St. Patrick’s Day: Interview with a Dubliner
Last month we talked to Fen Mei Hu about Chinese New Years celebrations. On 17 March, millions of people around the world will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. To commemorate this Irish holiday, I asked Imogen, an Irish trainee clinical phycologist at Staffordshire University, to tell me a little bit about the traditions associated with it.
What do you celebrate on St. Patrick’s Day?
We are celebrating St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. I guess the idea is that he represents what it is to be Irish and the national identity. I think he’s the one who brought Christianity to Ireland and, obviously, Ireland is a traditionally very Catholic country. So I guess part of the celebration originally was that he brought Christianity to Ireland.
But I would say nowadays it’s sort of an excuse to celebrate being Irish. I think it’s interesting. We were just in Bulgaria and they had their National Liberation Day, which is based on an event in terms of history and who is in control of the country. But I felt the same atmosphere as during St. Patrick’s Day. I think it’s much more about celebrating being Irish and what that means, rather than actually St. Patrick.
Is St. Patrick’s Day celebrated in the same way across all of Ireland?
I think it’s similar. I’ve never really been outside of Dublin apart for when I’ve lived abroad. So I would only know from what I hear on TV, but I think it tends to be with a parade and it’s always a national holiday, so no one has to work and no school. That would be across the country. And there tends to be parade , especially in big cities… Dublin, Galway, Cork… People might go to that or take it as a day off and do whatever they want. Or they might celebrate in their own way and have people over for dinner… It’s a bit of an excuse to relax and meet up with people.
And what about England, where you live now?
I think there are big celebrations, but it’s interesting… I’ve never gone to one. I’m in Birmingham at the moment, where they have quite a historic Irish population, and they do have St. Patrick’s celebrations and a parade, but I’ve never been to it. So I don’t know what it would be like and whether it would be similar.
I guess I’ve never been slightly because of a fear that it wouldn’t be the way I want it to be. St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated a lot by people who aren’t Irish, which is completely fine, they’re entitled to do that, but then perhaps that’s not how I imagine it to be.
What would you normally do on that day?
Growing up, we’d have no school. I always liked going to the parades. Around mid-morning or something we’d go in and that would last a few hours. I wouldn’t go every single year, but we would have gone most years. That was always in city centres. Usually it was with my parents, we’d go in as a family. And when I was a teenager, that’s when I probably went a bit less, although I still liked doing it. Sometimes I would go by myself and meet friends there.
And then, whether it was with family or with friends, after the parade we would have some kind of celebration. Sometimes we’d come back and eat at home, either just as a family or with people, and sometimes we would just go out somewhere. Very often people would go to nearby restaurants and pubs or, if that was really crowded as it often would be, then you might go to a restaurant out of the city. Something we’ve also done in the past is going to my grandparents’ house for dinner.
When I was older, especially if I had exams, sometimes it was an extra day to revise. So I didn’t do anything in particular, but my parents would always celebrate it in some way. My mum would often try and make a dinner that was green, white, and orange, like carrots, broccoli and whatever. And she had sometimes a few decorations that would just be on that day on the table and things like that.
During the parades and the celebrations, would you wear traditional or specific outfits?
Anything green, mainly. Or green, white, and orange, for the flag. So yes, I would always wear green. I think that’s something I would still do now. I would always try to wear something green or wear my rugby jersey and something like that on St. Patrick’s Day.
Would there be any music or dances during St. Patrick’s Day?
Definitely music at the parade and there would often be Irish dancing. My cousins live in America and they are quite serious Irish dancers. They have often been in a parade in America doing Irish dancing. So, that would happen, or you would have people wearing the costumes of Irish dancers walking in the parade, but it would be more the dancers who do that. I might dance in the way anyone did when there was just music on, but there’s no kind of tradition of dancing in a particular way. Music? Yeah, definitely. There would Irish traditional music. That would be at the parade, or in the pubs or whatever. At home we might, but it’s not something I would normally listen to, so I wouldn’t necessarily put it on.
Is it all about drinking or is there also a typical food you traditionally eat?
There are typical foods, I guess it depends on the family whether they eat them or not. I tend to not eat Irish food often as a meal. But if I was hosting a St. Patrick’s dinner and I wanted it to be really authentic to someone who’s never experienced it, I probably would cook something Irish. It would be Irish stew or there’s a dish I can’t remember the name of at the moment, with cabbage and bacon and I can’t remember what else… But we never ate it because my mum hated cabbage growing up.
