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St Patrick's Thread

OneWingedBird said:
The google logo today is dreadful... cartoon fourleaf clovers playing the fiddle and bodhran. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Paddy Whackery.

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Big win for De Blasio as Pat’s parade gay issue settled after 24 years

The dispute that began in 1991 over gays marching in the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade has finally come to a conclusion with the announcement that Irish LGBT group Lavender and Green will take part in 2016.

The big winner, apart from the Irish gay groups, is New York Mayor Bill De Blasio.

His insistence that he would not follow the Bloomberg compromise of marching in the Queens parade featuring Irish gays and then the major Manhattan parade that banned gays forced a resolution of the issue.

De Blasio clearly stated it was all or nothing.

The general consensus had been that we would have to await the retirement of the aging Irish-born cohort who ran the parade before any change would occur. John Dunleavy, at 78, was the master and commander and was not giving one inch on gays participating.

http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion... IC - Oct 1&utm_term=The Best of IrishCentral
 
St. Patrick was much more likely to have been a slave trader than a slave. He was also a tax collector, fleeing for his life as the Roman Empire collapsed in Britain.


This was the conclusion of a 2012 research survey by a Cambridge University professor. Dr Roy Flechner, research fellow at Cambridge University's Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (ASNC), said the accepted story of St. Patrick was "likely to be fiction."

Flechner says Patrick’s family were tax collectors for the Romans, a very dangerous job during that era.

Patrick's father, Calpornius, was a Decurion, a Roman official responsible for tax collection in Wales.
Calpornius wanted out and used a Roman legal clause that allowed him to join the clergy and pass the job on to his son.


Read more St. Patrick's Day stories here

However, Patrick did not want the job and, fearing for his life, fled to Ireland.

"In the troubled era in which Patrick lived, which saw the demise and eventual collapse of Roman government in Britain in 410, discharging the obligations of a Decurion, especially tax collecting, would not only have been difficult but also very risky," Dr Flechner told the Irish Independent.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/sa...m_campaign=Best of IrishCentral - 2016-Feb-25
 
Ah, shag off Kevin! I love those shirts & the Simpsons Patricks Day specials!

This time last year, Kevin Westley had over $400 of t-shirts depicting the Irish as slovenly drunksstored in a column of airtight boxes in his basement.

So far this year, much to Kevin’s delight (and his wife’s relief), their home is still devoid of any offensive Irish merchandise.

Kevin, a radio host and Irish dance instructor from Long Island, made headlines throughout the US and in Ireland last year after IrishCentral broke the story about his inventive campaign to get Walmart to stop stocking their shelves with t-shirts that perpetuate nasty stereotypes about the Irish in the lead-up to St. Patrick’s Day.

His plan? Buy all the t-shirts emblazoned with drunken stereotypes that he could find at the Walmart stores near his home, keep them in boxes so they never see the light of day, and return them promptly on March 18.

The plan itself went off without a hitch, despite some politely aggressive exchanges with the Walmart customer service team, but Kevin knew he would have to wait until this year to see if his campaign had any lasting impact.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/No...m_campaign=Best of IrishCentral - 2016-Feb-25
 
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... Corned beef and cabbage, however, similar to that served at the New York City St. Patrick's DayParade, may have originated in the United States and only recently found its way to Ireland. Some claim that corned beef and cabbage originated in New York City, and that is why New York City is known for the best corned beef and cabbage in the world.

The argument can be made that corned beef is about as Irish as General Tso's chicken is Chinese. Indeed, you'd have less difficulty tracking down the meat in a New York bar than in a Dublin pub. But don't judge the dish too harshly. This briny brisket fed the folks that made America—just as our cities were built on carry-out Chinese, anchored by the inauthentic fried egg roll.

CORNED BEEF & CABBAGE SPRING ROLLS

Ingredients:
10 spring roll wrappers
6 cups hot water for soaking wrappers
1lb cooked white cabbage or use a 16oz. package of Sauerkraut, drained
1 medium onion, finely minced
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tbs olive oil
½ lb thinly sliced corned beef, julienne
½ tsp ground black pepper
4 oz. shredded Swiss cheese, chilled
1 quart peanut oil or other high heat oil
Thousand Island dressing

Oh, and don't forget the cool, frothy Guinness, not for the recipe but just to have while making the dish!

