Tag: Saint Patrick’s Day

Happy St. Paddy’s Day (2023)!

SpinozablueMarch 17, 2023March 18, 2023Blog, MusicDexy's Midnight Runners, Ireland, Saint Patrick's Day

Not a lot to say about it, other than I wish I were there. In Ireland. Going round the Ring of Kerry, perhaps, among other stops and stays. Wandering amongst this and that, especially to see the Skellig Islands once more. Where I want me dust to go someday. Somewhere close to Tír na nÓg, to be sure. Which, in times long gone, was right around the corner, I’m told. Though some bards say the blessed isles are to the west of the Cliffs of Moher.

Cliffs of Moher. County Clare, Ireland. Photo by Douglas Pinson. 2003.

Should go to the places I missed out on, too, like Yeats Country.…

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

SpinozablueMarch 17, 2022March 17, 2022BlogB.J. Buckley, Poetry, Saint Patrick's Day, Tony Brewer

And another fine day for wearing the green to you and yours. Here’s the official festival site in Ireland proper.

Spinozablue launched in 2008, and we noted this day that first year and most years since then. As is often the case, the first attempt was (perhaps) the best:

Tabhair ‘Om Póg, Is Éireannach Mé

New March poetry additions include B.J. Buckley, and Tony Brewer. Gray weather aside, it’s a fine day for poems too.…

Happy Saint Paddy’s Day!!

SpinozablueMarch 17, 2013March 22, 2021BlogHistory, Irish Famine, Kathryn Miles, Saint Patrick's Day

On this day when everyone is Irish, I think it’s good to remember how many of us got here, what it took, the tragedies overcome and the triumphs at the end of the road. Kathryn Miles has written what sounds like a moving, important book. I caught part of her interview today on NPR:

Brief article with excerpt from the book, here

…

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

SpinozablueMarch 17, 2011March 26, 2021Blog, PoetryEaster 1916, Poetry, Saint Patrick's Day, W.B.Yeats

Easter 1916
W. B. Yeats, 1865 – 1939

I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

That woman’s days were spent
In ignorant good-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill.…

Tabhair póg dom, is Éireannach mé

SpinozablueMarch 17, 2010December 31, 2021BlogDublin, Ireland, Saint Patrick's Day, the Irish

The Cliffs of Moher, in County Clare, Ireland.

It’s that day again. Another year, another Guinness or two or three. I wonder sometimes what old Saint Patty would make of his holiday being used for fun and frivolity, and more than a little bit of liquid spirits. Did he drink in his monastery, or out and about in his walks across Ireland? Possibly so. He may have needed more than a little help, chasing away all of those snakes and demons. And it may have helped him explain to the Irish how the concept of the Trinity was like the Irish Shamrock, as he did on occasion.…