In the week since the infamous St Patrick’s Day celebrations, I have become increasingly intrigued by the transnational, if not global, appeal of the Irish celebration. Each year it arrives in mid-March St. Patrick\u2019s Day sparks a sense of joy, excitement and dare I say patriotic feeling in me, despite the fact that I myself have no Irish blood (as far as I know of). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This seems the case for many people around the world who,\nwithout a familial or personal lineage rooted in Ireland, feel connected to the\ncustoms and traditions associated with the Irish holiday. I wondered why this\nwas, how far the origins of the celebration had a role in its current\ntransnationalism and why it has this transnational appeal which seemingly\nsurpasses that of any other national holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The original roots of the celebration might give us some indication of its relevance beyond national borders. Saint Patrick himself was not Irish by birth and was allegedly born in Britain in the fifth century A.D. to an aristocratic Christian family. He immigrated to Ireland with a mission to convert the Irish to Christianity after he had been captured as a slave to pirates for six years. Thus, for many Irish people the day remained a primarily religious and private celebration even into the latter half of the 20th<\/sup> century, with it only being declared a public holiday in Ireland in 1904. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, the modern version of the holiday as a public\ncelebration is largely an American export, as Cronin and Adair show (Cronin\n& Adair, 2002). The first recorded celebrations were held in Boston in\n1737, where a group of elite Irish men celebrated \u2018the Irish saint\u2019 over dinner\n(Cronin, 2015). Yet the tradition of parading really started in the 1760s amongst\nIrish Catholic members of the British Army in New York looking to re-connect\nwith their Irish roots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Emigration and the influence of the Irish diaspora in the 19th<\/sup>\ncentury heightened this holiday\u2019s transnational appeal. The famines in Ireland\nencouraged some 2 million to emigrate from the island, with most settling in\nAmerica and Britain (The Economist, 2018). Irish-Americans celebrated their\nCatholicism and venerated Irish nationalism but they also stressed their\npatriotic belief in their new home. This explains why Cronin has described St.\nPatrick\u2019s Day at that time as \u2018a public declaration of a hybrid identity\u2019 \u2013 one\nbased on the \u2018belief in the future of Ireland as a nation free from British\nrule\u2019 along with \u2018a strict adherence to the values and liberties that the U.S.\noffered them\u2019 (Cronin, 2015). <\/p>\n\n\n\n By the mid-20th<\/sup> century the holiday had become a\ncelebration of all things Irish and was widely established across America. But celebrations\nhad also become common across the world by this time. The Caribbean island of Montserrat\nofficially marks St. Patrick\u2019s Day with a \u2018freedom run\u2019, amongst other things,\nreflecting its history as a refuge for persecuted Irish Catholics as far back\nas the 17th century. Every March 17th<\/sup> Montserrat embodies a\ntransnational fusion of Irish, African and Caribbean tradition. Tokyo has\nhosted St. Patrick\u2019s festivities since 1992, made all the more unique by the\nfact that it is largely organized by people who aren\u2019t Irish (Janik, 2015). In\nMalta the day has been celebrated since the early 20th<\/sup> century originating\nwith soldiers of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who were stationed in Floriana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A combination of flexible historical origins with the growth\nof Irish emigration and openness to the expression of Irish identity across the\nworld seems to give this celebration a distinctly transnational relevance and\nappeal. It might also just reflect a global appreciation for drinking Guinness,\nbut that\u2019s a more disputable point for another day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n References<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cronin, Michael, & Adair, Daryl, The wearing of the green: a history of St Patrick’s Day<\/em> (London,\n2002).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Cronin, \u2018How America Invented St. Patrick\u2019s Day\u2019,\n(2015) accessible at: http:\/\/time.com\/3744055\/america-invented-st-patricks-day\/<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rachel Janik, \u2018How St. Patrick’s Day Became the Most Global\nNational Holiday\u2019, (2015) accessible at: http:\/\/time.com\/3746018\/st-patricks-day-global\/<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n