Adrienne Cook once said, “St. Patrick’s Day is an enchanted time — a day to begin transforming winter’s dreams into summer’s magic.” And what winter reveries we’ve had. About a year ago today, cancer encroached on the life of D’s mother. Quietly, pragmatically, she went in for treatment and came out the winner towards the middle of the year. Shortly thereafter, everything seemed to go downhill with the arrival of Katrina, the resurgence of the cancer and everything you have read about on this blog for the past six months.
This year, we start again, ready for summer’s magic. The wonderful thing about life is that it gives us chance after chance – the challenge is for our tired eyes to seek out those opportunities and make good on them. So much more to find and understand. The more you know, the more you don’t know.
For instance, a scientist at Trinity College in Dublin has discovered that the name Patrick isn’t of Irish origin. In fact, many names considered proper Irish today are not Gaelic and are, in fact, English and/or Nordic in origin. Something tells me that I will receive more punches than kisses if I roll out this information at today’s various St. Patty’s Day parties.
Many popular male first names commonly thought of as being Irish, such as Patrick, Mick and Sean, actually originated with the English and the French-Danish-Norwegian Normans, who invaded Ireland in the 12th century and led to radical changes in the way Irish families named their children.
Archetypal Irish names in Irish America, such as Patty and Mick, really are more a product of the Roman Catholic Renaissance (which occurred well after the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1167 A.D.). The clergy tried to wipe out traditional Irish names by replacing them with Biblical names … Canonical laws in Ireland for many years prevented the baptism of children unless the chosen name was that of a saint. Girls often took on variations of the name Mary. At the same time, harsh penal laws from the 16th to the 19th century further weakened traditional Gaelic/Celtic culture.
Before the Irish fret about this loss to the English, the study suggests that “the earlier Anglo-Norman invasion had possibly a more profound impact on Irish names.” Phew.
Speaking of profound, Mark remembers “the great monument to the Irish in New Orleans, the New Basin Canal, which ran from about where Union Station stands today to Lake Pontchartrain.” In fact, Blake Pontchartrain wrote about the canal back in 2003 and even printed a picture of the beautiful cross to which Mark refers.
Mark reminisces on:
“Today, all that stands in remembrance of the Irish who built the canal is a Celtic cross in Lakeview near West End Boulevard and Downs Street. I didn’t even think to check on it when I drove around Lakeview when I was home Mardi Gras week. It’s fitting there should be some remembrance, in a city famous for its cemeteries, for the jazz funerals, for the way we have come to very public terms with death.
“That the cross stands in Lakeview is a fitting reminder that The Flood was not the city’s first experience with mass death or with disaster. Our entire city is a monument to death and disater overcome. The area of cemeteries where St. Patrick’s and all the other cities of the dead stand was once the back of town, where the remains of the yellow fever victims were kept away from the living …
“So, as we celebrate the unique American holiday of St. Patrick’s Day, let me lift a glass to the forgotten thousands of the New Basin Canal, and to their cousins who never left the old country. You made this city what is is, and can teach us what it can become. You show us that we can embrace and celebrate our past and ourselves while we make a new future. And that there’s no need for the music or the drinking to stop to make it happen.”
Goodness grace everyone on this day with peace, happiness and safety. Slainte!
