It’s the middle of March, America is awash with all things green and the fact that St Patrick’s Day is still a whole week away doesn’t matter because now we are actually experiencing St Patrick’s Day Season! (Not "St Patrick’s Season", which would be linguistically acceptable if still conceptually dodgy.) I say. What is one to make of this, then?
Well, you could consider it to be little more than an innocent way of brightening what would otherwise be a pretty dull time of year, in between Christmas and summer fun (who cares about Easter?). But that wouldn’t really be conducive to any great debate, and as great debate is what life is all about, let’s instead look for the dark side. Is there one, and if so, what is it?
Some people would point out that St Patrick’s is just another excuse for cynical merchants to change their displays from red and heart-shaped to green and shamrock-shaped and thus persuade us to spend more money on rubbish. They would be partly right, but personally I don’t see this as a big problem. It’s free enterprise, and in my view there are worse things to profit from in a free market economy than green wigs and oddly shaped cookie cutters.
Or you might complain about the American penchant for overkill. Over here, St Patrick’s Day celebrations have to be just that little bit bigger, better and more than anywhere else (such as, say, in Ireland). When you know many Irish people (defined here as people actually from Ireland) who do very little on St Patrick’s Day except take a half day off work in order to get to the pub just that little bit sooner, it inevitably strikes you as a touch silly. Everyone everywhere is getting involved with what is really a fairly marginal celebration, albeit very cleverly marketed on a global scale by the Irish government. Even my 3-year old has been asked to wear green clothes to pre-school and bring with her, if possible, some “Irish paraphernalia”. (“Like what? A bomb?” the husband quipped, tastefully.)
This, too, I can live with. Americans have a wonderful ability to make anything a darn good party, and who am I to begrudge them? We miserly Europeans may not catch on so quickly, but that’s our problem. In the name of celebration, I will cheerfully dress my children in green and provide shamrock shaped sandwiches – heck, after a couple of pints of Guinness (please don’t call it “the black stuff”) I will even fake an Irish accent if it makes you happy.
Far juicier, then, is the religious and political symbolism inherent in the St Patrick’s Day concept. Only a few months ago the papers were filled with heated arguments as to whether Christmas should really be called Christmas or whether this could be perceived as offensive by non-Christians. I am surprised, to say the least, by the apparent lack of corresponding public debate on the political correctness of St Patrick’s Day.
Is it to be accepted without question that the symbolism of the catholic faith floods the nation and attempts to engulf everyone, including defenseless children? And are we to deny that in connection with Ireland and all things Irish, the act of promoting this particular faith over any other comes with connotations that easily extend into the political arena?
Sometimes I cynically suspect that many Americans suffer from the same misconceptions about Ireland and the Irish conflict as do Swedes, which is essentially that a) all real Irish people are catholic, b) if you are Irish and protestant, you may as well be English and c) the English are evil oppressors of a poor and underprivileged Irish population, inside and outside of Ireland.
This simplistic view has very little to do with reality but is, and always has been, shrewdly promoted by people with their own agenda. And who are those people? Well, for fear of being accused of slander, I wouldn’t like to say. It’s not really my fault that involuntary associations come into my mind, such as AOH-Noraid-IRA. Is it?
Well, you could consider it to be little more than an innocent way of brightening what would otherwise be a pretty dull time of year, in between Christmas and summer fun (who cares about Easter?). But that wouldn’t really be conducive to any great debate, and as great debate is what life is all about, let’s instead look for the dark side. Is there one, and if so, what is it?
Some people would point out that St Patrick’s is just another excuse for cynical merchants to change their displays from red and heart-shaped to green and shamrock-shaped and thus persuade us to spend more money on rubbish. They would be partly right, but personally I don’t see this as a big problem. It’s free enterprise, and in my view there are worse things to profit from in a free market economy than green wigs and oddly shaped cookie cutters.
Or you might complain about the American penchant for overkill. Over here, St Patrick’s Day celebrations have to be just that little bit bigger, better and more than anywhere else (such as, say, in Ireland). When you know many Irish people (defined here as people actually from Ireland) who do very little on St Patrick’s Day except take a half day off work in order to get to the pub just that little bit sooner, it inevitably strikes you as a touch silly. Everyone everywhere is getting involved with what is really a fairly marginal celebration, albeit very cleverly marketed on a global scale by the Irish government. Even my 3-year old has been asked to wear green clothes to pre-school and bring with her, if possible, some “Irish paraphernalia”. (“Like what? A bomb?” the husband quipped, tastefully.)
This, too, I can live with. Americans have a wonderful ability to make anything a darn good party, and who am I to begrudge them? We miserly Europeans may not catch on so quickly, but that’s our problem. In the name of celebration, I will cheerfully dress my children in green and provide shamrock shaped sandwiches – heck, after a couple of pints of Guinness (please don’t call it “the black stuff”) I will even fake an Irish accent if it makes you happy.
Far juicier, then, is the religious and political symbolism inherent in the St Patrick’s Day concept. Only a few months ago the papers were filled with heated arguments as to whether Christmas should really be called Christmas or whether this could be perceived as offensive by non-Christians. I am surprised, to say the least, by the apparent lack of corresponding public debate on the political correctness of St Patrick’s Day.
Is it to be accepted without question that the symbolism of the catholic faith floods the nation and attempts to engulf everyone, including defenseless children? And are we to deny that in connection with Ireland and all things Irish, the act of promoting this particular faith over any other comes with connotations that easily extend into the political arena?
Sometimes I cynically suspect that many Americans suffer from the same misconceptions about Ireland and the Irish conflict as do Swedes, which is essentially that a) all real Irish people are catholic, b) if you are Irish and protestant, you may as well be English and c) the English are evil oppressors of a poor and underprivileged Irish population, inside and outside of Ireland.
This simplistic view has very little to do with reality but is, and always has been, shrewdly promoted by people with their own agenda. And who are those people? Well, for fear of being accused of slander, I wouldn’t like to say. It’s not really my fault that involuntary associations come into my mind, such as AOH-Noraid-IRA. Is it?
This photograph is unrelated to the contents of the blog.
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