Paddy Watch

[Wasp]

I wander if the London parade this year is going to have a loyalist band to even things up with the republican bands that were invited by the organisers. Hope they go for an openly uda/uvf supporting band the way they did with the ira supporting band. Or maybe it's not meant to be for Unionist/loyalists just like some of the parades here which have a strong republican feel to them

[Jim]

Its official, the world loves us.

Manchester has been doing events all week and they have loads of Irish bands playing. Stiff Little Fingers are playing here on Saturday night and I'm well annoyed, because I'm going home on Thursday.

MY monday (the real st patricks day, none of this 15th shit) will be sat in a bar in the city center drinking.

[Jim]

wasp said:

I wander if the London parade this year is going to have a loyalist band to even things up with the republican bands that were invited by the organisers. Hope they go for an openly uda/uvf supporting band the way they did with the ira supporting band. Or maybe it's not meant to be for Unionist/loyalists just like some of the parades here which have a strong republican feel to them

Would loyalist bands want to play it?

Belfast City Council usually have Ulster scots bands playing in the City center every year. They're doing it this year too.

[earl]

Belfast



Former Sugababe Mutya Buena is to add some sweetness to this year's St Patrick's Day celebrations in Belfast.

For the third successive year, Belfast City Council has organised a carnival procession and a free concert which this year features pop star Mutya on Monday, March 17.

The carnival procession, which includes 500 participants from all corners of Belfast, will leave the City Hall at noon.

Taking The Shamrock And The Storm as its theme, the parade will involve young people, senior citizens and community groups from Belfast.

Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers said the event was representative of the diverse make-up of the city.

Eileen Branagh, project manager with The Beat, which is organising the carnival parade on behalf of Belfast City Council, said that she was extremely pleased with the large number of groups which would be taking part this year.

"There is more diversity than in previous years and we feel that it is truly becoming an inclusive carnival event. We are looking forward to seeing all the participants making their way through the city centre with their self-made carnival props including shamrocks, thunder clouds and rainbows," she said.

The carnival will make its way along Donegall Place to Castle Junction into Castle Place, then along High Street, Victoria Street and Victoria Square, into Custom House Square.

The main concert, once again compered by Pete Snodden of Cool FM, will start at 1pm. The first half of the bill will feature traditional Irish and Ulster-Scots performers, including Nae Goat's Toe and Four Men and a Dog.

The headline pop act Mutya Buena, a founding member of the multi-million selling Sugababes, has since embarked on a successful solo career.

With a capacity of around 5,000, admission to Custom House Square is free, but entrance will be on a strictly 'first-come-first-served' basis. No alcohol will be sold or permitted on the site.

[earl]

Free Guinness for Gatwick Express passengers

Passengers on the Gatwick Express train service will be treated to free Guinness on 15 March to mark St Patrick's Day.

Customers on the platform at Gatwick airport station and Victoria station will be offered a free drink between 11:00 and 16:00 GMT.

Gatwick Express runs 160 services a day between London and Gatwick, carrying some 14,000 travellers.

Gareth Jones, the operator's head of customer service, said: 'St Patrick's Day is an internationally-recognised festival and Gatwick Express carries both UK and international clientele, therefore we wanted to add a little fun and festivity for our passengers as they board the train.'

Flights are available from Gatwick to Belfast, Cork, Dublin and Ireland West Knock.

A five-day festival to celebrate St Patrick's Day will be held at locations around Ireland between 13 and 17 March.

[earl]

wasp said:

I wander if the London parade this year is going to have a loyalist band to even things up with the republican bands that were invited by the organisers. Hope they go for an openly uda/uvf supporting band the way they did with the ira supporting band. Or maybe it's not meant to be for Unionist/loyalists just like some of the parades here which have a strong republican feel to them

Have you anything planned for the weekend yourself WASP? I'll probably be in the usual haunt in Dublin city centre. The last two years I've bumped into a crowd of Rangers supporters in there having the craic, and I was talking to a lad from north Belfast last year.

[earl]

The Americanization of St. Patrick's Day

It might be said that St. Patrick's Day is an American invention.

The first parade anywhere marking the Irish feast day took place in 1762 -- not in Ireland, but in New York City. This year, parades are being held in places as diverse as Fargo, N. D. and Jackson, Miss. Americans will send approximately 9 million St. Patrick's Day greeting cards. An Irish beer company is petitioning the U. S. Congress to make March 17 a national holiday. It turns out that corned beef and cabbage is an American collaboration. And even Ireland has pretty much Americanized its own celebration of St. Patrick's Day.

