I won't get a chance tomorrow, so I'm wishing my readers a happy and blessed St. Patrick's Day.
Once again, let me quote that much-maligned, and unfairly maligned, St. Patrick's Day speech from Eamon De Valera:
The ideal Ireland that we would have, the Ireland that we dreamed of, would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit-- a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age. The home, in short, of a people living the life that God desires that men should live. With the tidings that make such an Ireland possible, St. Patrick came to our ancestors fifteen hundred years ago promising happiness here no less than happiness hereafter. It was the pursuit of such an Ireland that later made our country worthy to be called the island of saints and scholars. It was the idea of such an Ireland-- happy, vigorous, spiritual-- that fired the imagination of our poets; that made successive generations of patriotic men give their lives to win religious and political liberty; and that will urge men in our own and future generations to die, if need be, so that these liberties may be preserved.
You might consider reading all or some of St. Patrick's Confession to mark the day.
That's an excellent quote, I agree - very Chestertonian. If only...
ReplyDeleteOf course, like all true (one quarter-) Irishmen; I deplore the extremity of indescribably vulgar and decadent commercialism of "St Patrick's Day" (Trademark) as it happens on my doorstep (almost).
But (bearing in mind my other three-quarters are Northumbrian) I regard Patrick himself as a truly great individual, who ought to be celebrated as a major Romano-Celtic Saint; and one one whose probable birthplace "we" claim as Birdoswald (now in Cumbria).
I knew you had to be at least a quarter Irish!
DeleteI quite like the eccentricity that Ireland's national saint comes from Cumbria (or Wales, or wherever), while England's national saint comes from Tukey.
I don't mind the commercialization myself, but I do intensely dislike the woke messaging which has now hijacked St. Patrick's Day along with everything else...