The Wearin' of the Green

My ancestor, Irish patriot Henry Joy McCracken

Faith, and it's St. Patrick's Day again! Denise and I about to head out to Bennegin's for a corned beef and cabbage dinner and a pint of Guinness. She's already changed into her green sweater; unfortunately, all I've got that's both clean and green is a rather bilious clergy shirt that I'll just wear without the tab.

But should we be celebrating this day? My grandmother was born and raised in Downpatrick, the town where St. Patrick is buried. One of my Belfast- born grandfather's ancestors was Henry Joy McCracken, the Protestant who led Wolfe Tone's rebellion in the North, who commanded the Irish forces at the Battle of Antrim, and who was captured and hanged by the British after an abortive attempt to flee to America.

But my ancestors were Presbyterians- the Scots-Irish. I was always raised to value my Scottish and British heritage, but also to see my ethnicity on my father's side as primarily Irish. But there are those who claim that you have to be Catholic in order to be truly Irish. And we are, in any case, really a seperate ethnic group: offspring of the followers of William Wallace and, far earlier, the blue-painted Pictish warriors the Romans feared, could not defeat, and finally had to build a wall across Britain to defend themselves against.

We have just as great a claim to being Irish, though, as anyone. Our people migrated from Ulster to the Lowlands of Scotland and back again from time immemorial. The evidence seems to suggest that they actually may have originated in Ulster. Perhaps they were there before The O'Neil supposedly won the race to touch the Ulster shore which was to determine chieftanship of the Irish clans who were migrating there by cutting off his own hand and throwing it up on the beach ahead of a rival who was about to claim the prize (the Red Hand has been the emblem of Ulster ever since).

Right now I'm reading Born Fighting, a book by former Reagan Navy Secretary James Webb on our common Scots-Irish ancestry. I cannot claim to share all the characteristics of my ethnic group; for one thing, I can't abide country music (a dislike shared by my equally Scots-Irish/German wife), and prefer scotch to bourbon. But it's a fascinating heritage to claim. It has probably contributed more than any other ethnicity to our American culture and values; in fact, it wouldn't be going too far to say that, in a real sense, we Ulster Scots invented the idea of America. And more presidents and famous generals have been Scots-Irish than you could shake a bagpipe at.

Should celebrate the victory of King Billy at the Battle of the Boyne instead of St. Patrick's Day, and wear orange instead of green? Maybe. But I still think it's worthwhile to honor the man who brought Christianity to Ireland, and the common history and heritage of Irishmen of all faiths and both ethnicities on this day. This day belongs to McCracken and Tone and Parnell and the other Protestant heroes of Ireland's history, too. And it belongs to me.

So green it is- and off to Bennigan's!