourk really does know her stuff! We all stopped to toast her with a green Sour Apple martini! Yum
After we had a few sips and were feeling pretty spunky, Gillian said she had more to say about Patrick. OK, we’re all listening! Patrick starting baptizing, and ordaining priests. He built schools, cathedrals, and convents. Multitudes of followers flooded to the church as he diligently led the masses for about 30 years. Gillian said by that time, the entire country of Ireland was converted.
Hey Gillian, why do we celebrate on March 17th was the next question? I bet he probably died on the 17th! She said “bingo, you are right...March 17th, 461 AD he died and was buried in Northern Ireland at the age of 74!” Looks like the more we imbibe, the smarter we are getting!! We all laughed.
About that time a parade float came by covered with green phony snakes! Now it’s all starting to make sense. As we toasted our mug of green beer toward the float, Gillian told us there was a story about St. Patrick chasing ALL the snakes out of Ireland, and she thought that float represented the snakes leaving.
Talking among ourselves, and now feeling no pain, we decided that the snakes were a symbol of the bad dudes that Patrick ran out of Ireland as he converted the folks to Christianity. However, that’s probably an old wives tale as there are no, nor have there ever been, any snakes in Ireland! The Emerald Isle, as Ireland is nicknamed, is surrounded by icy cold ocean waters which would be too cold for snakes to migrate, thus NO snakes!!
Well then, “let’z” have another green beer! Wonder why the Irish drink so much...and party today? Gillian said, “that’s easy... it’s the way to celebrate and honor St Patrick’s death! Plus, March 17th falls during Lent and they take this day as a holiday from the strict Lent activities:’
Boy, Gillian, you are really a smart, bonnie Irish lass!! About that time, we looked down the street and ran into her hubbie who was walking toward us. “Stall the ball, here comes Finn!” she said.
“Hey Finn, we are beyond glad to see you....we are starting to think we’re getting “blastered” and might need a driver home!
Finn said, “you aren’t blastered missy, you are ossified!”
“Well, if that’s what you call it....it’s been a really fun time with Gillian, my new sham for life!”
And Finn, here’s what we learned today? “There are only two kinds of people in the world, the Irish and those who wish they were!”
“Call us an UBER, O’Rourk and we’ll meet you right here next year!”
“Slainte, to Ireland, clovers and beer and especially to that dear ole St. Patrick!”