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Archiver > NY-IRISH > 2002-03 > 1015169927


From: "JAH" <>
Subject: RE: [NY IRISH] Re: St Patrick's Day Food
Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2002 09:38:47 -0600
In-Reply-To: <16a.9759c9e.29ad104b@cs.com>


We've always done the Corned Beef, Cabbage, Boiled Potatoes and Bread
Pudding thing.

It's getting harder and harder to find a really lean corned beef, to have
enough left over for corned beef hash.

I also make potato leek soup for starters.

This is a St. Pat's Day tradition for us, but my daughter and I both make it
a good 6 times throughout the year, as we're die hard corned beef lovers.

St. Paul has a large St. Patrick's Day parade each year, but I haven't
attended in many years. It bothers me that so many non-Irish consider it a
good excuse to tie one on, and it detracts from the religious and Irish
history meaning of the holiday for me.

I've always heard that in Ireland, it's not celebrated the way it is here.
It's a day to go to Church, and spend time with the family, but not the
hoopla and parades that we do here.

On another note, I was a bit disappointed to hear what I did in a
conversation I had with Tommy Makem on Thursday night after his concert
here. He said that I'm going to find Dublin to be very yuppish, and that
the Dubliners have tended more and more over the past 20 years to consider
themselves European, rather than Irish.

He also feels that the return to Gaelic as the native language is more an
American Irish myth, than an Ireland reality. I asked him if it is mostly
the American Irish that are putting the rejuvenation on traditional Irish
lore, and he said yes.

He also mentioned that the helicopters still fly over Armagh on a daily
basis, and that there aren't a lot of windows left in Belfast.

I don't want to give the impression that he was dunning Ireland in any way,
or saying it isn't well worth the visit, but I think we American Irish have
a different concept of the "back to roots" thing.

Judy Herbert

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