Unbelievable right? Tom Cruise in Far and Away that utter piece of shite. Could not believe my ears when I let the News at One overrun to Liveline and was assailed by the whining and moaning of Oirish people objecting to the use of the four leaf clover in place of the shamrock in an ad for a shopping centre. Plastic Paddies the lot of them.
Feeling patriotic now or just ridiculous?
The legend of St Patrick is one to be valued. The coming of Christianity to Ireland and the preservation of the ancient stories by monks has greatly enriched our cultural heritage.
The shamrock was used by St Patrick to demonstrate the Holy Trinity. He could just as well have chosen a three leaf clover. In fact he probably did, considering that it is far more widespread than shamrock. And getting upset about a flour leaf clover is mystifying. It's a pleasant enough plant.I think the underlying offence was the perceived kowtowing to johnny foreigner and the constant enemy of Political Correctness. In fevered imaginations they are stealing our culture, jobs, money and now they want to take our jingoism. In this imagination, one should be allowed to beat one's wife, send one's children to the parish priest to be raped, send one's daughters to be slaves to hide the shame of her forced pregnancy and worship the bishops as gods. That's not the Ireland I want.
We tore our ancient gods down and turned them into a joke we flaunt on St Patrick's Day. We turned criminals into gods. The green of Patrick's Day is unnatural and jingoistic. Patrick used an image from nature. We laugh at our ancient gods.
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They won't be happy then when they see the CSI New York episode broadcast this week. Four leafed clover, pots of gold and Kilkenny marble - all linked to a double murder in New York.
And that's not even mentioning the parade and copious amounts of green beer being drunk.
To be sure, to be sure!
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