The History of St. Patrick's Day

NBC News Radio National Correspondent Rory O'Neill joins us to discuss the history of the celebration of St. Patrick's Day. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, let's talk Saint Patrick's Day as everybody celebrates, whether
you're Irish or not. But we wanted to be true
to form and make sure that Rory O'Neill get this story.
NB Seniors Radio National Correspondent. Because of the last name,
good morning and.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Right back at you, Good morning, Happy Saint Patrick, Stacey.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
It's not as much Irish as you'd think with a
name like Kelly. But how did this thing start? Anyway,
let's go because there's a lot of you know, lore
about Saint Patrick's Day and why so big a thing
in America.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, it really is an American export back to Ireland.
You know, the St Patrick's Day in Ireland is much
more of a religious event. You went to mass back
in the day. As my grandmother used to say, she
never saw a corned beef until she was here in
the US. It's a bit of a head scratcher, but
really this stems from the immigration that happened in the

(00:54):
eighteen hundreds from Ireland to the US. Then the group
getting a bit homesick, starting to find their feet when
it comes to their economic power, getting jobs of course
in law enforcement and firefighting in places like Boston, New York, Chicago,
even Savannah, Georgia was another big one. And then essentially

(01:14):
they started to celebrate their Irish heritage and Saint Patrick's
Day became a much bigger thing here in the US
than it ever was back in Ireland. And now it's
become a big tourist event where Ireland welcomes in all
those Irish Americans. I guess that was going to be
my question.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Do we celebrate similarly to what they're doing in maybe
Dublin or it's Ireland looking at us like, oh wow,
take a step back there, America.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, No, Ireland is looking at us saying we'll take
your green money. You can come party and drink all
you like across Ireland. But realizing this really is an
American celebration because this was really to honor Saint Patrick,
who brought Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century. He
was himself English and is actually a slave who worked

(02:03):
as a shepherd essentially in Ireland in the fifth century,
but when it was he escaped and came back and
that's when he brought Christianity to Ireland and that's what
he's credited for. He's the patron saint of it. And
that's why it was always always more of a religious
holiday than anything that we see now.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, and notwithstanding the money that some of these communities
make from the thing. I mean, I've been to Savannah.
They shut that city down. It's ridiculous. I mean, we.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Did that great did that parade too, It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
We did a little Irish off ionia here packed downtown
Grand Rapids as well in New York City, as you mentioned,
get out of town. So I guess I still want
to celebrate today. They do the green beer thing, and
it never appealed to me.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well yeah, so please no green beer, No four leaf clovers.
It should be a three leaf shamrock. Only a paddy
wagon is an offensive reference to the Irish. These little
things are out there that you know, the Irish. Let
we let it just roll off our backs. But yeah,
we can do better.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
There you go. Thank you. Rory O'Neill, NBC News Radio
national correspondent.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Hey, thanks, Dave