So what do green beer and leprechauns have to do with the St. Patrick whose feast day the Roman Catholic Church will observe with prayers on March 14?

Very little.

It is a measure of just how much St. Patrick's Day has become a part of American culture, distinct from its religious roots, that in many cities, Irish-American parade organizers have ignored the requests of local bishops and are holding their parades on March 17, which this year falls during Holy Week.

Catholic rules prohibit such celebrations during the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. The U.S. Council of Bishops set this year's official celebration of the Feast of St. Patrick on March 14. The bishops asked organizers across the country to reschedule parades and other St. Patrick's Day activities to preserve the dignity of Holy Week.

Parade sponsors in Philadelphia, Milwaukee and some other cities agreed to the change. But in many places, including Boston and New York, both cities with large Irish-American populations, parades are taking place as scheduled, on March 17, the Monday after Palm Sunday. Even New York Archbishop Edward Egan will participate, viewing his city's biggest-anywhere parade from the steps of famous St. Patrick's Cathedral.

In Columbus, Ohio, where the sponsoring Shamrock Club turned down a request by the local bishop to shift the date of the local parade, club president Mark Dempsy explained the decision to celebrate on March 17. "It's not a sin to celebrate your Irish culture," Dempsy told The Associated Press. "Actually, you're born Irish first, and then you're baptized Catholic."

A lot of Americans share that Irish culture. The U. S. Census Bureau estimates that there are some 36 million people who can trace their roots to Ireland. That's about 12 percent of the total population.

But there also is truth to the saying that, on March 17, "everyone is Irish." According to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation, nearly 83 percent of Americans plan to wear something green on St. Patrick's Day and 46 percent are planning a more extensive celebration of the holiday. Two-thirds of young adults -- 18 to 24 year olds -- expect to participate. All told, Americans will spend $3.64 billion celebrating the holiday.

With that kind of cross-cultural participation, even a mid-western city such as Fargo, where only 7 percent of the people report sharing an Irish heritage, can muster up sufficient blarney to stage a parade which last year drew 60 marching groups.

In contrast with the festive, secular holiday popular in the U.S., Ireland until recently followed a more subdued -- or saintly -- approach. St. Patrick's Day was observed in Ireland by church attendance, following by music, dancing -- and a traditional family meal of bacon and cabbage.

Although cabbage has long been a staple of Irish cooking, the europeancuisines.com Web site notes that until modern times beef was available in Ireland only to the wealthy. Corned beef and cabbage is an American dish. The Humble Housewife -- a blogger named Deborah who lives in Leinster, Ireland -- relates an oft-told tale of Irish immigrants in New York City acquiring a taste for corned beef from their Jewish neighbors, then using it as a substitute for bacon in family recipes.

But not even the Irish themselves could resist the festive allure of a celebration that takes St. Patrick's Day beyond its religious origins. During the 1970s, Ireland revoked laws which required that pubs remain closed on March 17. Then, in 1995, the Irish tourism agencies seized the day, establishing a weeklong St. Patrick's Festival to entice tourists to the island. An estimated 1 million visitors are expected to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Dublin this year.

Some of them might even be Irish.

[earl]

Here's a few gallerys from past parades from all around the place:

Oslo, Norway
oslostpatricksday.com/Site/gallery.html

Utrecht, Netherlands
www.stpatricksday.nl/irish/gallery.html

Copenhagen, Denmark
www.stpatricksdayparade.dk/#

Hangzhou, China
chake.chinatefl.com/hzstpats05.html

[earl]

ST. PATRICK'S DAY IN VIENNA, 1766

Without a party to attend, March 17 can be a lonesome occasion for Irish exiles far from home. To make sure that did not happen, the Spanish Ambassador to the Court of Vienna invited Irish residents to a "grand entertainment" on the feast day of St. Patrick in 1766.

Among the Irish who responded, according to the Annual Register for 1766, was Count Lacy, President of the Council of War, along with Generals named Browne, Maguire, McElligott, O'Donnell, O'Kelly, and Plunkett. Other guests, too numerous to name, were listed only by title-- four Chiefs of the Grand Cross, two Governors, several Knights Military, six Staff Officers and four Privy-Counsellors

The Register also noted that all the principal Officers of State, together with the entire Court, wore Irish crosses to honour the day and "shew their respect to the Irish nation."

