Guinness, Christianity and Big Green Hats
Its that time of year when everything is dyed green and people start greeting you with the phrase “top o’ the mornin’ to ye”. But what are we really celebrating on Paddy’s day? The advent of Christianity in Ireland? Well I don’t think too many of those drunken revelers really care about that. At any rate whether St. Patrick was a real person is open to doubt. There is also evidence that there were pockets of Christianity in Ireland at least one hundred years before his supposed ministry. It is believed this Christianity would have been of the coptic variety and would have been imported from North Africa rather than Europe (Similarities between Irish, Coptic and Islamic illuminated texts abound).
If we’re not celebrating Christianity are we celebrating Irishness? There will be plenty of people out drowning the shamrock today that are quite happy to see our heritage bulldozed in the Tara Skryne valley. Maybe tonight after their twelfth pint of the black stuff they’ll take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror and feel a little embarrassed.
Is being Irish all about wearing a Celtic jersey, getting drunk and getting in a fight – with a foreigner if your that extra bit patriotic? The notion of Irishness is so shrouded in carefully constructed myth that it is impossible to pin down. In reality there really is no one thing that makes us Irish. Here is a letter I had published in the Irish Times some time back:
Immigration and Irishness
Madam, – JA Barnwell (October 12th) speaks of Irishness as if it were something static and homogenous. But what it is to be Irish is always changing.
In all probability, our ancestors who built Newgrange had no concept of a nation or country. Our modern concept of nationality stems from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, part of a general trend in Europe to unite smaller kingdoms into larger, more powerful states. Coinciding with this was the erroneous notion that the Irish, Scots, Welsh, Cornish and Breton people were “Celtic” – an invention of the Welsh nationalist Edward Lhuyd.
Far from being a homogenous nation, Ireland has always been a melting pot of cultures. The original Irish were joined by migrants from Iberia, possibly North Africa, Britain, continental Europe and Scandinavia. Later we were culturally influenced by the English and more recently by North America. What it is to be Irish will continue to evolve and we will be the better for it. – Yours, etc,
MARCAS MacCAOIMHÍN
Paddy’s day is cast in the image of the world it inhabits. It is an opportunity for a few people to make a lot of money. The drunken brawls, the pool’s of vomit on footpaths and the outrageous shade of green that permeates are nothing to be proud of. They are just the ectoplasm of the spirit of greed that rules this country.
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