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Celebrating St. Patrick's

         It's really okay not to observe the day. If you're not Catholic or have no Irish ancestry, you're not required to take notice of it. But most of us look for an excuse to have another festive day. And this one can be a lot of fun.

         Sunday is still a day of Lent. Many are observing the dark days of Lent leading up to Easter. No doubt Patrick did as well.

         As for old Patrick, no one knows where the legend of driving the snakes out of Ireland came from. You won't find them there. Patrick did teach peace to hostile villages and sought to end slavery. He was a proponent of literacy. He did a lot to bring civilization to Ireland and to end the old fears and superstitions.

         There have been many great men and women from Ireland. Nobel Prizes for literature were given to George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, William B. Yeats, and Seamus Heaney. Many great preachers,  priests and intellectuals have come from Ireland. Depicting the Irish as drunkards, fighters, and liars is prejudice, pure and simple. Even Irish Americans show a love of literature. Andrew Greeley is American, but he's Chicago Irish-American, and it shows up in all his novels, a vast collection.

         In fact there are still strong Irish populations in the U.S., including Boston, New York, and Chicago. I've noticed in old TV westerns, they frequently included Irish people in their story lines. So it would appear that the Irish are interwoven into most areas of our culture. That would explain why some other country's holiday is so popular here. The Irish migrated here in large numbers and blended in. They adapted to American life and now are a part of it.