canyonwalker | (Reply)

From:

St. Patrick's Day is not just a US thing. It's widely celebrated in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and across the UK, too.

Your remark about how Irish immigrants in the US were "unwanted, hated, and vilified" years ago touches on another beef I have with the way St. Patrick's Day is celebrated. If we're going to have a day of recognizing Irish heritage in the US, that day really should not make light of the ravages of alcohol (drug abuse is a major problem in many communities treated as third-class people) but instead should focus on how Irish in the US struggled through ethnic discrimination. Not to mention, how the Irish immigration surge was caused by utterly inhumane, ethnic cleansing-level policies of the UK government. Any serious reflection on these Irish realities ought to extend empathy to other groups who are oppressed. But instead, St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the US are largely owned and driven by people who are completely happy to exclude anyone they consider "other".

So, fuck St. Patrick's Day, and fuck the Irish who learned no moral lessons from Irish history.