It’s that time of year when the Easter eggs have actually remained in the stores because about early January, the daffodils (a few of which have actually remained in flower because early January – which might or might not be a repercussion of environment modification) set the location alight with yellow and clubs throughout England’s green (and yellow) enjoyable land commemorate a popular British saint embraced by Ireland – and I don’t imply Jack Charlton. In a practical tie-in with the Six Nations rugby and the Cheltenham Festival to boot (now what smart marketing executive developed that concept?) the cardboard shamrocks are holding on the wall, the Guinness balloons are out and the ridiculous leprechaun hats have actually rolled off the assembly line.
Yes, rather paradoxically St Patrick’s day has almost end up being an informal vacation in England to the degree that it’s now almost a larger occasion there than St George’s day – which has actually generally been a reasonably subtle occasion in its land of patronage. Poor George killed a wicked dragon (something the Welsh weren’t best pleased with), yet Pat simply kicked a couple of safe snakes out and gets all the credit. Come to consider it, Patrick is the only tutelary saint of our Hiberno-Britannic island chain (to ward off debate, I prevent the term “British Isles”) to have a bank vacation in his honour in the 2 particular jurisdictions.
I had something of a surreal experience on St Pat’s night 2007 when I discovered myself in an Irish pub in Finchley (a location obviously as British as a particular part of Ireland – however paradoxically particular parts of Finchley are most likely more Irish than particular parts of Northern Ireland) enjoying a cricket match of all things. It was Ireland versus Pakistan in the World Cup – a historical success for the young boys in green. Any reason for a celebration I expect, as this coming weekend will affirm – corresponding (most likely no coincidence though) with England versus Ireland in Dublin in the last round of the Six Nations. The beer and whisky will stream regardless from Abu Dhabi to Zurich, significant world landmarks from Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue to Sydney Opera House will be brightened in vibrant green and from Boston to Buenos Aires lots of people will be awakening with the headaches the next early morning.
But those with a genuine cause to commemorate will no doubt be the directors and investors of Diageo plc, Irish Distillers and Paddy Power.
Ciaran Ward is from Co. Tyrone and is now based in London where he operates in the information protection/cybersecurity field. His latest book “On Square Routes”, a collection of memoirs, travel writing, narratives and poetry has actually simply been released and is now available from Amazon.
He extremely periodically blog sites and tweets at https://dreamingarm.wordpress.com/ and @CiaranWard73
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