Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Partrick's Day

I'm wearing my green shirt today, and all around me the world is green -- cedars and live oaks and yaupons outside my window. And green shoots (tulips) poking up through the ground around my fence.

Today would have been my mother's 95th birthday, and this is David's mother's birthday (her name is Pat, by the way). Happy birthday Pat! My grandmother, Aliph, was an O'Neal, so I reckon I'm at least 1/4 Irish. I leave you with three traditional Irish toasts:

Saint Patrick was a gentleman,
Who through strategy and stealth,
Drove all the snakes from Ireland,
Here’s a toasting to his health.
But not too many toastings
Lest you lose yourself and then
Forget the good Saint Patrick
And see all those snakes again.

There are good ships,
and there are wood ships,
The ships that sail the sea.
But the best ships, are friendships,
And may they always be.

Wherever you go and whatever you do,
May the luck of the Irish be there with you.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is Lou Ann's story of participating in the 2008 Christmas Bird Count on Portsmouth Island. You can read it here.

To read about Philip's new book, Digging up Uncle Evans, History, Ghost Tales, & Stories from Ocracoke Island, please click here.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:25 AM

    HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY, PHILIP!! Hope your day is lucky! :)

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  2. Anonymous1:27 PM

    The statement that St Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland -- could refer to the Druid serpent symbol. Druids being Pagans and St Patrick a Saint bringing Christianity to the people of Ireland. Post glacial Ireland probably never had snakes

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  3. Happy St. Patrick's Day, Philip!

    ReplyDelete