To kilt or not to kilt: A St. Paddy's Day conundrum

[Bugbear]

No, for real, I wonder if I could get away with wearing a leine. I don't want one with the long dangley sleeves though... Maybe a short sleved leine. Just joking about the sunglasses, though.

Guess You could put a belted plaid on over that just to make it kilt related.

[McNulty]

My grandfather (born in Ireland) would always say "There are two types of people on St.Patrick's Day. Those who are Irish, and those who wished they were." Two things come to mind here after reading this thread: I find the idea deplorable that one must go out drinking or to get drunk on St. Patrick's Day to supposedly show pride in their heritage. Hello, what type of nonsense is that. That just disses me and the grand culture I come from. This just reinforces the idea (wrongly held) that all the Irish are good for is to go out and get drunk at the local pub (hence the term pub "crawl"). And I'll wear my Irish National kilt on March 17th as a way for me to show cultural diversity and more so to show that I'm proud of my heritage. And rather than showing the despicable drunken stereotype most people see as an Irishman ,I'll also be showing the positive and great side of the Irish that I'm proud of and want others to know about.
Timothy Edward McNulty son of Philip Patrick and grandson of Patrick Michael

[berserkbishop]

Ok, as one who only wears his kilt on occasion, I will not be kilted on St. Paddys day. Why? Because until the kilt is the offical national dress of Ireland, I wont wear one on Ireland's holiday. To ME, saying that JUST because there are people in Ireland that wear or have worn the kilt is reason enough to do that yourself here in America seems silly. That is like saying that because there is a pipe band in Hong Kong that everyone should wear a kilt on Chinese New year. If you wear a kilt everyday then I see no issue with it. Business as usual. I know that this goes against the "do what you like its just a kilt" mantra that is popular here but that is just MY OPINION. Burn the heretic if you please.

BB

[Makeitstop]

Ok, as one who only wears his kilt on occasion, I will not be kilted on St. Paddys day. Why? Because until the kilt is the offical national dress of Ireland, I wont wear one on Ireland's holiday. To ME, saying that JUST because there are people in Ireland that wear or have worn the kilt is reason enough to do that yourself here in America seems silly. That is like saying that because there is a pipe band in Hong Kong that everyone should wear a kilt on Chinese New year. If you wear a kilt everyday then I see no issue with it. Business as usual. I know that this goes against the "do what you like its just a kilt" mantra that is popular here but that is just MY OPINION. Burn the heretic if you please.

BB

I think if you wear the kilt on special occasions, and you feel that st paddy's day (or whatever event you may be attending for that day) qualifies as a special occasion, then there is no reason not to wear the kilt.

Using your example, if you were invited to a Chinese new year celebration, and wanted to look nice, it would not be inappropriate to wear a kilt. As long as you don't claim that kilts are Chinese, there is nothing wrong with it.

And I think if you wear a green or saffron kilt, or an Irish national, or county tartan, it makes as much sense as wearing an American national tartan kilt for the 4th of july. Kilts in general are not American, but the one you would be wearing represents America. The only reason for things to be any different on st paddy's day is because of the existing misconception that the kilt is Irish.