St. Paddy’s Day is somewhat of a conundrum to me. I feel like I’m supposed to be into it because I’m one eighth Irish, but in the past year it’s really fallen off with me.
I always spent St. Paddy’s day with my grandmother, who was the only person in my family to really identify with our slightly Irish roots. It was a day off of Lent, so we would go out to lunch at a restaurant that served the things that we gave up (consistently food based), and make a day of it.
In university it’s different, and I have one question: who died and made Pat Murphy the be-all and end-all of ‘Irish sounding’ songs?
My last St. Paddy’s day was spent dorm-hopping, which was a blast, save for the fact that, without fail, each room we entered would open its door to the sound of the Great Big Sea telling me how much people drank when Paddy (Patrick? Patricia?) Murphy kicked the bucket. The song is fun once or twice, but around the 18th time someone called Pat Murphy dies, you’d think they would stop naming people that.
I could say the same thing about other holiday songs, Rudolf, Jingle Bells, whatever song people play on Halloween, but none of them hold a candle to the throne of “The Night Pat Murphy Died.” This is because the song is played year-round, and St. Patrick’s Day is simply the catalyst that unleashes everyone’s love of ‘Irish sounding’ things.
I’m sorry for the passing of the collective Paddy Murphy’s, and for the hangovers of their wives, but at this point I really need Great Big Sea to come out with another drinking song, just to get this one off my back.
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