A Bit o' Irish Culture

[maxx]

This is for all the people who think that March 17 is just a day to get drunk on green beer.


O Paddy dear, and did ye hear the news that's goin' round?
The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground!
No more Saint Patrick's Day we'll keep, his color can't be seen
For there's a cruel law ag'in the Wearin' o' the Green."
I met with Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand
And he said, "How's poor old Ireland, and how does she stand?"
"She's the most distressful country that ever yet was seen
For they're hanging men and women there for the Wearin' o' the Green."

"So if the color we must wear be England's cruel red
Let it remind us of the blood that Irishmen have shed
And pull the shamrock from your hat, and throw it on the sod
But never fear, 'twill take root there, though underfoot 'tis trod.

When laws can stop the blades of grass from growin' as they grow
And when the leaves in summer-time their color dare not show
Then I will change the color too I wear in my caubeen
But till that day, please God, I'll stick to the Wearin' o' the Green.

[maxx]

http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Cr-Dr/Cuchulain.html

[Jimaz]

I was about to quote the Jeelie Piece Song when I realized it was Scottish rather than Irish [[by Adam MacNaughton, doh!). I guess I'll have to wait until November 30, St. Andrew's Day, to post that one.

[Searay215]

Happy St. Patricks Day..... Ahhhhhh the perfect day to celebrate public drunkeness, vomiting and drunk driving. What better way to leave a lasting impression on Detroit's young.

[maxx]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AzRz7yS95o

[maxx]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fwZI...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dHNcNuMUTU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gCFm...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKsmgiQb5co

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE1OQ...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEZIK...eature=related

[Relayer76]

The real story of the Irish Potato Famine
CBC Doc Zone – Famine and Shipwreck -
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/docz...eck/index.html

I watched this doc on CBC tonight. It was certainly a more enriching St. Pats day experience than drinking green beer – and I do like my beer. You have probably all heard that the Irish potato famine was not really caused by a potato blight but that the blight was taken advantage of by the rich landowners to get the peasants off the land and turn it to cattle grazing which was more profitable. That is what this doc is about.

[jcole]

It was a blight. Blithe/blythe means 'happy'

The real story of the Irish Potato Famine
CBC Doc Zone – Famine and Shipwreck -
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/docz...eck/index.html

I watched this doc on CBC tonight. It was certainly a more enriching St. Pats day experience than drinking green beer – and I do like my beer. You have probably all heard that the Irish potato famine was not really caused by a potato blithe but that the blithe was taken advantage of by the rich landowners to get the peasants off the land and turn it to cattle grazing which was more profitable. That is what this doc is about.

[maxx]

It was a blight. Blithe/blythe means 'happy'

Look at you being the typo police. Oh, you're saying it's a malapropism and not a typo? lol

[jcole]

Look at you being the typo police. Oh, you're saying it's a malapropism and not a typo? lol

When you it's misspelled incorrectly once in a sentence, it's a typo; when it's misspelled again in the same line, it's the wrong word.

[Relayer76]

OK guys, thanks for the education. I did not know that blithe meant happy and now I know how to spell the potato disease. I've corrected it so no one will know what you are talking about. :-)

Did you read the article? Pretty bleak stuff about the Irish Potato Famine. Now read this one which strikes closer to home. I think you will find a number of parallels in terms of attitudes towards the poor, concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, free trade etc.
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02182011.html