Published March 2009 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd SAINT PATRICK' DAY, 2009 "Top o' the mornin' to ye, my fellow West Virginians!" Or, better yet, "to my fellow Irish-West Virginians." So many of us look forward to the one day each year - March 17, St. Patrick's Day - when we can all proclaim ourselves to be "Irish for a day." Celebrated by the wearing of green clothing, the playing of Irish music and the eating of Irish foods like corn beef and cabbage, St. Patrick's Day is a most delightful annual observation. The Irish have observed the day as a religious occasion for over a thousand years. It was on March 17,AD 46l, that St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, died. As the people of Ireland traveled outside the Emerald Isle, the day came to be celebrated around the world in a number of different ways. The St. Patrick's Day custom came to America in 1737, when the day was celebrated in Boston. The first St. Patrick's Day parade was in New York City on March 17, 1762. Today, many cities in the United States celebrate the day with huge parades. Some paint their city streets green. The city of Chicago dyes the Chicago River green. And the community of Ireland, in Lewis County, annually hosts an all-out multi-day festival, complete with harp-playing, road bow ling, a King and Queen to rein over the festivities, and plenty of blarney. On St. Patrick's Day, Irish themes and symbols abound. Everywhere, we see shamrocks - the three-leaved plant that St. Patrick was supposed to have used to explain the Holy Trinity to pre-Christian Irish. Also called the "seamroy" in Ireland, the shamrock was a sacred plant in ancient Ireland because it symbolized the rebirth of spring, just the way the ramp does in West Virginia. By the seventeenth century, the shamrock had become a symbol of emerging Irish nationalism. At any rate, put on some green clothes, eat a bowl Irish stew, hunt for a rainbow's end, and try to spot a Leprechaun or two because, as the song says, "It's a great day for the Irish!" On this Saint Patrick's Day, I leave you with this old "Irish blessing": May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand. March 11, 2009