Choosing your own path
On the Fighting Irish mascot, green rivers, and what's worth celebrating beyond just good times on St. Patrick's Day
St. Patrick's Day may have evolved into America's favorite freewheeling holiday in no small part because so many Irish people immigrated here. But for all the lighthearted joy that comes with the parades and the green-tinted rivers, Irish cultural resilience shouldn't be underrated.
■ Ireland spent hundreds and hundreds of years under English oppression. It wasn't just a modern invasion -- the first round happened in 1169, and the imperial era dates all the way back to 1541. That's 79 years, or roughly a modern lifetime, before any English expatriates set foot on Plymouth Rock. It wasn't until the early 20th Century that the Irish managed to reclaim their self-rule.
■ We may be most familiar with the "Fighting Irish" mascot of the University of Notre Dame, but it's good to see the bigger picture about Irish identity. It wasn't an outgrowth of English identity, but rather a separate and unique culture all its own which had to adapt to a long-term English occupation. Unlike most of Europe, it was never conquered by Rome, either.
■ The Irish patriot Michael Collins celebrated this unique history as the foundation for the free Irish state: "The love of learning and of military skill was the tradition of the whole people. They honored not kings nor chiefs as kings and chiefs, but their heroes and their great men. Their men of high learning ranked with the kings and sat beside them in equality at the high table [...] We have to build up a new civilization on the foundations of the old".
■ It's easy to let the high-spirited holiday overwhelm all other perceptions, but the Irish (both those living on the island and their many cousins in the vast Irish diaspora abroad) have rightful claim to an honorable history with a unique culture that goes well beyond having a pint on March 17th. From colonial subjugation just a century ago to one of the world's economic and freedom-loving powerhouses today, it's a testament to what can happen when people are free to determine their own course.
