Irish Blessing
May you always have...
Walls for the winds
A roof for the rain
Tea beside the fire
Laughter to cheer you
Those you love near you
And all your heart might desire.
Here's an old classic song, very appropriate for this da...
if you know it, go on Ð sing it!

Irish Eyes Are Smiling
"When Irish Eyes Are Smiling"
When Irish eyes are smiling
Sure it's like a morning spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter,
You can hear the angels sing.
When Irish hearts are happy,
All the world seems bright and gay.
And when Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure, they steal your heart away.
There's a tear in your eye, and I'm wondering why,
For it never should be there at all.
With such power in your smile, sure a stone you'd beguile,
So there's never a teardrop should fall.
When your sweet lilting laughter's like some fairy song,
And your eyes twinkle bright as can be,
You should laugh all the while and all other times smile,
And now smile a smile for me.
Chorus:
When Irish eyes are smiling
Sure it's like a morning spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter,
You can hear the angels sing.
When Irish hearts are happy,
All the world seems bright and gay.
And when Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure, they steal your heart away.

What's good luck on Saint Patrick's Day?

- Finding a four-leafed clover (that's double the good luck it usually is).
- Wearing green. (anything green, anywhere) If you don't beware-you might get pinched!
- Kissing the blarney stone.

Things associated with Saint Patrick's Day

The color green - because it is the color of spring, Ireland, and the shamrock.
Leprechaun - Irish fairy. The name leprechaun is derived from the old Irish word leprechaun which means "little body." A leprechaun is a fairy taking the appearance of a miniature old man. Leprechauns are solitary creatures and spend their time making shoes and brogues. If you hear the sound of his hammer when he is at work you know you have found him. If caught, he can be forced to reveal the whereabouts of his treasure, but the captor must keep their eyes on him every second. If the captor's eyes leave the leprechaun, just for a moment, he will vanish.

The Blarney Stone is a stone set in the wall of the Blarney Castle tower in the Irish village of Blarney. Kissing the stone is supposed to bring the kisser the gift of persuasive eloquence (blarney).

The origins of the Blarney Stone's magical properties aren't clear, but one legend says that an old woman cast a spell on the stone to reward a king who had saved her from drowning. Kissing the stone while under the spell gave the king the ability to speak sweetly and convincingly.

Shamrock, a member of the clover family, was used by Patrick to explain the mystery of the Trinity, the three leaves of the shamrock representing the Trinity (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit). According to Irish legend, Ireland's patron saint chose the shamrock as a symbol of the Trinity of the Christian church. To this day the shamrock remains the national emblem of Ireland and is worn proudly by Irish people the world over on St. Patrick's Day (March 17).
No one can agree on which plant is the shamrock picked by St. Patrick. Many claim it is the small hop clover (Trifolium procumbens), a plant with yellow flowers and blue-green leaflets. Others believe it is a variety of white clover (T. repens) or the black medic (Medicago lupulina). These plants are native to Europe and naturalized in North America. The European wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), which grows in Europe and Asia, is also often considered to be the true shamrock.

Saint Patrick (real name: Maewyn Succat?) was kidnapped at the age of 16 by pirates and sold into slavery. During his 6-year captivity he found strength in his religious faith. After he escaped, Saint Patrick studied religion in Europe,then travelledto Ireland to spread the Christian word there. He used the shamrock, which resembles a three-leafed clover, as a metaphor to explain the concept of the Trinity (father, son, holy spirit).

Legend has it that Saint Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland -- that they all went into the sea and drowned. Poor snakes. I don't know why he would want to do this, except that the snake was a revered pagan symbol, and perhaps this was a figurative tale alluding to the fact that he drove paganism out of Ireland.