St. Patrick's Day: Bottoms Up!!

Just as Holy Week starts, let's get drunk!!

Being primarily of Irish heritage, today offers me the opportunity to celebrate my roots and make fun of all things British.

What a great story St. Patrick's Day offers.

Centuries ago, Irish raiders kidnapped a young fellow (the soon to be St. Patrick) who resided in Roman Britain.

He escaped backed to Britain six years later and went on to become a bishop.

In order to exact his revenge, Patrick returned to Ireland and converted the drunken, filthy pagans into drunken, filthy Christians and most became Catholic.

Now sure, Patrick could have retaliated by killing his kidnappers, but he knew that converting people to Catholicism was a much more painful form of punishment.

The thing I find most fascinating about St. Patrick is that he was born in Roman occupied Britain.

That means there’s a possibility that he was Roman, which means he could have been Italian.

That’s what’s so damn funny. Can you believe that an entire country of shit-faced, pugilistic Micks was converted by a Dago and some kind of fight didn’t break out?

Fortunately, there was no violence, and Ireland has, of course, been violence free ever since.

That indeed is a story worth celebrating every year…and how do we celebrate the saintly feats of St. Patrick?

By getting sloshed out of our gourds and mangling the lyrics to “When Irish Eyes are Smiling”, that’s how.

But do not fret; everyone else is mangling them too, so it all blends together.

We also wear green.

Green shirts…Green garters…Green hats. We even wear green faces after consuming our sixth pitcher of Green beer.

You da man St. Patrick, you da man.

Of course what would the big day be without enjoying that delicious Irish cuisine!? Boiled potatoes, soda bread, and corned beef…as sexy as food gets.

Of course, some bars take a canned concoction and pass it off as Irish Stew. You can bet that is was made by Dinty O’Moore.

What a blast it is being Irish on St. Paddy’s Day.

Of course when all is said and done and the next morning rolls around, your head will feel as though you were beaten by a dozen members of the Ulster Defence Association.

But hey, that’s all part of being Irish.

Erin Go Braugh and Slainte!!