Method:

Sauté the minced onion in olive oil over a medium flame until translucent, about 5 minutes. Set aside. Place cooked cabbage or sauerkraut in a lint-free dishcloth and wring out any remaining water or brine. Place cabbage or sauerkraut in large mixing bowl. Add pepper, caraway seeds, onion, and cheese. Mix thoroughly. Set aside.

Soak one spring roll wrapper in hot water. Use tongs to remove wrapper. Place on prep area. Wrapper may stick so a lint-free cloth may be used under wrapper.

Ingredients should be added 1 inch from the edge closest to the preparer.

Add 6 slices of corned beef and then cabbage from the left to right side of the spring roll wrapper. You may have to adjust amounts, less or more, depending on the size of the wrapper or desired fullness. Fold left and right sides of wrapper over edges of filling. Roll wrapper from bottom. Repeat with remaining spring roll wrappers.

Heat the oil to 375F. Fry spring rolls until golden brown and drain on paper towels. Cut in half. Serve hot with a side of Thousand Island dressing. ...

http://www.irishcentral.com/culture...tm_campaign=Best of IrishCentral - 2016-Mar-4
 
ramonmercado said:
... Corned beef and cabbage, however, similar to that served at the New York City St. Patrick's DayParade, may have originated in the United States and only recently found its way to Ireland. Some claim that corned beef and cabbage originated in New York City, and that is why New York City is known for the best corned beef and cabbage in the world.

The argument can be made that corned beef is about as Irish as General Tso's chicken is Chinese. Indeed, you'd have less difficulty tracking down the meat in a New York bar than in a Dublin pub. But don't judge the dish too harshly. This briny brisket fed the folks that made America—just as our cities were built on carry-out Chinese, anchored by the inauthentic fried egg roll.
Click to expand...

Depends maybe on what you mean by 'corned beef'? Tinned corned beef is a long way removed from the joints of corned beef you can buy by the slice when I went to Kenmare and Roscarberry about a decade back. It really isn't the same stuff that you buy in cans.
 
Hmm.. A bit 'sectarian'...

To my mind, differences are good, but sectarianism is bad. I wish Ireland (and the rest of the world) could break away from sectarianism.

But I suppose I'm just a cock-eyed optimist.

"Some may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one..."
 
rynner2 said:
Hmm.. A bit 'sectarian'...

To my mind, differences are good, but sectarianism is bad. I wish Ireland (and the rest of the world) could break away from sectarianism.

But I suppose I'm just a cock-eyed optimist.

"Some may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one..."
Click to expand...

Well, they recognise St Patrick's Day, so I see that as being to the good - a unifying factor. Remember: St Patrick's Saltire is on the Union Flag.
 
St Patrick has long been associated with snakes and shamrocks, but the fact that he had a wife has largely been confined to the annals of history, according to a folklorist from UCC.

In the old Irish calendar, the day after St Patrick’s Day is Sheelah’s Day, but what is less known is that Sheelah was Patrick’s wife.

Shane Lehane, Department of Folklore UCC, says Sheelah was Patrick’s “other half” and that the March 17th celebrations were extended for an additional twenty four hours to commemorate her life.

Lehane observes that antiquarian journals and newspaper accounts of the 18th and 19th centuries in Ireland indicate the wide-spread belief that St Patrick had a wife.

“Pre Famine, pre 1845, if you go back to the newspapers in Ireland they talk not just about Patrick’s Day but also Sheelah’s Day. You have Paddy’s day on the 17th and it continues on to Sheelah’s day. I came across numerous references that Sheelah was thought to be Patrick’s wife. The fact that we have Patrick and Sheelah together should be no surprise. Because that duality, that union of the male and female together, is one of the strongest images that we have in our mythology.”

An early reference to the continued celebrations on March 18th, which was St Sheelah’s day, is found in John Carr’s 1806 The Stranger in Ireland. ...

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-...me-was-sheelah-1.3013056#.WMrUXrlQUBd.twitter
 
Does anyone happen to know if there are any supernatural-type legends related to St. Patrick's day?
Just wondering, as I've had weird experiences on that day twice in my lifetime. I haven't heard of any relevant legends though, except for a story that if one sees smoke emanating from the ground on that night, treasure is buried there.
 
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