Favourite Sons
In 1766, the capital city of the mighty Hapsburg Empire was a Mecca for musical and military talent. The composer Haydn found patrons among the wealthy Viennese aristocracy. Mozart, then 10 years old, had already charmed the Empress Maria Theresa and her daughter Marie Antoinette, the future Queen of France.

To defend their far-flung realms, which in addition to Austria and Hungary also included Bohemia, Croatia, Moravia and Transylvania, Maria Theresa and her recently-deceased husband, Emperor Francis I, had employed some of the best soldiers in Europe. Among the many officers of foreign birth or descent who led Austrian regiments, Irishmen were especially favoured. While their religion was an asset with the devoutly Catholic Hapsburgs, it was their abilities on the battlefield that most impressed the royal family.

In a glowing and insightful tribute found after his death in August 1765, Francis I had written: "The more Irish officers in the Austrian service the better; our troops will always be disciplined; an Irish coward is an uncommon character; and what the natives of Ireland even dislike from principle, they generally will perform through a desire for glory."

O'Donnell's Second Chance
General Karl O'Donnell, once of the celebrants that March 17th, seemed to embody the late Emperor's accolades. The son of Hugh O'Donnell of Co. Leitrim and Flora Hamilton from Co. Donegal, he had reached Austria in 1736, aged 21. In short order, young Con O'Donnell had been quickly transformed into the more Germanic-sounding Karl.

After three decades of faithful service, O'Donnell had eighteen battles--and the scars from two wounds--to his credit. At Leuthen, in 1757, he was reported killed in action. A ransom payment brought the Leitrim man back from the dead after colleagues discovered that O'Donnell had been wounded and taken prisoner. In 1760, at Torgau, O'Donnell rallied his troops to rout Prussian forces twice his strength and capture their commander.

It was hardly surprising that among the decorations adorning O'Donnell's uniform that March night was the Grand Cross of the prestigious Military Order of Maria Theresa. Recently appointed Inspector General of the Imperial Cavalry, the Irishman would go on to serve as Governor of Transylvania, 1768-1770, before his death on March 26, 1771.

Browne's Premature Proposal
Philip George Browne needed no introduction. This officer represented the third generation of his family to serve the Hapsburgs, beginning with his Limerick-born grandfather Ulysses Browne, who married Annabella Fitzgerald, and continuing with his father Maximilian Ulysses Browne, an only son born at Basle in 1705. Maximilian's 1725 marriage to the Bohemian heiress Maria Philippina Magdalena von Martinitz produced two sons: Philip George Browne and his younger brother Joseph Ulysses Maria Browne.

During a lifetime of service, Maximilian Browne had risen to the rank of Field Marshal and become a trusted adviser to Empress Maria Theresa. His fluent English once led to an appointment as liaison officer to the Court of England, Austria's ally till 1756. There, Browne's knowledge of military strategy quickly won the admiration of King George II.

By March 1766, Philip Browne was the last of this illustrious line of professional soldiers. Maximilian had died in 1757 from illness exacerbated by the effect of a wound suffered earlier that year at the siege of Prague. The following year, Philip's brother Joseph, a Major General, succumbed to wounds sustained in battle at Hochkirch.

Philip retained a sentimental attachment to the land of his grandparents. Determined to find an Irish wife, he sought the help of Bonaventure O'Brien, an Irish Franciscan priest in Prague. Acting as Browne's confidential intermediary, Fr. O'Brien made inquiries in 1763 concerning a daughter of Lord Kenmare, a distant relation of Philip's in Co. Kerry.

"If you are in Lord Kenmare's neighbourhood," O'Brien wrote to an Irish cousin, "you'd do me a singular favour in letting me know how old his daughter is, her humour and other qualities, also her fortune. This request will seem strange to you at the beginning, the case is---General Brown, only surviving Son and Heir to the late Marshal of that name, has spoke to me about that young lady, and seems inclined to marry in Ireland.......He speaks no English, so it is necessary to mention if the young Lady understands the french."

But the dash and daring that had made Philip an Imperial General and holder of the Knight's Cross completely failed him in Kerry. Word came back that the prospective bride was much too young and quite unavailable. She later married a wealthy young nobleman. Philip eventually settled on a non-Irish wife from the House of Sztaray. The Austrian branch of the family was extinct within a generation of Philip's 1803 death.

