Everyone will be at least a little bit Irish tomorrow when St. Patrick’s Day comes along.

Well, that’s true of those folks who choose to mark the day in some way, shape or form. (Police and officials in Waterloo would be happier if that didn’t include people out on the streets around the universities, of course.)

In these parts, St. Patrick’s Day is most often associated with green beer and Celtic music. More generally, it’s a festive time to celebrate all things Irish. Ironically, the celebrations we equate with the day originated among the diaspora – the first St. Patrick’s Day in the US – as the day was a rather subdued event in Ireland itself.

Given St. Patrick’s status as the patron saint of Ireland, celebrations were more in line with religious holidays. The man himself wasn’t Irish, having been born in Britain, then under Roman rule. He’d been kidnapped as a teen and held as a slave for a number of years. Years after having escaped, he returned as a missionary to foster Christianity – legend says he used the shamrock as a way to illustrate the Holy Trinity.

March 17 is said to mark the day he died in 461, though the actual date remains unknown. It wasn’t until centuries later that the day become associated with the wearing o’ the green we know today, let alone one fuelled by green beer. In Ireland itself, the holiday precluded pubs and such establishments from opening even into the 1970s. It’s only been in the last few decades that officials there, seeing the vast tourism potential, began embracing the festivities seen in the likes of the US, Canada and Australia, all places with large ex-pat communities.

Statistically, there are far more people abroad citing Irish ancestry than there are on the Emerald Isle itself. The some 70 to 80 million ethnic Irish people in the world represent a number 15 times greater than the current Republic of Ireland. In the US alone, there are some 35 to 40 million people who are of Irish descent. In the 2020 US Census, almost 10 per cent of the population – some 32 million – identified as being Irish.

In Canada, the 2021 Census saw 4.4 million Canadians cite Irish origins. Many more will claim the link for the day tomorrow.

“Irish” was third on that Census list, after “Canadian” (5.7 million), “English” (5.3 million) and tied with “Scottish” (4.4 million). That was followed by “French” at 4 million.)

Irish settlement in Canada can be traced back to the mid-16th century, with Irish fishermen travelling west to take advantage of the stocks off Newfoundland. More formal immigration began in the late-17th century, with people gradually moving westward from the East Coast settlements.

The number of arrivals grew rapidly during the Great Irish Famine, 1845-51, which saw hundreds of thousands of people flee Ireland in search of a new home in North America. Those arriving in Canada often passed through Grosse Île, Quebec for mandatory quarantine. Given the health of many of those fleeing famine and the perils of ocean travel in those days, an estimated 5,000 of those who passed through quarantine died on the island – it’s said to be the largest Irish burial ground outside Ireland.

Stories of the “potato famine” remain linked to the migration of the Irish to this very day, when the ancestry is celebrated and others join in on St. Paddy’s Day. It wasn’t always thus.

The likes of signs bearing the admonitions “No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs” and “No Irish Need Apply” were once to be found. Much of that had to do with religious rifts as Irish Catholics made their way to Protestant-majority countries such as England and the US.

Times changed, and such blatant prejudice faded away, though some anti-Irish sentiment still lingers in the UK. In places such as Canada and US, the stigma is long past, replaced by pride and a wide enjoyment of the culture, which does extend beyond Guinness, Jameson and Bushmills.

Ireland is very much associated with writers and poets. The legendary names are familiar to those around for certain curricula: W.B. Yeats, Samuel Becket and James Joyce, he of Finnegan’s Wake and Ulysses, unreadable and indecipherable to the high-school student so afflicted. The likes of Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, C.S. Lewis and Bram Stoker continue to endure even in today’s pop-oriented culture.

More recently, Maeve Binchy and Roddy Doyle have put a spotlight on Irish writing. Doyle’s The Barrytown Trilogy has also served to foster Irish culture – albeit one of working-class Dublin – given the books have been made into movies.

Music is an easier accompaniment to any St. Paddy’s Day festivities than classic literature or even films. There, you’ve got a gamut to run, from the stadium kings U2 and the deservedly legendary Van Morrison to the likes of The Frames and The Corrs. The Cranberries, perhaps? Enya for the more ethereal minded? Certainly, The Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers.

Just now, The Pogues are essential. Add in The Dubliners and The Chieftains and you’ve got yourself the basis of a find soundtrack, that should also be heavy on Van.

Of course, there will be plenty of live shows in the area just now paying tribute to the Emerald Isle. There’s always been a strong showing in the local music scene, which is just itching to recover from the pandemic downturn. The Irish Real Life Festival is a pretty good jumping-off point, as the name implies.

There are plenty of events to choose from at this point, not all of which will feature barley-based beverages. Not that there aren’t a list of great options for those so inclined.

So, happy St. Patrick’s Day. By all means, do enjoy a fine pint of Guinness. Just please don’t attempt to add any food colouring.