Happy St Patricks an all

[HoraceCope]

But why the fuss - what about St George/St David/St Andrew

is it because of the Crack, and the Guinness?

well yes it is.

Or it's because of the generations of emigrants out of Ireland from the 1840s on as far as the fuss in other countries goes.

I spect you are right. Apocalypse.

I bet it is celebrated in a Big way in USA

Only time we see a St George's flag is re football and has racist connotations

Yes it boomerangs back tto us from the states.
There's a parade in my town but we arent goimg this year. No alcohol will pass my lips. I wonder if diy shop is open...

Cause the craic's 90

During the famine of the 1840s, when 1 million Irish died, over 1 million immigrants landed in America. A massive movement. The Irish became the bottom rung in the cities they arrived in, and St Patrick's Day became a chance to remember home and show the pride they felt in being Irish.
The craic shall indeed be 90!

1. American Irish communities exist in the US in a way that Scottish and Welsh communities don't so it has become mainstream. re: st George's day, and 'English' american feelings about the 'old' country, see 4th July.

2. Guinness and marketing.

Are we getting shamrock or pint emoticon this year?

am i right that in USA they dont make a big deal about July 4th?
They didnt when I was there

I know!!! If Santa gets one, we should have one?!

Yeoooo!! Thanks horace

Craic, not crack! So far I have spent breakfast time trying to explain the iconography of St Patrick's Day cards from family (a leprechaun, St P in a mitre with snakes, a 'fighting Irish' red-bearded stereotype in knee breeches, drunk shamrocks with green pints etc) to my baffled, English-born toddler.

thanks Tapwater,
I am baffled too

But yes, Guinness marketing and Irish-American ideas about identity have a lot to do with it. And, more likeably, the influx of immigration into Celtic Tiger Ireland means that there are now lots of new immigrant communities interested in embracing a 'New Irish' identity and injecting new vibrancy into St Patrick's Day parades.

You're all wrong.
There's such a fuss because it's my birthday.

Don't start me, Horace. I had got onto the racialisation of Irish caricatures in Punch magazine in the Land League days before my husband pointed out DS isn't quite three...

that's Clintons for you

Happy Birthday Hobby

Happy Birthday hobby i do hope your parents correctly named you patrick/patricia?

Tapwater, 'crack' isn't an incorrect spelling - it was actually the original spelling. It was originally a Scots version of an English word that came to Ireland via Ulster.

The 'craic' spelling became more popular when it spread widely in the south in the second half of the 20th Century (and probably took over entirely due to the drug crack).

The 'craic' is probably because there is no letter K in the irish language so the spelling was changed in ireland.

Happy St Patrick's day

Yes, it is a Gaelicised spelling, and the most common spelling; my point was only that the Scots/English spelling is not incorrect.

Isn't the bigger question not so much why st David's day isn't popular in the US, but why we don't hear so much about Italian, Spanish, Polish etc. 'holidays' in the US?

Is it because other countries don't have leprechauns?

I think Saint Patrick's day is maybe the only national holiday celebrated all over the world.Us Irish get everywhere and we love any excuse for a celebration so we brought our saint's day with us wherever we went.
For us here in Ireland it's a day off work, Hurray. We slept in and had pancakes for breakfast. We're all sporting out green T-shirts and Later we'll go to our local parade which my son is in and then we'll watch D'arby O'Gill and the little people.
Happy Saint Patrick's day to you all