The "cultural appropriation" of St. Patrick's Day
So, why aren't the woke upset about a day that defames the Irish, when I, a second generation Irishman, don't care.
Reprinted from March 7, 2023
Throw open the saloons. Celebrate with overdoses of Jameson’s and Guinness. Stagger through a St. Paddy’s Day parade. Don Green when the closest you have ever gotten to Ireland is a corned beef sandwich. Party, party, party.
It all conforms to the definition of cultural appropriation—one of the bigger insults of an entire people, according to the woke manifesto. Quoting from Britannica, it is the…
adoption of certain language, behaviour, clothing, or tradition belonging to a minority culture or social group by a dominant culture or group in a way that is exploitative, disrespectful, or stereotypical. An imbalance of power between the appropriator and the appropriated is a critical condition of the concept….
The term cultural appropriation is thought to have emerged in the 1970s from academic discourse on Western colonialism.
Oh, you argue, the definition doesn’t apply to the Irish because they are white, meaning they are a part of the dominant, privileged social group. But argue that you reveal your ignorance of history.
For centuries, the Irish were persecuted because they were, well, Irish. You’ve heard of the Irish famine? Their potato crop turned black and fetid with the rot of a fungus, not particularly through their own fault. Potatoes are identified with the Irish because they were the only food they were left with as their English masters took the gain and other crops for their own. Starvation, poverty and death gripped the land, prompting a great migration—characteristic of other refugees—to America.
If they survived the dangerous voyage, once they arrived in America, they ostracized: “Irish need not apply.” “The dirty micks.” “Papists.” “You wouldn’t want your daughter to marry one, good God!” Good, like the Chinese, only for their strong backs to build a transcontinental railroad.
The woke cite such examples of appropriation the athletic team mascots parading as Indian braves, although no mention is made of Notre Dame’s “fighting Irish” logo. Notice is never taken of the fact that the Irish were never “colonizers” on the scale of the dominant British, French and Spanish. Or Arabs and Asians.
The English took our land, our language and our faith. They propelled an entire nation of people into poverty, disease, hopelessness and deathly starvation.
I point all this out to spotlight the hypocrisy of the progressive/liberal/woke priesthood in condemning all sorts of cultural appropriations of their favored race or ethnicity, but not of the Irish, especially the Irish Catholics.
The Irish defenders are few. Here’s one: Cassidy Chisholm noted that,
St. Patrick’s Day was established during the 17th century when Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, brought Christianity to the country. It was originally a religious holiday for Irish people, but over time, the world adopted the celebration, making it a day about binge-drinking.
Like Christmas, St. Patrick’s day has been commercialized, with waning recognition of the religious origins and connotations. Or of Irish national pride.
Having said all that, though, as a one-half Irishman, I don’t care. At least not to the extent that I’d use it as a political tool as do the woke. And use it they do, in effect diminishing the respect that the peoples they supposedly speak for deserve. And using it as a tool to bash critics, instead of responding with reason and facts.
I’m going to a St. Patrick’s Day party tonight and I suspect that the real Irish there will be a minority. Others will pretend they're Irish. Wearing green and all that. Doesn’t bother me.
The Irish are a great people, having survived life-threatening crises of conquest and famine. I take it as a point of pride that so many Americans want to be associated with the Irish character, who see it as a day of celebration rather than an excuse for inebriation.
We Irish don’t cry in our beer over people pretending they’re Irish. Welcome, one and all. We don’t demand that we teach kids critical Irish theory that celebrates, as it were, our Irish victimhood. We don’t demand reparations for how we’ve been wronged for centuries.
That’s the Irish character. We cherish our blessings, including our citizenship in the world’s greatest country. We keep our faith alive, resisting the corrupting effect of relativism and secularism. Indeed our songs can be mournful, but we’re a cheerful, welcoming people, inclined to mind our own business. Unlike the woke.
So, join me in toasting Éirinn go Brách!