Wednesday 17 March 2010

St Patrick's Day - cheers!

Smitonius:

Something green is in order:


Personally, I have never made much of this day: no wearing of green, going to pubs galore or drinking a Guinness or more. However, given that building the family tree has revealed how much Irish there is in my maternal tree: O'Donnell; Brannan; Hill; McCall; Torpey and more. Most of whom left Ireland between the 1830s and the 1860s to seek their fortune elsewhere (Scotland; England; India; and Canada) as soldiers, musicians, japaners, and other industrial labourers perhaps I need to celebrate.

In addition, I have a can of Guinness in my fridge....

It has been there since I went to Dublin in September! But I think I should mark today. To all of those who will be raising a glass or two for reasons ancestral, cultural, or a random excuse - cheers!

6 comments:

rachel said...

It's a meaningless day for me except as a memory of our school nuns going a bit giddy, wearing large bunches of shamrock pinned to their black habits, generally being a bit more cheerful than was usual - and we got cake at teatime, a rare event. And a rousing hymn to be sung (every single verse) at morning Mass....."Hail Glorious St Patrick", indeed!

Enjoy your Guinness; you know it's good for you.

Rattling On said...

I'm rather partial to a Guinness. It's nice with a dash of Ribena in it as well.

molly said...

I too remember singing Hail Glorious St. Patrick, dear saint of our isle!"
God be with those days....Lovely shade of green in your yarn.
Coleman's mustard, loved by my mother,never touched by the rest of us for fear of burning our tongues!

Once in a while said...

Hi - The name is Patrick, which means I'm off to a good start. My blog on Wednesday was St Patrick. One of my two! followers did mention St Patrick was born in Scotland, whereas I said Britain. all followers welcome to swell the numbers. Today QUEEN bees! And my blogs are very varied so you can pick and choose. http://wisdom-wit.blogspot.com

Tania said...

I'm partial to three sips of Guinness but no more, to be sure, to be sure. Hold your nose and think of the iron.

Anonymous said...

I wore my late grandmother's shamrock brooch to keep up the tradition. Her grandfather was an Irish immigrant to Australia.So many Irish in my family from those times in the 1800's - what a huge distance to come on ships to Australia though! Must have seemed like the very bottom of the world.