Lacy Takes Command
Francis Maurice Lacy was another guest who walked in the shadow of a famous Irish father, Peter Lacy from Co. Limerick. At home as abroad, the Lacys and Brownes were neighbouring families related by several generations of intermarriage. But Peter's military career, destined to end on such glorious notes, started under inauspicious circumstances.

Serving as a 13-year old ensign in the Irish army of James II, Peter Lacy experienced humiliating defeat as the forces of William of Orange crushed the Jacobite cause. In 1691, he joined the "Wild Geese"--Ireland's Jacobite exiles--in their mass exodus to France. Lacy then fought in turn for France and Poland before finding an outlet for his prodigious organizational talents in the Russian Army of Peter the Great.

Credited with transforming the ragtag Russians into one of the best fighting forces in Europe, Peter Lacy had by 1736 risen to the rank of Field Marshal. In 1737, Lacy sent his youngest son Francis Maurice, born in October 1725 at St. Petersburg, to study in Austria under the care of Maximilian Ulysses Browne. Three years later, Lacy's daughter Helene Marthe cemented yet another bond of kinship with her marriage to George Browne from Limerick. Peter Lacy's new son-in-law was a fellow Field Marshal in the Russian service, and a first cousin of his son's tutor, Field Marshal Maximilian Browne in Austria.

Under such a watchful eye, young Lacy learned fast and well. Francis saw his first combat in Italy at the age of eighteen, when Austrian forces under Maximilian Browne bloodied the Hibernia and Irlanda Regiments of the Spanish Army at Velletri in 1744.

By March 1766, the son had eclipsed the famous father, who died in 1755 as Governor of Livonia. In February, Francis Lacy had been promoted--over the heads of a score of jealous Austrians--to War Minister and President of the Council of War. "I see no one more competent than Lacy," the Empress Maria Theresa had written in her endorsement.

At age forty, with his name ennobled and Germanized as Count Franz Moritz von Lacy, the new Minister of War was arguably Vienna's most eligible bachelor. The recently widowed Empress took delight in teasing Lacy, vowing that if he did not soon find a wife she would have to marry the reluctant Irishman herself.

Lacy served as War Minister from 1766 through 1778. He died--still single--at Vienna in November 1801. An infantry regiment of the Austrian army remained linked to his name down to the time of the First World War. In his biography of Maximilian Browne, The Wild Goose and The Eagle, military historian Christopher Duffy describes Lacy as "the reformer of the Austrian Army, the acknowledged European master of the science of supply, and for Clausewitz the epitome of the spirit of eighteenth-century warfare."

O'Mahony Plays The Court
It was no accident that this bemedalled assembly of Irishmen gathered in Vienna as guests of the Spanish Ambassador, Count Demetrio O'Mahony. Born in 1702 at St. Germain en Laye in France, he was the son of Daniel O'Mahony from Co. Kerry.

Demetrio's father also fled Ireland in 1691 to enter the service of France. Nine years later, at the Battle of Cremona, Daniel O'Mahony won international renown when he rallied compatriots in France's Irish Brigade to foil a surprise attack by Austrian forces.

Seizing opportunity where and when he found it, Daniel O'Mahony arranged a transfer to the Spanish service. His strategic sense was well rewarded---the Spaniards promoted the able Irishman to Lieutenant General and made him Count of Castile. His son James followed in his footsteps, also rising Lieutenant General in the Spanish Army.

But it was Demetrio who profited best from paternal example, setting aside military inclinations for a career in the Spanish diplomatic service. As Ambassador O'Mahony mingled with his distinguished Hiberno-Austrian guests that St. Patrick's evening in 1766, he may well have smiled as he recalled his late father's advice. "One campaign at Court," Daniel O'Mahony always reminded his sons, "is worth three against the enemy."

[earl]

Why Americans love the Irish



St. Patrick’s Day is about more than just green beer. It’s about scrappy underdogs who embrace their heritage while bleeding red, white and blue.

On Monday, tens of millions of Americans of every race and background will join together to celebrate a uniquely cherished ethnic holiday — a tribute to despised, destitute Hibernian hordes whose descendants eventually claimed pride of place as the most popular of all immigrant groups. With mass immigration once again a contentious issue in our politics and culture, the St. Patrick's Day formula — combining Irish pride with unabashed, flag-waving Americanism — offers hope that current controversies might someday achieve similarly satisfactory resolution.

