“Alexa, Play St. Patrick’s Day Music”
Say these very specific magic words and you will hear the best, most rousing, spirit lifting Irish music. It’ll make you want to dance. U-2 ain’t bad, but they’re for listening, Alexa knows how to get your Irish blood up. And since we’re talkin‘ Irish and it be St. Patrick’s Day a commin‘ up, try to see a few of the classics ...’The Quiet Man’ with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara ...’The Secret of of Roan Inish’ ...and ‘In the Name of the Father’ with Daniel Day-Lewis.
I had the opportunity to spend St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland a few years ago. I was on a work assignment. Killarney on the 16th then that evening and the next morning in Cork. Killarney was rural, pastoral and beautiful. Quiet. I actually saw a Jaunting Car in Killarney. That’s a horse-drawn carriage where the riders ride sideways, like the ones featured in ‘The Quiet Man’. Cork was a different story. It’s a city. There's a church and a pub on every corner ...and three pubs in the middle of the block with names like The Coal Hole, The Black Widow, and Blarney’s Treason. Colorful places. In Cork, St. Patrick’s Eve was like New Year’s Eve, and boy, do the Irish know how to celebrate. Makes Times Square look like Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.
But the Irish, somber, sober or dancing on tables, take their holiday very seriously. I went into a stationery store in Cork to buy a St. Patrick’s Day card to send home. I saw no funny Leprechauns in little green suits and pots of gold. All of the cards had a more serious, religious theme. All extremely reverent. Emotional.
The Irish are a very emotional people. My uncle Pat was Irish, Patrick Ross. The toughest man I ever knew. A genuine WWII hero. He took out a German machine nest on the western front near Luxembourg during the infamous Battle of the Bulge. True, I saw his citation. I always knew him as just “uncle Pat” ...unassuming, congenial, average built, seemingly nothing special. I always knew him with grey hair and balding. Then I saw a photo of him as a younger man, in his early twenties, army days. He had jet black hair with a stylish curl in the front, wearing a tight-fitting black T-shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his right sleeve. Wow. Tough New York City kid from the Irish Bronx. I would’t mess with him. The Nazis must have thought the same thing after they met him. However, I heard him tell a story one day about growing up in the Bronx. He was from a large Irish family, they were dirt poor. He was telling of kids in his neighborhood, including his siblings, eating out of garbage cans ...he broke down and cried. He was the toughest yet the most kind and sensitive man I ever knew.
But enough about the Irish. Yes, they had a lot to overcome coming to this country. They faced the same prejudice, hatred and bigotry as anyone ...the Italians, the Blacks, Muslims. Each culture has individually worked their way into the fabric of America and carved out their own special place, retaining their heritage and forging a new one at the same time. It wasn’t easy, and it’s still not easy. But these immigrants did it and are still doing it. We celebrate their courage and heritage. There’s St. Patrick’s Day for the Irish, Columbus Day for the Italians, Martin Luther King Day for the Blacks ...
The indigenous natives of America, the Indians, however, in my opinion, they got the roughest shake. They’re still getting it today. We don’t even have a national holiday for them. They're heros too, and have proven it throughout history ...the Code Talkers of WWII ..Ira Hayes on Iwo Jima ..Jim Thorpe. Yes, there is Native American Heritage Day, the day after Thanksgiving, as if you knew, but no Macy’s style parade for them. No national outward display of respect. Shameful, what we did to them. We need to make a bigger deal of the Indians more than just naming our sports teams after them. They were here first. We owe them.
It must be in our genetic code as “privileged white” human beings to ...hate or destroy anything that is different from us, that gets in our way of “progress”.
We need to correct that and mend our ways. Really, think about this.
In the meantime, say, “Alexa, Play St. Patrick’s Day Music!”
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
