Rick Patrick: Greene Publishing, Inc.
Everyone needs a day in which they feel “special.” For most, that is a birthday or perhaps an anniversary, or any other such day that holds significant meaning. For anyone celebrating such an occasion, my best wishes of the day. For me, St. Patrick's Day has always been a special day. It has always been a day in which my mind takes a trip back to my Irish roots. The exact family history on that is a little blurry, but the story I was told is that my great-great grandfather came over from Ireland on a cattle barge during the potato famine sometime around the mid 1800s. The story is that he settled in South Georgia around the Quitman area (hence the large number of “Patricks” in that area) and then one of those Patricks, George Thomas Patrick, came to Madison County and settled in Greenville. That's my understanding; however, I do have a cousin here in town who has done much more research into the matter and could speak much more definitively than I. Aside from the occasional shepherd's pie Mama Patrick would make (always one of my very favorites), most of the “Irishness” of our family faded over subsequent generations.
Still I have always had an affinity for all things Irish. A trip to the “Emerald Isle” has long been on my “bucket list.” My love for storytelling possibly stems from my Irish heritage, as does my love for the theatre. The Irish have long had a fondness for the theatre and the list of notable Irish playwrights and dramatists is long. Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Oliver Goldsmith in the early days to George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats, and more recently, Samuel Beck and Brian Friel. The Irish have certainly made an impact on the stage.
So on this day when everyone claims a bit o' Irish, let me raise a pint o' Guinness to you and leave you with this Irish blessing:
May those who love us, love us;
And for those who don't love us,
May God turn their hearts;
And if He doesn't turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles,
So we will know them by their limping!
Happy St. Patrick's Day.