For God’s Sake, Opinion

For God’s Sake

March 14, 2019 | Michael Bannon

I’m Irish on my father’s side, British on my mother’s side, but we don’t talk about that. My paternal grandfather was fiercely proud of his Irish roots. We had ordered a family crest from an ad in the back of magazine; it came back saying that we were British. “Look again!” my grandfather growled. Pursuing a more reputable source, we learned that our family name was originally O’Bannon and, thankfully that our roots are in Ireland. My Irish roots validated, I once chided a workmate, who was from Ireland, for not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day. “I’m Protestant,” he growled (must be an Irish trait), “we wear orange!” I may be half Irish, but I realized that I was totally ignorant about St. Patrick Day.

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Everybody is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, except for St. Patrick, who was likely Welsh. Born in western Britain in AD 389 to nominal Christians, he was kidnapped at 16 and taken to Ireland as a slave. There, Patrick’s nominal Christian faith was galvanized in the forges of adversity. “I prayed a hundred times in the day and almost as many at night,” he wrote in a letter. Six years later, motivated by a voice he claimed to have heard in a dream, Patrick escaped to the coast, boarded a ship to France, and eventually returned to Britain.

In yet another dream, Patrick claimed that an Irishman appeared to him with a stack of letters, one which read, “the voice of the Irish.” A voice from the letter said, “Holy boy, please return to us, we need you!” With genuine concern for the spiritual welfare of the Irish, Patrick returned to Ireland in AD 432 preaching the gospel and establishing churches until his death, March 17, AD 461.

Patrick’s contribution to history was nothing less than to save Western civilization says Irish-American author, Thomas Cahill. How so? Under Patrick’s influence, Irish Christians became avid readers and copyists of secular and sacred texts and so preserved many important, historic texts that were lost when the Visigoths sacked Rome in AD 410. However, some achievements credited to Patrick are likely the work of his predecessor, Palladius. Some are pure myth, like driving all the snakes out of Ireland.

Typically associated with Catholicism, “Saint” Patrick has never been canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, nor is St. Patrick’s Day part of the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar except in Ireland. At one time, Irish Protestants were reluctant to embrace St. Patrick’s Day, which explains my Irish workmate’s terse response. Nonetheless, it was Irish Protestant immigrants who are responsible for establishing the very festive St. Patrick’s Day celebration in America.

As you prepare to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, here are some facts you should know. Our tradition of eating corned beef-and-cabbage is not Irish, nor is “wearing the green.” In Ireland, the color associated with St. Patrick is blue, and Irish folklore has leprechauns dressed in red. The shamrock, while a popular Irish symbol, is not the national symbol of Ireland. As for consuming copious quantities of green beer, the Irish, up until 1970, observed the day quietly with the local pubs closed. So, now we know the facts, but even still, this St. Patrick’s Day I’m going to enjoy some corned beef and cabbage. “Sláinte!”

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