Kentuckians have long shared, among other things, their love for horses, whiskey making and music with the Irish. Listen carefully to Eastern Kentucky’s fiddlers and you‘ll hear the refrains of Irish jigs and reels. And Kentucky’s buck dancing, or clogging, is a particularly vigorous and often undisciplined cousin to the Irish jig.
Indeed, more than 696,286 people of Irish ancestry live in Kentucky. That’s second only to the descendants of Germans. They have been there for hundreds of years, even before the great migration caused by the potato famine of 1845-6.
And so March 17 is not just any ordinary day in Kentucky. It’s time for Eastern Kentucky vs. State, corned beef and cabbage, and of course parades.
Ole St Patrick wasn’t always named that. When he was born in ancient Britain, his name was Maewyn Succat. At 16, he was kidnapped by pirates, taken across the sea to Ireland and sold as a slave. Patrick escaped after six years and went to a monastery to become a Roman Catholic priest. When Patrick was about 60 years old, he returned to Ireland as a missionary and became the country’s second bishop. St. Patrick established schools, churches and monasteries throughout Ireland.
St. Patrick is surrounded by legends. A popular one is that he gave a sermon so powerful that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Since no snakes are native to Ireland, it probably symbolizes the pagans who either converted to Christianity or were run out of Ireland. Patrick used the three-leafed shamrocks to explain certain church teachings. The shamrock became the symbol of St. Patrick’s Day.