Rather than insult or offend my Gentle Readers with my opinion of Paddig aka Patricolus aka St. Patrick who, in the 5th century, was captured by pagan Irish pirates on the southwestern coast of Roman Britain (now Cornwall) and conscripted to servitude in Ireland and who, in due course, escaped to Gaul, got religion, and returned to exact revenge on the pagan Irish by inflicting Roman Catholic Christianity on them thus ruining a perfectly good civilization, I've decided to share a wonderful poem that describes the lyrical, open-hearted Irish race.
We are the music-makers
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers
And sitting by desolate streams,
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world forever, it seems.
--A.W.E. O'Shaughnessy from "Ode"
I hope you all have a wonderful 'Celtic Appreciation Day'. May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light. May good fortune pursue you by day and night.
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I hadn't realised I had Irish blood!Thank you!Saints don't do it for me either, there's always a cost to someone for their piety.
ReplyDeleteHappy CAD to you too!
Saints rush in where Guinness and Jameson's are soon to follow.
ReplyDeleteMy paternal grandfather's family came from Limerick and I still have family there that I used to visit years ago. I am in touch with them and have every intention of going again. I think it's my turn to pay for a round--at least that's what they tell me. Blarney for blood.
What a lovely poem!
ReplyDeletePS
I'm not quite sure you achieved your goal of withholding your opinion of puir ol' Paddy.
The Irish have been unsettled since their inception. Constantly warring with one another with a deep streak of "you're not the boss of me". I love them. ;-)
ReplyDeleteJune--You're probably right. I'm not very good at concealing my 'Irish'. It's just another case of an Englishman screwing with the Emerald Isle.
ReplyDeleteRed--Waterford, Guinness, Riverdance, Enya, The Irish Rovers, the Clancy Brothers, the Irish Tenors,and Maureen O'Hara--my, but the Irish are an amazing people. They only war with one another because the English aren't much of a challenge and have boring food. You may be a 'Mac' but you've got plenty of O' in you--cause ain't nobody the boss of you!! Which is why I adore you.