Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
People find it hard to believe but a significant part of my heritage is actually Irish. Since people don’t see any trace of it in my appearance and are rarely convinced, I try not to bring it up. But with St. Patrick’s Day… I again realized that in fact I know nothing about the Irish except that they are drunks (attested to by family experiences), see leprechauns (attested by me in my childhood), have this thing about clover leaves (my obsession when I was kid), and have parades and convince everyone to wear green and paint everything green in March. Then there are harps, potato famines, U2, Sinead O’Connor (see?)… mmm, Ireland’s economic growth in the 90’s earned it the moniker ‘Celtic Tiger’… mmm…
So I was looking into some traditions, and I found out a lot of interesting Irish stuff that I didn’t know.
1. St. Patrick himself wore BLUE garments, not green.
2. Plastic Paddy is a term used to describe non-Irish people who declare their Irishness even if they have only a smidgen of Irishness. (Seriously, I have more Irish blood than that man in the White House despite what’s in the news.)
3. A bodhran (pronounced bow-RAHN, the first syllable like the last in rainbow) is a hand-held goatskin drum used in traditional Irish music and often played with a stick.
4. A claddagh (pronounced KLAH-duh) is a ring with a raised design of two hands clasping a crowned heart. It is given as a token of love or friendship.
5. Ceili (pronounced KAY-lee) is a word that means ‘party’ but is used to refer to Irish social dancing.
With all that weird pronunciation, I think my brain has now been sated with the Irish stuff.