There's little doubt that our annual "Great Day for the Irish" draws more attention than festive commemorations of other national origins (Columbus Day, Pulaski Day, Cinco de Mayo, Israeli Independence Day, you name it), complete with shamrock decorations turning up nearly everywhere, big city rivers sparkling with emerald dye, and school kids featuring green in their wardrobes under serious risk of pinching. The mostly positive images and emotions toward the Irish say as much about the character of the USA as they do about the sons and the daughters of the Auld Sod.

Initial hostility

In part, we love the Irish because we instinctively embrace underdogs. The Emerald Isle suffered hellish torments during 800 years of oppression by the English — the same arrogant colonialists we defied in our own Revolution. When the starving Irish began to arrive en masse during "The Great Hunger" of the 1840s, they initially faced fiery hostility from nativist Americans and encountered occasional posted notices declaring, "No Irish Need Apply." Agitation culminated with bloody riots against churches and convents, with the virulently anti-immigrant "Know Nothing" Party electing numerous governors and mayors and even running a former president (Millard Fillmore) as a credible contender for the White House. Despite such obstacles, Irish arrivals persevered, establishing a vibrant Catholic community, dominating police and fire departments within a generation, and playing the lead role in organizing labor unions and big-city political machines.

When Harvard-educated millionaire John Fitzgerald Kennedy won the presidency in 1960, barely 110 years had passed since the American arrival of his famine-fleeing great-grandfather, Patrick Kennedy. That's the sort of poverty-to-power, rags-to-riches tale that has always inspired Americans in this nation of fresh starts and second chances.

The other key element in the appeal of the Irish involves their instantaneous affirmation of American patriotism. Many other immigrant groups experienced a sense of divided loyalties, torn by nostalgic connections to old country nationalisms. In Ireland, however, English overlords ruthlessly suppressed expressions of national pride or distinctive culture (including Gaelic language) so that immigrants embraced Yankee symbols and customs with scant hesitation. That redoubtable patriotic ditty It's a Grand Old Flag came from Broadway composer George M. Cohan, simultaneously proud of his Irish heritage and his status as the original Yankee Doodle Dandy.

German-Americans count as even more numerous than Irish-Americans (with 49 million claiming German ancestry, compared with 35 million saying they're Irish). But Ireland never became a rival world power or fought the United States in two brutal wars — preventing any contradiction between loyalty to origins and unquestioned love of the new homeland. John Ford, the legendary filmmaker whose classic westerns forever defined our cowboy heritage, proudly claimed that he began life as Sean Aloysius O'Feeny, the son of immigrants from County Galway. In addition to all the soul-stirring John Wayne horse-operas, Ford also made magnificent films (The Quiet Man, The Last Hurrah) celebrating Ireland and Irish-Americans.

That same blend of heartfelt Americana and Emerald Isle nostalgia characterizes the annual revelry on St. Paddy's Day. Unlike other ethnic holidays, the festivities seem more familiar than exotic, more mainstream than multicultural. Irish names, accents and melodies have become inescapably American — not some demonstration of diversity or distinctive difference. Irish-ness feels comfortable, even cozy, in part because the sons of the Shamrock have been here so long (the first St. Patrick's Day Parade took place in New York in 1762) and most of them had arrived speaking English.

For other immigrants

It's impossible to imagine a sentimental hit song called When German Eyes Are Smiling, despite the countless contributions of German-Americans to our culture.

Sports teams choose their names to convey a sense of classic American pluck, so it's unthinkable that the legendary Notre Dame football squad would call itself "The Fighting French" — even though it was French priests (honestly!) who founded that Indiana university in 1842. By the same token, in modern Boston immigrants from Italy have played almost as large a role as Celtic immigrants from Ireland, but the great basketball dynasty isn't known as the "Boston Italians."

When St. Patrick's Day parades energize cities across the country, those processions feature marching bands, drill teams, floats and service clubs at least as likely to wave Cohan's Grand Old Flag as to carry the green-white-and-orange of the republic of Ireland. In fact, the festive frenzy of this now international holiday mostly began in the USA, and then spread back across the ocean to Dublin and communities of Irish émigrés around the world.

More recent immigrant groups can surely benefit from the Irish-American example, understanding that the enthusiastic, unequivocal embrace of American identity need not undermine pride in heritage and kinship durable enough to flourish for centuries. Amid all the happy sailing on waves of foamy green beer, Irish-Americans (and fellow celebrants) acknowledge no inconsistency between remembering a distinctive history and cherishing American patriotism, and no clash of colors between shamrock green and the red, white and blue.

