Happy St. Patrick's Day

[Kilted_John]

Nice story, Russ... I hung out around the house, did some precalculus review (thinking I will be going back to school to finish up my degree this spring or summer), and iced my foot... Did wear a kilt, though. Just didn't go out.
-J

[Jimmy Carbomb]

Happy St. Patrick's RECOVERY WEEKEND all!

Look on the bright side... St. Pat's is on a FRIDAY next year!!!

I know where I'll be. You?!

[GMan]

HIC

Thank You Jimmy

[macwilkin]

Just back from the look St. Pat's ceilidh downtown -- our Scottish society marched in the parade this afternoon, and had an information table with the Irish society on the square before the parade. There were only about five of us in kilts today. We got a few "nice skirt" comments, but other folks seemed interested and friendly.

Our St. Pat's parade really isn't much of one -- just a bunch of folks painting various body parts and/or household pets green and marching through downtown. The Irish society led the parade, followed by our Scottish society & our piper, who was drowned out by the "grand marshalls" in a flat-bed truck, a local "eccentric" music band that would play louder every time our piper would start to play! :x

The Ceilidh was all right, but most of the crowd didn't seem interested in the music. I was asked to tell a story, and it did help that it was prefeced by "The Scotsman" song, so I had a lot of ladies paying attention whilst I told the story of the Devil's visit to Castletown House in Co. Kildare! :mrgreen:

Cheers,

Todd

[Muddy]

I heard a couple stories this week (here in my town)
concerning two incidents of people getting their shorts in
a knot over someone wearing orange on St. Pat's
Day this year. I was aware that the color orange
represented the protestant faith (which I am) and is
one of the colors on the Irish flag. I can't imagine
the problem would be as simply bigoted as anti-protestant sentiment. Perhaps some of you with stronger ties to Irish ancestry than I (Jimmy C. maybe) could fill me in if you know anything about the topic......?

[Matthews]

I heard a couple stories this week (here in my town)
concerning two incidents of people getting their shorts in
a knot over someone wearing orange on St. Pat's
Day this year. I was aware that the color orange
represented the protestant faith (which I am) and is
one of the colors on the Irish flag. I can't imagine
the problem would be as simply bigoted as anti-protestant sentiment.

Well, well, well... All I can say is from some personal experience. My mother's family comes from Ballymena (NW of Belfast), Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. We still have quite a bit of family there and subscribe to the online version of the newspaper. Some may say that St. Patrick's Day is a Catholic holiday. But it's more of a holiday to celebrate those of Irish heritage because St. Patrick himself came back to Ireland because he loved it and he wanted to bring Christianity to the island. So St. Pat's is a great time to emulate his beliefs by also showing your love for the island, it's people and it's heritage. Back to the newspaper, it says quite boldly that you ARE NOT allowed to wear strong political symbolism to the St. Pat's celebration and they really pushed generic Irish Symbolism i.e. the Shamrock.
Foolishly hanging on to outdated dogma will never bring peace to Ireland.....and that's goes for both sides of the conflict.

Just enjoy the day, and enjoy the Irish.

Cheers,
T.R. Matthews

[Muddy]

Thanks for the info T.R.
I wonder though if I may ask you to be more
specific. Would wearing orange on the day then
actually be considered "political" then? Is that
why I heard of folks getting touchy about it? I
remain confused and intrigued..........

[Matthews]

Would wearing orange on the day then
actually be considered "political" then? Is that
why I heard of folks getting touchy about it?

No more than proclaiming that wearing Green is Catholic. My Dad's mother is Irish Catholic from Co. Cork and she herself wore an Orange knitted sweater and Green pants every St. Patrick's Day. I suppose that holding such a strong, misinformed political opinion on the subject could leave someone to believe that Orange is this and Green is that but those are the people who do not want to work towards peace in Ireland or are not educated enough to do so. I, myself wore the the Irish National Tartan kilt on St. Patty's day and I'm also a Protestant.
Hmmm, seems as if I'm taking the long route so I'll just say the short answer:
NO, wearing Orange or Green on St. Patrick's day is not a political statement and those that get their panties in a twist over it are unrealistcally set on old dogma - similar to those fellas who're so against kilts for the sole reason that Men are to wear pants and pants only.

Now, if you were to wear a suit, an orange collar and a derby cap - than YES that would be a political statement.

I hope that cleared things up for you, Muddy.

Cheers,
T.R. Matthews

[MACKAY]

Don't know if there is a connection, but an Catholic Irish friend of mine once said that wearing orange was verboten due to the persecution of the Catholic Irish by William of Orange way back when.

Perhaps someone on this board knows if this has any truth to it.

Brian Mackay
'Manu Forti'

[Matthews]

Don't know if there is a connection, but an Catholic Irish friend of mine once said that wearing orange was verboten due to the persecution of the Catholic Irish by William of Orange way back when.

Again, it's because of misinformation and unfortunately that misinformation runs deep.

Here's a quote from the Wikipedia:

The battle represented the culmination of James's attempt to regain the thrones of England and Scotland, but is remembered (wrongly) as a decisive moment in the struggle between Protestant and Catholic factions. In fact both armies were mixed, and William Of Orange's own elite force - the Dutch Blue Guards - had the Papal Banner with them on the day, many of the Guardsmen being Dutch Catholics. They were part of the League of Augsburg, a cross-Christian alliance designed to stop a French conquest of Europe. It was also the beginning of a long-running and ultimately unsuccessful campaign by James's supporters, the Jacobites, to restore the Stuart dynasty rule to Britain. Some of the French regiments fighting with the Jacobites at the Boyne were composed of German Protestants.

And, if you're interested you can check out the rest of the info on The Battle of the Boyne here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Boyne

Hey, The British Army pretty much used Canadians as cannon fodder during WWI...and I still love the Brits!
All we are saying is Give Peace a Chance!

Again, Cheers
T.R. Matthews