MARCH 16, 2023, ST. PATRICK'S DAY

 MARCH 16, 2023 - ST. PATRICK’S DAY

My two illustrations are a bridge in the Gap of Dunloe (we hiked there with the students), and the Rock of Cashel (where St. Patrick used a shamrock to illustrate the concept of the Trinity)

St. Patrick’s Day is tomorrow, but I’ll write about it today!!

Yes, tis a fine day to be Irish - and they say that everybody is Irish on St.Patrick’s Day.

The image is from the church at the Rock of Cashel where St. Patrick supposedly took a three-leaf shamrock to talk about the Christian concept of the Trinity - three parts to one leaf. 

I’ve been to Ireland twice with students.  My campus in Connecticut had an Irish connection and we encouraged students to study abroad (and it is easier to study abroad in an English-speaking country.  I took my students to the Tralee Technical College in Tralee (southwest Ireland) and a business incubator there.  They did various projects with some of the entrepreneurs and met with the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of Kerry Foods (an international company).  You might find Kerrygold butter in your grocery dairy section.  We toured Dell Computers in Ireland as well.

The campus also went to the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade.  I joined in most years (including the year it snowed on us!!!).  It was also an alumni event with a big reception at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.  

I do have a little Irish heritage (mixed with others) as Eliza Bell Moffat (of the Scottish Moffat Clan) was born in Ireland.  

Fitting with the humor section, here are a few Irish stories:

***

What’s green and sits on my deck?  Paddy O’Furniture!!

***

An Irishman goes to the doctor, who after examining him says
“You have some problems with your heart, but if you take these tablets, I think it will be okay.”

So the doctor gives the man the tablets and the patient asks, “Do I have to take them every day?”

“No,” replies the doctor, “take one on Monday, skip the Tuesday, take one on Wednesday, skip the Thursday, and go on like that.”

Two weeks later the doctor is walking down the street, and he sees the patient’s wife.

“Hello Mrs. Murphy,” he says, “how is your husband?”

“Oh he died of a heart attack,” says Mrs. Murphy.

“I’m very sorry to hear that,” says the doctor, “I thought if he took those tablets he would be alright.”

“Oh the tablets were fine,” says Mrs. Murphy, “It was all the bloody skipping that killed him!”
***

Two Irish city employees were working for the public works department. One would dig a hole and the other would follow behind him and fill the hole.

They worked up one side of the street, then down the other, then moved on to the next street, working furiously all day without rest, one man digging a hole, the other filling it in again.

An onlooker was amazed at their hard work, but couldn’t understand what they were doing. So he asked the hole digger, “I’m impressed by the effort you two are putting into your work, but I don’t get it – why do you dig a hole, only to have your partner follow behind and fill it up again?”

The hole digger wiped his brow and sighed, “Well, I suppose it probably looks odd because we’re normally a three-person team. But today the lad who plants the trees called in sick.”

*****

(Note - many Irish, German, Black, and other ethnic groups have demeaning jokes about them.  The Irish are supposedly big drinkers, but many ethnic groups have big drinkers.  The Irish are supposed to be fighters (after Notre Dame University is the “Fighting Irish”), but other nationalities also are good fighters.  In some cases, the jokes are funny, but in another view they are demeaning).

*****

Many of those with Irish heritage can trace their American roots back to the potato famine of the 1840s.  Potatoes were an important crop in Ireland and a blight/parasite was killing the vines.  Seemingly the population went from about 10 million in 1840 to 5 million in 1850 - about half the population gone in ten years.  Many died from starvation, and many emigrated to the United States (the lucky ones), or to Australia (the unlucky ones as Australia was largely a penal colony).  

The potato famine was exacerbated by the political and religious climate.  Ireland was an English colony.  Ireland was overwhelmingly Catholic, and England (dating back to King Henry VIII’s breaking off from the Church of Rome and starting the Church of England) was Protestant.  Catholics were not allowed to officially worship in some towns.  If you were a Protestant (Church of England), you could get food aid.  And, if not, too bad - fend for yourself (and die or take a foul ship to America). 

And, even in the United States (which was largely Protestant), Catholic Irish were not welcomed.  But, history has been nicer to the Irish since then - and tomorrow everybody will be wearing their green for St. Patrick’s Day

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS
KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, MARCH 16, 2023