St Patrick’s Day will soon be on us,
and this means everyone who even has a glimmer of what they may think is
Irish blood in their veins, professes to be Irish. This may be a
tradition in America, but in reality it’s just dumb. I don’t care if one
or both of your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents or
some distant relative of a dog you once knew was somehow at sometime
distantly connected via blood or telephone to an Irish born person, if
you were born in the United States of America, you are NOT Irish.

I’ll agree you may be of Irish decent, but your not Irish and you
probably have no clue other than you can paint yourself green and get
drunk who St. Patrick was and why they have a St
Patrick’s Day.

Some little known facts:

St. Patrick was most likely
British  – Americans have St
Patrick’s Day as public holiday – in Britain it is not
– Americans celebrate St Patrick’s Day
with much more vigor than the majority of Brits.

St. Patrick, was born Maewyn Succat
to an Anglo-Roman family living in Wales – but he could have been born
in Brittany, England, Wales or Rome – In his teens he was kidnapped by
an Irish Pagan warlord, Niall of the Nine Hostag and forced into slavery
– After six years being held captive in Ireland, legend has it he had a
religious dream/vision and then he escaped to France.

He returned to Ireland to preach Christianity and convert the Pagans –
He used the Shamrock as part of his
religious teaching – the reason why the Shamrock is
the national emblem today – the original color associated with St
Patrick was blue NOT green
– St. Patrick is believed to have
been born in 415 AD an died on March 17th 493 AD.

The hype today around St. Patrick is
nothing more than the effects of the nationalism of the 18th century
when St. Patrick was a symbol used
by the Irish to differentiate themselves from the British, it was not
who he was, but more his legacy that was the element used.

If your going to go out and celebrate this St.
Paddy’s Day remember, Guinness, is not for everyone, green
beer comes in many varied brands, paint
yourself green if you wish, but there are 4 key DON’TS
you should note….

1 – DON’T drink and drive – it’s
illegal everywhere and costs lives

2 – DON’T pretend to be half Irish,
if you meet a real Irish man or woman,  and then tell them it was
on your great great grandmothers side, pretending to be any nationality
other than what you are can be an insult not a compliment to the people
that are truly from that country and could cause adverse side effects,
or even hospitalization.