An Ode To Saint Patrick's Day (Saint Paddy's Day)

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Saint Patrick’s Day, or Saint Paddy’s Day, is an Irish holiday intended to honor the greatest of Ireland’s saints, Saint Patrick, who was neither a saint nor Irish. Putting aside the historical and cultural irony for now, the importance of St. Patrick has morphed from a 1500 year old symbol of medieval pride in the Emerald Isle to a symbol for Irish-Americans oversees in honor of their heritage. But the “Saint Patrick’s Day” that we now know and debauch was never a phenomenon in Ireland, it was her Irish descendants in the United States that kicked off the whole shamrocks, green Guinness, and leprechaun-fueled celebrations that we’ve all come to love and imbibe.

Interestingly, Saint Paddy’s Day celebrations began in the US and then migrated their way back to Ireland, a sort of reverse osmosis or reanalysis of what the cultural expectations of being Irish meant. The first Saint Patrick’s Day parade was held in New York City in 1762, that’s 14 years before the Revolutionary War! The Irish were among the bravest soldiers in the War of Independence, the Civil War, and beyond, and with the advent of movies Irish culture began to permeate our national consciousness. That American-appropriated expat Irish culture then became ‘expected’ back in Ireland as a part of its nascent tourist industry, to the garish shock and dismay of any true Irish I’m sure.

Is St. Patrick’s Day a day to just get pissed or does it have some deeper cultural roots? What lies at the heart of Saint Paddy’s Day? Why do we celebrate it? Why does it mean so much to so many people of Irish descent? Let’s examine the traditions of the greenest of all holidays – Earth Day may be green but by the grace of Arthur Guinness himself St. Paddy’s is the greenest of them all!

First of all, it’s EITHER “Saint Patrick’s Day” or “Saint Paddy’s Day” (even “St. Pat’s”) but NEVER *St. Patty’s day! This is an obvious corruption of the term ‘Saint Paddy’s.’ Linguistically the two are homophones, words that have different spellings but the same pronunciation. In the word Patty, the /t/ sound is realized (pronounced) as a [d] because of its surrounding vocalic elements: [a] and [y]. This is known as intervocalic voicing. [t] on its own is a voiceless alveolar stop and [d] is a voiced alveolar stop, so by the process of assimilation the /t/ gets voiced: /patty/ to [paddy]. The same is true for words like ratty, Hattie, Mattie, fatty, etc. I have a degree in Linguistics btw.

St. Patrick was not born a saint. He was born in England in the 4th century around 385 AD. He was most likely of Brittonic heritage which means that he was an indigenous Briton, as opposed to being Anglo-Saxon which really didn’t even mean anything yet in the 4th century. Another common term is ‘Romano-British’ but I personally detest that label. According to fact mixed with legend, Patrick, or Pádraig in Irish (Oirish), was forcibly taken away from his home in England to Ireland when he was very young where he was forced to labor against his will under extremely adverse conditions. He was not of Irish stock, he was a stranger in a foreign land – although only separated by about 50 miles of Irish Sea.

Being isolated in Ireland he vowed one day to return home to England, or more accurately his region of Cumbria as the term “England” did not yet exist as we understand it. He does so and with an ironic twist only befitting a future saint, Patrick returns to the land that so mistreated him with the hopes of converting the Irish people away from their pagan ways. And so is born the legend of St. Patrick.

Cool, now that we have a brief snippet of who St. Patrick was, let’s celebrate!

Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations came over from Ireland to America in the form of legends, songs, and the celebration of the St. Patrick’s Day Feast. The parade, turning river water green, leprechauns, getting bheith ar meisce (drunk) are all US inventions, but still fun as heck nonetheless! Nobody really cares about the distinctions except academics anyway!

I’m not much for crowds and the maddening crush of parades so I’ll opt for a pint or 3 at my local or a good movie of questionable Irish origin like “Columbo: The Conspirators,” a “Father Ted” episode, “The Secret of Roan Inish,” or “Waking Ned Devine.” Here’s a few snippets to enchant you. Éire go Brách.