Nationally syndicated radio talk host Michael Medved is the author of Right Turns. He claims no Irish ancestry (alas!) but is proud to be a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.

[earl]

Virtual world for virutally Irish

The world likes to drown the shamrock at this time of year, and for the first time plastic paddies can really get in on the act.

Tourism Ireland is hosting a virtual St Patrick's Day parade on Sunday in the internet world of Second Life (SL).

Featuring 20 Irish and Celtic themed floats, the parade is the high point of a three-day advertising blitz.

Festivities include a treasure hunt around recreated landmarks like Trinity College and the Guinness Brewery.

The virtual cruise ship, the SS Galaxy, will visit Dublin during the festivities and host an onboard digital exhibition of Irish artists' work.

A Second Life Pipe and Drum Corp - from a virtual Scotland - will also be playing in the parade and there will be a real world simulcast of traditional Irish music festival.

SL is one of several online games known as "massively-multiplayer online games" which allow people to inhabit alternative virtual worlds as a character of their choosing.



The game was launched in 2003 by Linden Research Inc but exploded in popularity in 2006 and currently has 12,808,255 users, called residents.

Users interact with each other through motional avatars to explore SL, socialise, create and trade items and services from one another, using the Linden dollar.

Mark Henry is the Central Marketing Director of Tourism Ireland and will be attending a number of events over the period.

His avatar has a presence at the virtual parade, but on the day the real Mark Henry will be present at festivities in New York City, which will include a Snakes and Ladders festival of new Irish music, to be simulcast into SL.

He said the purpose of the online campaign was to get people who visit the Second Life Dublin to come to the real Ireland.

"We are very excited about the world's first virtual St Patrick's Day parade - it's an innovative and interesting way to present the island of Ireland as an attractive holiday destination to a new audience," he said.

"Once they have experienced the simulated Ireland, we hope these potential visitors will come and see the real thing."

Dublin in Second Life is a well-established destination - frequently making the Top Ten list of the most popular places to visit there.

The move reflects a growing trend to advertise tourist destinations online, Tourism Ireland has doubled its digital marketing spend over the past three years.

This year they plan to spend close to a quarter of their entire marketing budget - approximately £7m - online.

[Jim]

Was talking to my mate about this last night (who is from just outside of Belfast, didnt know him before I moved here), about Belfast and Dublin. Belfast is easily turning into the better celebration to be honest, loads of Dubs are coming up this year instead of staying at home.

The Manchester Irish festival stuff was going on last night a load of students came into the bar I was in last night dressed in those big green guinness hats and green tshirts and all that stuff, half of em were black ;D

[earl]

So you were talking to another Belfast man and both decided that Belfast was a better destination on Paddy's day than dublin. How unbiased of you! You can have a mixed day in Dublin. the city centre is usually jammers from early morning, so you have to get in early around 9am-10.30 to get a decent spot in a pub. Last few years, it's been great craic. Never try and pub-crawl though. It might seem like a good idea, soaking in the atmosphere on the streets as you move from pub to pub, but you will battle in every pub for breathing room and to get to the bar. It's better to decide early where you'll set up for the day, and stick to it.

[Jim]

Depends what pub you go too. Temple bar area in Dublin will be full of yanks.

[earl]

Hail the Loyal Yiddish Sons of Erin How Irish Jews celebrate St. Patrick

WESTPORT -- Joan Frankel is a Jewish Dubliner, born and bred. She has become something of an informal spokesperson for the local Jewish community, fielding emails from curious American Jews interested in their co-religionists in the heavily Catholic country. When asked about Jews and Ireland’s biggest annual celebration, she chides good-naturedly: “Really, writing about the Dublin Irish-Jewish community on St. Patrick’s Day is making a very large mountain out of a very small molehill!”

The strange and wonderful intersections of immigrant cultures in America baffle the Frankels and their Jewish friends.

“We in Dublin have always laughed at a group called the Loyal Yiddish Sons of Erin,” she says, “a concept which has always struck many of us as highly ridiculous!”

Indeed, the Loyal Yiddish Sons of Erin were a group of Irish-Jewish immigrants in New York City who, at least through the 1960s, would celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with green matzo balls. The Sons were actually Irish-born descendants of Polish and Lithuanian Jews who had stopped off in Ireland for a brief period on their migratory path to the U.S.

