Malachi McCort, being interviewed on NPR about how he planned to celebrate St Patrick's Day: "I won't. He wasn't Irish, you know. Just another bloody invader!"

That comment is similar to my perspective (and, by definition, one's "perspective" is biased) of the difference between the UK and US attitude toward St. Patrick's Day. As a rule, Americans (no matter what their background) see it as a fun day, while it seems that those in the UK take it more seriously.

Here's an interesting post on Language Log. Was St. Patrick one of our first linguists?

McCort doesn't mention that most likely his first visit to Ireland was as a captive slave. He escaped, got himself all Catholicised, and came back to ruin the perfectly fine native belief system. Talk about revenge! Oh, well, nobody's perfect.

quote:

while it seems that those in the UK take it more seriously.

The Irish certainly do - but I don't think the British consider it especially serious.

Seems like it's really just another excuse to go out drinking. That's not all bad, surely.

You need an excuse, CW?
In honor of the 1/4 of me that's Irish, I drank a Green River soda yesterday.

I found out that Munich is the only German city to host a St Patrick's Day Parade. The German Irish Society of Bavaria (DIF Bayern eV) organizes it.

quote:

Seems like it's really just another excuse to go out drinking. That's not all bad, surely.

Except that few "Irish" pubs sell decent beer; Guinness is generally the only brew available - drinkable but not special.

<looks about nervously>

I don't think we have any Irishmen on the baord but just in case... er... he isn't with us... honest!

Interestingly, I looked up patootie, and discovered I was mistaken in its meaning: 'sweetheart', especially in the phrase sweet patootie. I'd always had the notion that it was vaguely anatomical in reference. Similar in meaning to you bet your sweet bippy. Well, now I know different. (In this way, it is similar to the mistaken notion that petard, as in to hoist by one's petard refers to anatomy rather than ordnance. The etymology—closer at least—of petard is in the French for a loud fart, while that of patootie seems to be in a tuber, the potato.)

So the endearment patootie has origins in the word potato? So fitting for an Irish thing then, eh?

And no, Asa, I generally don't need an excuse.

RE - Irish pubs in the UK may not have good beer, but 'round these parts, the Irish-American places generally have excellent beer (and lots of good whiskey, if that's what you like).

Yes, I'd not thought about patootie either, but it makes sense. The Irish love their potatoes! I have often called my kids "sweet pea," though not "sweet potato" or "sweet patootie." In fact, I add a little Yiddish to my "sweet pea," and say "schweet pea."

Well, Bob, I have a fair amount of Irish in me...thus my Irish "flareups" every so often.