It’s St. Patrick’s Day, time to sing the old Irish song.
“When Irish eyes are smilin’ all the world’s a day in spring, and when Irish eyes are laughin’ you can hear the angels sing. When Irish eyes are smilin’ all the world is bright and gay, and when Irish eyes are laughin’, they’ll steal your heart away.
Today all the red-haired ladies with green eyes and Irishmen with the gift of gab are wearin’ the green and shouting, “Erin go bragh!” that’s Gaelic for “Ireland forever.”
That little emerald isle next to England is rockin’ and every pub is sloshing the beer tonight. Rosy-cheeked Irish are hugging, singings and dancing from Dublin to Belfast and from Kona to Kansas.
Everyone is Irish today.
Now is the time to remember Saint Paddy, shamrocks and Leprechauns, those Irish Menehune. And so it’s time to tell of the guest of honor, Saint Patrick, the patron saint of the emerald isle. He had a rough and tumble life.
Journeying back in time to the mystical, dark days of early England, here Patrick was born around 400 A.D. He was born in Britain, not Ireland, but we overlook that little detail. He became an Irishman in the end.
Like many saints and holy men through history, he started out living the good life in a big villa with rich parents. A rich kid with all luxuries of life.
When he was 16, he wandered away from the mansion and was kidnapped by Irish pirates and turned into a slave. He lived as a shepherd in Ireland for six years when, like many other holy men and women, he started to hear voices. One voice whispered that there was a ship waiting by the sea to take him away from slavery.
He slipped away and sailed back home to England.
There he was touched by Christianity and returned to Ireland and began preaching. He established monasteries, churches and schools. We know of his life through his journals that were crudely written in Latin but the spiritual message comes through.
Then came the legends.
We all know his big claim to fame, driving out all the snakes from Ireland. We can all relate to that since somebody drove all the snakes out of our emerald isles.
One more original idea was that he used the three-leaf shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity in Christianity.
The great man died peacefully on March 17, 461 A.D. and so the Irish made this day his day. It would be nice to end this story with the traditional Gaelic blessing. It goes like this.
“May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind always be at your back, May the sun shine warm on your face; the rains fall softly on your fields, and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.”
I’ll drink to that. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
Dennis Gregory writes a bi-monthly column for West Hawaii Today and welcomes your comments at makewavess@yahoo.com