Top O' the Mornin' to Ye!!!

[Sharon 1]

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all our Irish members and those who like to "think" they're Irish for one day a year!!

ERIN GO BRAGH!!

[aussiewench 9]

Happy St Patricks Day Sharon and to all those that celebrate this day.

[Jenn! 918]

Oops! Almost forgot the

Edited March 17, 2007 by jenn3539

[mybackpages 0]

Was fun trying to explain the practice of this holiday to my newly immigrated SO. He finally got it when I said it was a day to drink lots of beer.

[rebeccajo 14]

I think green everyday..........

OMG I love his accent and his sweet Irish ways!

[Peikko 1,575]

I still don't get the green beer. What's wierd is, I don't ever remember drinking green beer when I lived in Portstewart. Maybe it was just the wrong county.

Regardless, have a Happy St Partrick's Day one and all

[Alex+R 0]

Happy St. Patrick's day to all you Irish and Irish lovers and Irish-for-a-day and anyone like me who is a total Hibernophile (my best guess at the Irish version of anglophile or francophile, both of which I also am)

[Jenn! 918]

Eireophile?

[Alex+R 0]

Eireophile?

Hehe, I just googled it and found that I did not actually create the word Hibernophile. I'm crushed.

[Caladan 19]

It's an Irish-American thing, at least the green beer and the parades and the crazy green stuff everywhere. An immigrant's holiday, because who needs to celebrate the old country if you're still there! (Creeping incrementalism!)

[one...two...tree 2,762]

On this day and on this forum, I think it's appropriate to remember some early immigration history...

The Irish had been coming to America for years, but in the 1840's the potato famine crushed their homeland. During that decade, a fourth of the population died of disease and hunger, and many fled to the U.S. (Bailey 325). Here, they lived at the bottom of the social scale, working as menial laborers and domestic servants, and living in squalid conditions. The native population looked down on them, considering them less clean and hygienic (Daniels 131). Furthermore, the Irish, like today's Hispanics, were accused of stealing American jobs. This fear and resentment led to the famous sign often posted in store windows: "No Irish need apply." The sign was so common that it was frequently abbreviated simply to "NINA" (Bailey 325).

At the same time, Germans were pouring into the U.S., fleeing political instability at home. While most Irish stayed in east coast cities, the Germans were more likely to move to the mid-west. They were slightly better off than the Irish, but suffered discrimination nonetheless, as the Nebraska anecdote illustrates. Hostility towards the Germans had been around since they began to immigrate en masse in the eighteenth century. Benjamin Franklin, in his 1751 pamphlet Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, wrote

"Why should the Palatine Boors [Germans] be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Languages or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion." (Daniels 109-10)

From our vantage point, it is comical to hear someone claim that those of German descent will never integrate themselves into the U.S.

The arrival of the Irish and Germans in the U.S. prompted the formation of many anti-immigrant institutions. In 1849 the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner was formed; its goals included rigid immigration restrictions and the deportation of "paupers" (Bailey 328). This animosity towards immigrants often exploded into violence. Irish and Germans were reviled for their Roman Catholicism, and in 1834 a Catholic convent near Boston was burned by a mob, followed by subsequent attacks on Catholic schools and churches. In 1844, a several-day riot in Philadelphia left thirteen citizens dead and fifty wounded. Violence against Catholics on the East coast was so common that insurance companies practically refused to insure them (Daniels 267). It is difficult for us to imagine such malice being directed towards Irish or German people.

http://www.cjd.org/paper/truth.html

[Jenn! 918]

Steven, you are clearly way too sober!

Bottoms up!

[Fandango 1,439]

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Steven, you are clearly way too sober!

Bottoms up!

I'll drink when there's no more Irish suffering in the world.

[Alex+R 0]

HA Made my day