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"The Foreigner"
"An' ye've lift the pirade, Tim?'
"Oi have that."
"Phwat fur?"
"Oi've just been towld as Sint Patrick was a Frinchman, an' the idee of traipsin' roun' the sthraits an' carryin' the American flag fur a furriner is not to me taste, at all at all."
This Harper’s Weekly cartoon by C. G. Bush presents a scene at
the St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City. In Irish dialect, the
woman inquires why the man has dropped out of the parade, to which he
answers that it is because he has learned that St. Patrick was French,
not Irish. The ex-marcher is a foreign-born American, yet he rejects
honoring a foreign-born Irishman. The joke needles the exclusivity of
Irish-Americans (though the message is more universal) who denigrate
other immigrant or ethnic groups.
St. Patrick was actually born in fifth-century Britain, not France,
to a Romanized family. He is credited with converting the Irish to
Christianity and, according to legend, with driving the snakes from the
island and explaining the Christian doctrine of the Trinity by using a
shamrock. A parade celebrating St. Patrick in New York City dates to
1766, when it featured an Irish unit of the British army serving in the
colony. The tradition of a militia-sponsored event was continued until
1812 when Irish-American fraternal and benevolent societies assumed
organizational responsibility, although soldiers continued to lead the
march.
The annual parade was a small affair until the late 1840s when its
increased size and significance coincided with the massive influx of
immigrants from famine-ravaged Ireland. By the early 1850s, the parade
was so important that the mayor and other city notables were obliged to
review it, and the number of participants was so large that it brought
business in the area of the march to a virtual standstill. Mayor Abraham
Oakey Hall (1868-1872) attended the festivities dressed in emerald-green
coat and shirt, and facetiously insisted that his initials were short
for "Ancient Order of Hibernians." In 1887, newly-elected
mayor Abram Hewitt broke tradition by refusing to review the parade or
fly the shamrock flag at City Hall, lecturing the city that
"America should be governed by Americans." He was not
reelected.
Today, over 150,000 people march in the parade, and enjoyment of the
event has transcended its ethnic origins.
Robert C. Kennedy
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