David Briscoe experienced the day differently while growing up Jewish in Dublin as son of Lord Mayor Ben Briscoe and grandson of the city’s first Jewish Lord Mayor, Robert Briscoe.

“Irish Jews enjoy the day like everyone else and ensure it is a day to join in the celebration of Irish unity and culture,” says the associate professor of medicine at Harvard. “On a personal note, I plan to arrange a day of Irish music and dance for several of my colleagues to celebrate Irish culture.”
David Briscoe’s brother, Daniel, lives in Tel Aviv, where he looks forward to celebrating the day with fellow Irish Jews.

“There is quite a large and vibrant Irish community living all over Israel. We always have a large get together and celebrate St Patricks Day in the very best way. Every year the Irish ambassador invites the Irish community to his residence for a buffet and drinks, and there is always Irish music or even an Irish army bagpiper present as the Irish army is stationed with the UN in the region. The Irish Community throws a large party awash with plenty of Irish beer and whiskey. The Irish descend on the venue from all over Israel and crowd it out. Irish music and traditional dancing makes the place very lively and it always amazes visitors that this occasion which feels and looks as if it is in Ireland is taking place in Israel. This year it is taking place in the Herzilea Marina in Murphy's Irish Pub in a Marquee Tent specially erected for the occasion and with performances by a group from Ireland.”

Joan Frankel finds it hard to believe.

“I somehow doubt that the majority of Irish Jews who emigrated to Israel would make a pilgrimage to Irish pubs, as it is certainly not the habit of Jews in Ireland to frequent pubs,” she says. “I really wasn't too surprised to hear that some Irish Jews abroad, particularly in the States, celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Two cogent reasons immediately spring to mind: First, they are in a country which, for reasons I can never understand, makes a huge fuss of an Irish Bank Holiday and encourages everyone to join in; and second, one is never so Irish as when away from Ireland.”

At the Frankels’ golf club, originally Jewish and now multi-denominational, “the only 'celebration' on 17th March is a mixed foursome competition, because it is a national holiday with businesses closed,” she says.

“Being Ireland, there are always churches open and always some people who attend services there, but to the best of my knowledge, it is not a major religious holiday.”

While Ireland has seen its share of antisemitism since Jews settled in major cities in the late 19th century, the late Robert Briscoe noted in his 1959 autobiography that there is generally less anti-Jewish sentiment in Ireland than in the U.S. or any other European country. The last several years have seen incidents of racist graffiti spray-painted on Jewish communal property.

But David Briscoe echoes his grandfather’s opinion: “I believe the Irish Jews are as much a part of Irish culture and history as any other nationality,” he says. “One needs only to visit Ireland today to see that it is a country of many peoples and religions, all of whom welcome and enjoy its culture.”


Irish Jews have made their mark in history. Here are just a few of the many Irish Jews, past and present, who have rose to prominence. This list was culled from Wikopedia.

Robert Briscoe, member of the Irish Republican Army during the Anglo-Irish War and twice Lord Mayor of Dublin (1956 and 1961).

Ben Briscoe (son of Robert Briscoe), former Fianna Fáil T.D. and Lord Mayor of Dublin (1988).

Michelle Citron, feminist film, video and multimedia producer, scholar and author.

Daniel Day-Lewis, actor (an Irish citizen with Jewish mother).

Gerald Goldberg, Lord Mayor of Cork in 1977.
Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Ireland from 1919 to 1937, later of Palestine and Israel.

Chaim Herzog, sixth President of Israel.

Max Eager (son of George Eager), first Chief Rabbi of Ireland.

Sir Otto Jaffe, Lord Mayor of Belfast (1899 and 1904).

Immanuel Jakobovits, Chief Rabbi of Ireland between 1949 and 1958, later British Chief Rabbi.

Louis Lentin, director (documentary films, television, theatre).

David Marcus, author, editor, broadcaster and lifelong supporter of Irish-language fiction.

Yaakov Pearlman, Ireland's Chief Rabbi.

Alan Shatter, Fine Gael TD and former party spokesperson for justice.

Mervyn Taylor, former Labour Party T.D. and Irish Minister for Equality & Law Reform.

Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, founder of Harland and Wolff shipbuilders.

Max Nurok, Israeli Consul-General to Australia, subsequently Israel's first Ambassador to Australia.