The Irish thing
I do not understand the Irish Phenomenon.
On a global scale, we are a tiny island stuck out in the Atlantic to the west of Europe. Coming in from outer space you’d be lucky to find us at all unless you had a damn good satnav The entire island would comfortably fit, multiple times in most other countries.
There are only a few million of us. The population of the entire island is less than that of many of the worlds cities. If they accidentally stuck our population into a table of the world’s major cities, we would be way down the list. I just did a check – there are 80 cities with a larger population than all Ireland. Tokyo alone has seven times the population of this small island!
So why does Ireland have such a massive influence on the planet? Saint Patrick is being celebrated right across the globe as I type. There are parades, green floodlights on world famous landmarks and Chicago is even turning its river green. I would imagine that a hell of a lot of the worlds revelers don’t even know where Ireland is, yet they still celebrate “Irishness”.
The remarkable thing about the whole phenomenon is that I don’t know of any other national holiday that gets worldwide attention. Does the world go mad on Bastille Day? Are there worldwide parades to celebrate American Independence? No. National holidays come and go and the world ignores them, but not Paddy’s Day. That has to be celebrated from New York to Sydney, from Dublin to Dubai. Just for one day, everyone seems to want to be Irish.
Even outside Paddy’s Day everyone seems to know the Irish. It always amused me that in France I would walk into a shop and stumble out my pidgin French. I would be greeted with mild hostility and a flood of the local dialect in return. I would slip in that I’m Irish not British and instantly I am best friends with the shopkeeper who suddenly speaks fluent English.
Don’t get me wrong. I am proud to be Irish. Amn’t I directly descended from one of the great High Kings of Ireland after all?! I am Irish first and foremost and then a citizen of the World. Under extreme torture I might even add being European.
Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh go léir.
Every US President is of Irish descent. Even Barry O’Bama.
Seriously though, the Irish were /are good at booze, music, craic / humour, and shagging.
They did not roam the Earth upsetting the natives, but they did a lot roaming. All those offspring had to go somewhere, only one got the farm.
I like them, but then I am biased.
The reason may be that no-one hates Ireland nor the Irish, there’s no reason to, they don’t have any enemies, they don’t declare war on others, they don’t invade other lands by force, they are peace-loving, friendly folk who just encourage everyone to get pissed and sing. What’s not to like?
Truth is, of course, the irish have invaded most countries, but only by stealth, the diaspora has spread across the planet for centuries now, leaving a trail of Irish DNA in most cultures, thus giving most cultures the opportunity to remember it, while getting pissed for Paddy’s Day or any other excuse. Which answers your question about why it is so widely celebrated.
One of my own great-great-grandparents was a potato-famine escapee, so that’s my tenuously distant excuse for joining in the day. After a few Jameson’s shots, I may even join in the ‘line dancing for amputees’, as I believe it’s called.
When I was in the RAF I spent a couple of weeks at a USAF base in Germany. One of the Americans told me he’d been promoted to sergeant and busted back to whatever the bottom rung is in the US Air Force because he kept getting into fights. He blamed it on being Irish. Apparently one of his great great great etc ancestors was Irish, so he was Irish. That’s why there are so many “Irish” in the world, follow your family tree far enough back and you’ll probably find an Irishman. Five of my great grandparents were Irish, so that gives me the right to dress top to toe in green with a ridiculously large green hat, go out and get roaring drunk and tell everybody they’re my besh friend and say “Begorrah” and “Top o’ the morning to yez”.
But I won’t, because I’m English. 😀
Happy St Paddy’s Day to you. 😉
I have Irish ancestors on both sides but then on other branches there’s English and German too.