St. Patrick's Day: The Real Story

Patch recently caught up with Vice Mayor Micheál O'Leary to talk about his native Ireland and how St. Patrick's Day is celebrated there. In addition we found a few fun facts about the saint, himself, and the history of the Emerald Isle.

As O'Leary agreed, a lot of what Americans assume or believe is Irish is actually the mutated memories of Irish immigrants, the bulk of whom arrived in the U.S. in the middle of the 19th century.

"It's hand-me-down stuff," O'Leary said.

He explained that St. Patrick's Day is not only a national holiday in The Republic of Ireland, where the population is almost 90 percent Catholic, it's a religious holiday as well.

O'Leary pointed out that the holiday always occurs during Lent, the season when Catholics give up (or fast from) many of their favorite indulgences to get ready for the celebration of Easter. Because St. Patrick's Day is a feast day in Ireland, and Catholics are not supposed to fast on feast days, they are allowed to put aside their Lenten give-ups.

"It just seemed that a lot of them gave up alcohol," O'Leary said. People would go to Mass in the morning with the shamrock on their lapels, maybe attend a parade, then off to the pub. "So it became a big drinking day. Let's meet at the pub after Mass. But it's a bigger drinking day here in America than it is in Ireland."

But forget green rivers (like they do in Chicago) and green beer. That only happens here in the U.S.

St. Patrick, according to Wikipedia, is believed to have been born somewhere in Roman Britain in the middle of the fifth century. Most of what scholars believe is actually factual about him, rather than the many legends associated with him, comes from the two letters generally accepted as being his. He was captured at age 16 by Irish marauders and sold as a slave. He worked as a shepherd for six years, and returned to Britain or France and became a priest. He returned to Ireland to convert the natives to Christianity from their druidic religion. March 17 is the day he is believed to have died.

Christianity pretty much took over the island, which went on to survive assaults from the Vikings and the Normans through the 16th century, when the Protestant British officially took over, denying education and land ownership to the predominantly Catholic Irish. The British Parliament granted the Catholics many of those rights back in 1829 (including the right to vote), but the population was so poor that when the potato blight struck in 1845, mass starvation ensued.

The Great Potato Famine (1845-1852) resulted in the island losing as much as a quarter of its population, either through death or emigration primarily to the United States. In fact, if you have Irish Catholic ancestors, they probably came here during this time.

In Ireland, the Irish eventually got their independence from the British in 1922, when the southern part of the island became the Republic of Ireland, with the seven northern counties remaining part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland.

Unfortunately, violence between the Nationalist Catholics and the Unionist Protestants remained a significant problem until the 1990s.

"We like to think those days are behind us," O'Leary said about the conflict, which seems more intense here than in Ireland. "When heritage is kept in a country, sometimes the good is kept with the bad. At least, the majority [in Ireland] are trying to push for a peaceful resolution."

So when and if you raise your glass in honor of the Irish, say, "Sláinte!" (pronounced roughly slahn-tcha) which is Irish for "cheers!" Rest assured, there are plenty of people in Ireland doing the same thing.