I have much to celebrate on St. Patrick’s Day. It is my son’s birthday. He’s twelve today. It’s also my mother’s birthday. She would have been 75 today. Sadly she passed away five years ago. We also have enough Irish in our family to make it special. My maternal grandmother hailed from County Galway and my mother-in-law is from County Tyrone. As I write, we have life-size leprechauns adorning our home and shamrocks plastered all over the place – to say nothing of the host of green balloons.

In our home, at least, we will not only celebrate Ireland and Irishness but also the great patron saint of that most enigmatic of Isles. It is, first and foremost, his day. With this in mind, I was intrigued by this article about the exclusion of St. Paddy from Paddy’s Day in today’s International Business Times:

http://www.ibtimes.com/st-patricks-day-2014-commercialization-trivialization-irish-people-culture-1561777