Word: patricks
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, and therefore Southie, is credited with driving the snakes out of Ireland. Memories of him succeed in driving the ugliness from South Boston for a week in March every year...
...program at the Little City Hall ignores St. Paddie; it says the events all commemorate the 203rd anniversary of Evacuation Day. Which brings up an interesting point--only in Boston is St. Patrick's Day a legal holiday. And while making the annual ethnic celebration a city holiday probably wouldn't have been an impossible chore for Boston's Irish pols, there was an easier way. The British, ironically provided the excuse. Redcoats occupied Boston from the start of the revolution until the Americans, head quartered on Cambridge Common, were able to starve them out. The British left under cover...
Irish people are used to pretending anyway--at least, that's what some scholars who claim St. Patrick was Welsh or Danish would say. Those same scholars might tell you shamrocks don't grow wild in Eire and that there weren't ever any snakes on the Old Sod. They might as well try to convince Bernard F. Kelly, Sr. that his mother wasn't from Ireland. But if all it takes is a hit or two of green to make anyone Irish this week, who cares? The important thing is that St. Pat did indeed exist, somewhere back...
...word spread like wildfire, mostly because Patrick was adept at combining pagan and Christian beliefs. Some credit him with establishing the worship of the Virgin Mary in Ireland and elsewhere, stressing her importance to the Celts who already had a firm belief in the great goddess Danu, the mother of earth and the gods...
Just as St. Patrick made his name driving out the snakes, hundreds of South Bostonians have reached prominence by driving out Republicans. For the politicians, March 17 is no holiday--they're hard at work promoting themselves all day long. This St. Patrick's Day will really begin at 10:30 a.m. Saturday when Bill Bulger, president of the State Senate, is the guest of honor at the annual corned beef and cabbage "dinner." Most years the parade follows the dinner, winding slowly through the hills of Southie. This year, though, the 15,000 participants, including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy...