Y'know What? Fuck St. Patrick's Day.

[canyonwalker]

I came to a decision this year. Fuck St. Patrick's Day.

To be more precise, I came to that decision yesterday. I came to that decision because what I'm seeing, increasingly, is that St. Patrick's Day is being framed in popular culture as simply an opportunity to drink appropriately-colored or -named alcohol. I have Irish ancestry. I grew up celebrating St. Patrick's Day every year. So it really bothers me that that part of my identity is being reduced to booze.

It's ironic to equate Irish culture to booze, BTW, because my Irish grandmother was a teetotaler. It was not uncommon, at least among American Irish. "There are two kinds of Irish," she admonished me when I was younger, "The drunks and the dries. And this is a dry house." She'd seen alcohol ruin enough lives in her family and her community that she wouldn't allow a drop of it inside.

Comments

[autumnfrostfall]

I understand. I get your grandmother as well, my dad was the same.

We were visiting Mom's sister & her family. Dad was sitting in a room with us kids. I asked him why he wasn't out with everyone else. He said he didn't want to be just another drunk Indian. Given I later found out his brother was an alcoholic, it made sense.

If it helps any, we don't think drinking when we hear of the Irish. However the general population... yes, that's all they think at this point thanks to St Patrick's Day's marketing.

[canyonwalker]

I don't agree with my grandmother's binary logic, BTW. By her reduction I'd be a drunk, since I'm not an abstainer. She wasn't militant about her belief, though. For her it was a personal value, not a political statement. She never drank, there was never liquor in the house, and close family would not consume liquor at small restaurant gatherings with her. But her husband and kids could enjoy a drink with friends at a bar or a party. She never said an unkind word to anyone else about their drinking— including not a few people who deserved an unkind word for making a mess of themselves and hurting their own families.