St. Patrick's Day And Saturday Night? Of Course. The Irish Brigade...

[twyacht]

Have a Guinness, Bangers & Mash, a snoot of Jameson, and a Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

May she always remain green!!!

[crusader rabbit]

God invented whiskey so the Irish wouldn't take over the world.

And He blessed the Irish race with the greatest story-tellers, and the finest appreciation of a good time known in the human family.

My own dear grandpa and grandma came from the Emerald Isle--he, a 40-year-old Irish bachelor; she, a 27-year-old Irish virgin lass.  At least that's the story I was told (see line 2 above).  However, they were both from the north and proudly proclaimed their dedication to The Orange.  They had little use for the "papists" and would never recognize Patrick as any kind of a saint. 

During celebratory parades, grandpa and his lads would follow the Salvation Army band loudly singing, "What can wash me white as snow?  Nothing but the Sunshine soap I know..."  As are many Irish, he was not deeply concerned with causing possible offense.

And so lads and lassies, ha' a wee tipple and a grand celebration on this papist holiday.  And know that a bit o' the Guinness in the morning will greatly assist in clearing the cobwebs.

Crusader

[Pathfinder]

Ach, CR, laddie, ye be tellin' the truth! My ancestors were good Dalriadic Scots who the King of England (ptooey) decided were major league pains in the arse, and hied them all tae the Netherlands, to shoot some papist French and Spanish. When the Grahams, Kerrs, Armstrongs and others of their ilk arrived in Holland, they all went "Nuts!" (and where did ye think good General Macaullife got it from, eh?) and smuggled themselves back to the Borders of Scotland.

Well, when the King found out he was mightily pissed off, don't ya know, so's he gathers them all up agin, and runs them off to the Emerald Isle, nearabouts Londonderry where there just happened tae be yet another wee war goin' on. Well, after a few generations, me ancestors sobered up from all the good Irish whiskey (improved over the years what with the Scots being there), and skeedaddled over to North America, Shenandoah region, where some of my kin run shine to this very day!