A SEA OF GREEN

To all my Irish friends and those of Irish decent I wish you all a Happy St Patrick's day. It is a fabulous celebration of a tremendous nation that has survived famine, war and oppression. Today, for the Irish, it is a day to celebrate, and they are the best in the world at doing just that. The most incredible statistic I saw about the Irish population of the Tri-State area is that there are more of them here than there are in the whole of the Emerald Island. That's a lot of partying people out on the streets and in the pubs, particularly in the City.

Many at work consider themselves Irish. A few are Immigrants straight off the boat having been raised formitavely in Ireland. A smaller group have Irish parents who came over in the 1970's when the whole of Northern Europe was pretty grim and the troubles in Northern Ireland prevented their economy from growing. Some have one Irish Grandparent making them 1/8th Irish. One of them claims to have an Aunt who once visited Ireland twenty years ago and came back with a Shamrock covered tea cozy on display in her dining room. If you take into account all of the above, then everyone in New York is sort of Irish. On St Patrick's day the Irish connection is measured similar to the game of the nth degrees away from Kevin Bacon ( who is of Irish decent).

I have no Irish in me at all. I used to live opposite millions of Irish, across the Irish sea when in England. There is a large Irish population in London and they are an important and vibrant section of the cosmopolitan nature of the city. The big difference between the London Irish and their New York cousins is their visibility. On St Patrick's day most of the celebrations take place behind closed doors in the Irish neighborhoods of London. The party is generally not open to the general public but behind these doors, festivities are wild and boisterous. In New York it is customary to not only celebrate in style but also to do so openly for others to see. Showing off a heritage is part and parcel of New York life. Citizens of this great country are American of course but they always put their real Nationality first. They are Irish American, Italian American, Hispanic American and many others.. This is not a divided loyalty issue at all because we all unite under the American flag but in such a vast country made up of mostly immigrants and descendants thereof, it is so important not to forget where we came from and what makes us who we are.

I am not wearing green today. I don't need to. I won't be drinking and celebrating either. It isn't my holiday and I don't feel the need to jump on the band wagon. That hasn't stopped me from wishing strangers clad in various shades of green a Happy St Patrick's day and hoping that they have as much harmless fun as is feasibly possible. Being an English American it is difficult to try and pretend to be anything else and for those trying to connect me to the largest community in New York via the Kevin Bacon game good luck with that one!