One of my favorite political hat tricks is making March 17 a holiday in Boston. A Catholic holiday in the belly of the Congregationalist-Episcopalian-Unitarian beast? No. An Irish ethnic celebration enshrined in law? Surely not. It’s just a 100% American patriotic celebration of the British evacuation of Boston in 1776, uh huh. The Irish, back in 1901, (i) maneuvered the WASP powers-that-were [no love for the Irish there] into making St. Patrick’s Day a legal holiday, [ii] anti-British cherry on top, with [iii] no Hibernian fingerprints on it. Slainte!
|
So since your post is wearing green, I can’t pinch it?
*pinch*
Since you mention it, that there is Enviro-Islamic green…move right along, nothing Irish here, folks.
America’s (and, SFAIK, the world’s) first St Patrick’s Day parade was held by Irishmen in New York. New York was, at the time, still a colony; the parading Irishmen were protestant, and soldiers of the King (and hence would presumably be unwelcome in a latter-day parade run by the Ancient Hibernians, though they’d be welcome enough if they were IRA murderers).