And I also think traditionally the Irish food was often associated with the people who couldn’t afford much. It’s nice to try it and it can actually be quite tasty, but it’s not really luxurious food. The stew is done so that you could have a few pieces of meat and then loads of vegetables, because you couldn’t afford much meat.
My mum mainly just did the colours rather than particular foods. And I would say some people wouldn’t even bother, but you could have traditional food.
Alcohol is a part of it. I think I struggle with the association with Ireland and alcohol in general. I don’t think it’s untrue. It’s not been my experience and it’s just not obviously for everybody, but it’s not untrue. Some people who are Irish would think of it as a day to go to the pub and get drunk and drink with friends. So it’s definitely part of it. I guess what I think it’s a shame is when that’s the only thing that’s recognised, when actually there is more to it than that.
How do religious people celebrate it?
It’s interesting that I didn’t even think of that. Because it is St. Patrick’s Day. It is meant to be for the saint. I used to go to mass every Sunday growing up and I was fairly religious. I would go with meaning every Sunday, but I didn’t tend to go outside of that, for other religious events… other than Christmas and Easter. But definitely some people did. My grandparents would have. I remember around this time the priest would say, ‘On St. Patrick’s Day, the mass times would be this and that.’ So yeah, people probably would have gone to a mass and celebrated it in that way.
What are the symbols associated to St. Patrick’s Day?
It would just be things that are green, maybe the flag, maybe shamrocks. Shamrocks would be very common. Clover is often the four-leafed clover for luck, whereas a shamrock has three. It was what St Patrick’s used to explain Christianity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – the three leaves of the shamrock. So that became a symbol, it’s just a symbol of Irishness.
In the parade there were often snakes as well, because supposedly St. Patrick got rid of all the snakes from Ireland. (Laughs) That’s the story. He drove away all of the snakes. I don’t know. I think it’s probably metaphorical in the sense that he purified the country and made it better. But I don’t know why it was snakes.
In Christianity snakes tend to be symbols of bad things, so it could just be that. There aren’t any snakes in Ireland currently. I always find it really surprising when I go abroad and people would say there might be snakes, because I’m like, ‘We don’t have snakes, that’s scary.’
Why are leprechauns associated with Paddy’s Day?
Do you know what? I don’t think I’ve ever thought of why the leprechauns. Yeah, they are associated with Ireland. I don’t know. I want to go at some point in Dublin to the Leprechaun Museum, maybe I’ll find out then. It’s interesting, in every country, you’ve got this religious history, but you’ve also got the mythical and pagan history. I think it will have to do with the Irish folklore.
Does the colour green have a particular meaning?
I guess to me it’s just the national identity. It’s just being Irish. I know that in the flag, supposedly, it was meant to be green for Irish nationalists, orange for the protestants on the other side, and white was peace. It’s now one hundred years since Ireland existed as a State, in 1922, and the flag came before that, when all that was beginning. I think that was the idea originally, that Ireland would be one country, there wouldn’t be a Northern Ireland. And that all the fighting would be resolved and we’d have both groups living harmoniously. Interestingly, before that time, I think blue was the national colour, but then it changed at the time of the rising and the gradual independence. It comes from that.
Why do you think people outside Ireland like it so much?
I think there are a few things. I think there’s the element of an excuse to drink and have fun. The drinking I don’t like so much, but the excuse to have fun and party… yeah, why not? I’m quite happy to have an association of my country which is, ‘We like partying and having fun.’ And I think that’s true of Irish people. So I think it’s partly an excuse to have a party.
I think also that there are a lot of Irish people in a lot of places. So often it’s celebrated because there were Irish people in those places and they wanted to celebrate it. I think that’s why it’s in Birmingham, in America and other places. And then I suppose it spreads from there. If it’s in Birmingham and a neighbouring city doesn’t have so many Irish people but think this is quite fun, they might do it as well.
What is the Irish phrase to wish people ‘Happy St. Patrick’s Day?’
‘Beannachtaí Lá Fhéile Pádraig leat!’
Erm…can you write it down for me?
I can, I’ll write it afterwards. So ‘beannachtaí’ is ‘blessings, then St. Patrick’s Day is literally ‘Day of the Festival of Patrick’. And then at the end ‘leat’ means ‘to you’.
If you want to know more about how other communities celebrate their traditional holidays away from home, check our articles:
Chinese New Year – Home away from home
Diwali in Malta – Home away from home
