St. Patrick’s Day is one that is celebrated by everybody from the O’Haras to the O’thellos. Everyone wears the green.

I am part Irish — as we used to say. My paternal grandmother was an O’Neil directly from the Emerald Isle. She always wore a black dress and stockings and weighed in at about 250 pounds and almost 6 feet tall. She was never without a smile and a hug and my memories of her will never fade. I printed a poem of her life in a previous edition.

The Irish are tough and always humorous, and as one comedian says, “They’re the only group you can safely make fun of and they’ll laugh and give it back to you.”

Depending on when you read this, I hope you will, or did, enjoy that celebration — St. Patrick’s Day.

If you are just pure Irish then you have to celebrate,

The Micks would call you hicks if you skipped right by the date.

If you have even just a speck, with green you should adorn,

So, you can sing Oh, Danny Boy and dance the jig till morn.

If you have naught a speck of blood from that dear Emerald Isle,

Just join the “lucky” on that day to celebrate the while.

For every 17th of March, we fill the streets with song,

Sham, “shanty” or “lace curtain;” that day we all belong.

So, raise a mug and toast the Irish wisdom and their wit,

We’ll toast you back and hope the year gives you the best of it.

It’s all corned beef and cabbage and a drink to lift the load,

The day is always brighter when you travel Erin’s road. JDF

Joke: The Irish guy was at a party and had a couple when he got into a conversation with a psychologist. The Irishman asked the doc how he could tell if a person was mentally deficient. The doc said, “Well, for instance, if I told you that Captain Cook made three trips around the world and he died on one of them, which one would that be?” The Irish guy sipped his Guinness and said, “Listen. I have to confess I’ve never been very good at history.”

Favorite one and two liners (Irish toasts):

May you live to 100 years — with one extra year to repent.

May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night and the road downhill all the way to your door.

Health to your enemies’ enemies.

May the grass grow long on the road to hell for lack of use.

May the roof above us never fall in and may the friends gathered below never fall out.

May the face of every good news and the back of every bad news be towards you.

Quickie: The largest home improvement company in Ireland sells, among other things, mole repellent.

Now it’s been said that there have never been any moles in Ireland. Well, maybe the repellent works.

Historical tidbits (that the Irish guy surely didn’t know):

Louis Fox was a billiards champion in 1865 and was playing in a very big money match. At a crucial part of the game a fly landed on the cue ball and Louis tried to shoo it off. He missed and miscued and it ended up costing him the match. He was so upset, that he went down to the river, jumped in — and drowned.

The last known widow of a Civil War veteran died in 2008.

Elvis is reported to have been distantly related to both Abraham Lincoln and Jimmy Carter.

Andrew Jackson (#7), kept fighting cocks while he was president and Martin Van Buren (#8) kept two tiger cubs in the White House. Those early presidents were of a different breed.

I really hope you have/had a great St. Paddy’s Day! Sláinte! JDF