Denis Kilcommons: Biggest celebration of St Patrick’s Day

Mar 16 2010 by Chris Mellor, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE river in Chicago will be green this week. Americans will be celebrating St Patrick’s Day harder than anywhere else in the world.

When I was in the States in January stores were already setting up their merchandise – wigs, hats, shillelaghs and leprechaun T-shirts (made in Mexico).

And we shouldn’t look at their efforts to be Irish with condescension because they were the first to actually have a St Patrick’s Day parade.

It started back in the 18th century when Irish soldiers serving in the English army marched together on the saint’s day to re-affirm their heritage.

It’s gone from strength to strength and is now celebrated all over the world. All this for a bloke from Wales.

St Patrick was the son of a wealthy Welsh family who was snatched by Irish pirates in the 4th century and taken to County Mayo as a slave. He worked as a shepherd which was a lonely existence. A stranger in a strange land and Guinness hadn’t even been invented yet.

He escaped, returned home, trained to be a priest and, 15 years later, went back to Ireland as a missionary.

On his day – which is tomorrow – anyone with any vague claim to a link with the emerald isle celebrates with Guinness and good cheer.

But it was much more than the recognition of a saint when it was first celebrated. It was an affirmation of being Irish at times when the Irish were often treated badly, both in the USA as unwelcome immigrants and as a reluctant part of the British empire.

The wearing of the green was not just sporting a bit of shamrock in your hat – it was a symbol of revolution and Irish nationalism. At the time of the 1798 Irish Rebellion it was a hanging offence.

Not any more, thank goodness. Now gallons of Guinness will be consumed all over the globe, Americans will literally paint their streets green and the river through Chicago will flow with green dye for the best part of a week.

Which is a gloriously daft way to celebrate an island that, despite all the bad times, is renowned for its culture, wit and music and which will share its heritage in the best possible way with the rest of the world tomorrow.

Happy St Paddy’s Day.