A Place for Paddy

On this March 17^th, I, like many Irish Americans, will wear green and celebrate what I suspect to be Irish heritage.  Being skeptical of businesses that can supposedly tell me of my heritage, I instead look into family records and discover William Patrick Justice (May 2, 1858-July 2, 1943).  Good enough for me, I will eat corned beef, cabbage, and red potatoes.

William Patrick Justice and family

Wikipedia tells me “Irish Americans (Irish: Gael-Mheiriceánaigh) are an ethnic group comprising Americans who have full or partial ancestry from Ireland, especially those who identify with that ancestry, along with their cultural characteristics. About 33 million Americans — 10.5% of the total population — reported Irish ancestry in the 2013 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.^[1] This compares with a population of 6.7 million on the island of Ireland.”

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Americans#Stereotypes

But what of St. Patrick’s Day?  I certainly can’t claim any allegiance to Saint Patrick. The closest connection to Catholicism I have, is having been a resident of South Bend, IN for nine years, “Go Irish!”.

The stereotypical Irish-American has been characterized as a poor, ignorant, hard-drinking, temperamental fighter.

 I don’t particularly match that stereotype either, although I probably could fit into the following photograph fairly easily:

So, as I don the green today, I will offer the following limerick:

There once was a man named Paddy

Who fathered a lass and a laddie

They brought him sweet Joy

And Eva, so coy

So now he's a happy, Granddaddy!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

CPW