Happy St Patrick's Day to all

Céad míle fáilte! A hundred thousand welcomes!

Well sure you'll be t'inking that if Wilson isn't around much today it's because he's drowning in Guinness (I wish) -- after all, his paternal great-grandparents met on the steamship coming from Ireland to Australia in the 1880s.

But the troot is, although I am indeed wearing the green today, I'm banjaxed and just got up from me deathbed to wish youse all a very, very happy St Patrick's Day. I expect I'll feel better soon and be sure be sure be sure be sure be sure to see you tomorrow.

And here's to the Irish, that most remarkable race who among other achievements have given us so many great writers, like James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats, Oliver Goldsmith, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Jonathan Swift, George Bernard 'To Be' Shaw, John Millington Synge, Sean O'Casey and on and on and on.

How the small nation of Ireland with such a small population (still only about 5.8 million) can have influenced the whole world to such an extraordinary degree is a great mystery, but what I do know is that there are many times more than that number who are Irish on this the Irish national day, St Paddy's Day. And good luck to 'em all. We luv yez.

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

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Tagged: ireland, calendar+customs, saints, celebrations, folklore, lore, customs