{"id":4360,"date":"2019-03-21T21:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T01:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.pages.roanoke.edu\/?p=4360"},"modified":"2019-03-21T21:00:37","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T01:00:37","slug":"its-more-than-guinness-a-look-at-a-northern-ireland-st-patricks-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=4360","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s More Than Guinness: A Look at a Northern Ireland St. Patrick\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Joyelle Ronan<\/em><\/p>\n

Every March 17, I\u2019d wake up to find that \u201cleprechauns\u201d had left candy in the shoes that I had put outside my room the night before. I would then go to school decked out in green and my dad would make corned beef and cabbage for dinner. As I grew up, I realized that adults spend St. Paddy\u2019s Day a bit differently, typically by downing green beer at a pub. Regardless of how it\u2019s celebrated, I\u2019ve loved the holiday my entire life. It\u2019s the one day of the year when I celebrate my Irish pride. I\u2019ve always wondered how St. Patrick\u2019s Day was celebrated in Ireland as opposed to America. I\u2019ve come to learn that it\u2019s much different than four leaf clovers and shamrock shakes I\u2019ve always known. <\/span><\/p>\n

Grace Boyle is an International student here at Roanoke College. She is from Belfast, Northern Ireland and gave me some insight into how she and her friends celebrate the day. \u201cNot everything is green and \u2018kiss me, I\u2019m Irish\u2019,\u201d Grace told me. \u201cWe drink, climb a mountain, and sing traditional Irish songs,\u201d She responded when I asked about her own St. Patrick\u2019s Day traditions. True to American celebrations, alcohol is definitely consumed, it just isn\u2019t green. <\/span><\/p>\n

While both countries drink for Irish pride, the people Northern Ireland sing in their native language about their oppression. One of the popular phrases used in Northern Ireland is \u201ctiocfaidh \u00e1r l\u00e1.\u201d This means \u201cour day will come\u201d and is used as a popular slogan to support Northern Ireland one day reuniting with the country of Ireland. Grace and her friends also like to hike Slemish Mountain, the first known Irish home of St. Patrick himself. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was curious about how Grace felt regarding the commercialized way Americans spend St. Patrick’s day. Grace told me that because a lot of people from Boston and the Northeast celebrate passed down Irish traditions, she isn\u2019t offended by America\u2019s interpretation of the holiday. However, on the topic on cultural sensitivity, she states that Americans don\u2019t understand how it\u2019s celebrated in Ireland because it\u2019s treated much more traditionally, \u201cSt. Patrick was our patron saint, he drove the snakes out of Ireland, he brought Christianity to Ireland and that\u2019s how we interpret and remember it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

This year, Grace plans to spend the day before St. Patrick\u2019s Day at the Salem parade where her friend is playing in one of the bands. On March 17, she wants to get a group of friends together to go hiking and watch <\/span>Derry Girls, <\/span><\/i>a show on Netflix that focuses on a group of girls growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1990\u2019s. Grace recommends this show if you\u2019re looking to learn more about in life Northern Ireland. Talking to Grace has made me want to learn more about Northern Ireland and my own Irish culture. For future St. Patrick\u2019s Days, I want to ditch the green decorations and corned beef and instead go for a traditional Irish stew and an episode of <\/span>Derry Girls. <\/span><\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Joyelle Ronan Every March 17, I\u2019d wake up to find that \u201cleprechauns\u201d had left candy in the shoes that I had put outside my room the night before. I would then go to school decked out in green and my dad would make corned beef and cabbage for dinner. As I grew up,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/st-patricks-day.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}