Two things for you in this blustery St. Patrick’s day.
1st – check out this super cute St. Patty’s banner my sweet friend Leslie made:
2nd – St. Patrick’s day poem by Frank Delany
Drowning the Shamrock
“Hail glorious Saint Patrick dear saint of our isle
On us thy poor children look down with a smile —”
But I’m not singing hymns and I’m not saying prayers
No, I’m gritting my teeth as I walk down the stairs
And into the street with these louts fiercely drinking
And screeching and lurching, and here’s what I’m thinking —
They’re using a stereotype, a narrow example,
A fraction, not even a marketing sample
To imitate Ireland, from which they don’t come!
So unless that’s just stupid, unless it’s plain dumb,
All these kids from New Jersey and the five boroughs
And hundreds of cities, all drowning their sorrows,
With bottles and glasses and heads getting broken
(Believe me, just ask the mayor of Hoboken)
All that mindlessness, shouting and getting plain stocious —
That isn’t Irish, that’s simply atrocious.
I’ve another word too for it, this one’s more stinging
I call it “racism.” See, just ’cause you’re singing
Some drunken old ballad on Saint Patrick’s Day
Does that make you Irish? Oh, no — no way.
Nor does a tee-shirt that asks you to kiss them —
If they never come back I surely won’t miss them
Or their beer cans and badges and wild maudlin bawling
And hammered and out of it, bodies all sprawling.
They’re not of Joyce or of Yeats, Wilde, or Shaw.
How many Nobel Laureates does Dublin have? Four!
Think of this as you wince through Saint Patrick’s guano —
Not every Italian is Tony Soprano.
Jill
I enjoy reading your blog, Stephanie, and I loved seeing the post of all the P-town girls at your birthday luncheon! How fun that they were all in town and able to celebrate you…you all look just the same…or, even better! 🙂
Hugs, Kisses and Snot
Thanks and thanks for reading! 🙂
Leslie fladberg
Wow!!!! I am famous!!! Love you bestie!
Hugs, Kisses and Snot
Love you too! And miss you
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[…] We just got back from a trip to visit my parents. I don’t know if anybody out there in bloggy-land has noticed but I have been MIA since St. Patrick’s Day. […]