St Patrick's Day : Lá Fhéile Pádraig

[W.G.Ewald]

Saint Patrick's Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig (The Festival of Patrick); Ulster-Scots: Saunt Petherick's Day)[2] is a cultural and religious holiday celebrated on 17 March. It commemorates Saint Patrick (c. AD 387–461), the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland, and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland.[1] It is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland),[3] the Eastern Orthodox Church and Lutheran Church. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official feast day in the early seventeenth century, and has gradually become a celebration of Irish culture in general.[4]

The day is generally characterised by the attendance of church services,[4][5] wearing of green attire[6] and the lifting of Lenten restrictions on eating, and drinking alcohol,[6][7][8] which is often proscribed during the rest of the season.[4][6][7][8]

Saint Patrick's Day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland,[9] Northern Ireland,[10] Newfoundland and Labrador and in Montserrat. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora, especially in places such as Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand, among others. Today, St. Patrick's Day is probably the most widely celebrated saint's day in the world.[11]

 

[W.G.Ewald]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-quaffs-guinness-pint-st-patrick-day-outing-191106021.html

President Barack Obama celebrated St Patrick's Day on Saturday with a quick trip to a popular Washington DC Irish bar, where he contentedly quaffed a pint of Guinness surrounded by hundreds of excited, green-clad and, errrr, "jovial" partiers.

Yahoo News served as the "print pooler" for the brief excursion from the White House compound, serving as the eyes and ears (but sadly not the liver) of print media colleagues in a traditional arrangement dictated by the lack of space in the president's official entourage. As part of the deal, Yahoo News filed a "pool report" on the events.

Here is that report:

"So an incumbent president facing a tough reelection fight walks into a bar..."

President Obama made a brief St Patrick's Day pilgrimage to a Washington DC Irish bar, The Dubliner, on Saturday, where he quaffed a pint of Guinness and enjoyed cheers from a rowdy crowd of green-clad partiers, some of whom had staked out their spots as early as 10 a.m.

He was accompanied by Henry Healy, described by a White House staffer as the president's ancestral cousin from Moneygall, Ireland, as well as Ollie Hayes, the owner of the Publican bar that the president went to on Moneygall.

(The Dubliner is across the street from Union Station. I've had a Guiness there myself.)

 

[Ray]

 

[Ray]

The shamrock is a three-leafed old white clover. It is known as a symbol of Ireland, with St. Patrick having used it as a metaphor for the Christian Trinity. The name shamrock is derived from Irish seamróg, which is the diminutive version of the Irish word for clover (seamair).

Shamrock has been used as a symbol of Ireland in a similar way to how a rose is used for England, thistle for Scotland and leek for Wales.

Soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment of the British army use the shamrock as their emblem, and wear a sprig of shamrock on Saint Patrick's Day. Shamrock are exported to wherever the regiment is stationed throughout the world. Queen Victoria decreed over a hundred years ago that soldiers from Ireland should wear a sprig of shamrock in recognition of fellow Irish soldiers who had fought bravely in the Boer War, a tradition continued by British army soldiers from both the north and the south of Ireland following partition in 1921.

Wiki

 

[Ray]

Wishing all Irish chaps Have a Jolly this St Patrick's Day and sozzle yourself with the pints of Guinness all the way!

 

[Razor]

The salutes looks so clumsy. And the Irish Wolf Hound sniffing that dude's arse... lol

@Ewald: Did Obama forget to wear green...?

 

[W.G.Ewald]

@Ewald: Did Obama forget to wear green...?

The color of his jacket appears loden green, not one of the 40 Irish shades.

 

[Ray]

Mamata Bannerjee wears green!

That is her colours.

No wonder she is as boisterous, rowdy and mercurial as the Irish, who take no nonsense!

The British have learnt not to fool with the Irish.

And MMS and Sonia have learnt not to fool with that wonderwoman (self appointed) Mam ta!