Lá Fhéile Pádraig

Today we celebrate the death of Saint Patrick, the slave turned conqueror that convinced the pagan Irish that their gods were, in reality, the Holy Trinity. I don't know if Padraig was good or bad for Erin. I suspect bad. Before Patrick, Ireland was never invaded and conquered. Afterward, Ireland was overrun by Vikings, Angle-Saxons and Normans who raped, plundered and murdered their way across the land for 1500 years.

The Irish are an odd people. They celebrate cultural insults such as leprechauns and embrace a saint who started the wholesale destruction of their culture to the point that there are more Irish in America than in Ireland. But the spirit of the Emerald Isle still lives. So get drunk, it's the Irish thing to do today.