Sláinte!

My paternal grandmother's family, the Fishers, came from Downpatrick in County Down, Ireland. Downpatrick (in Gaelic, Dun Padraig- "Fortress,or Stronghold, of Patrick") figures prominently in the history of St. Patrick's mission to the Irish, and is where he is buried.

In Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland, there are two institutions which bring the name of St. Patrick into association with another name commonly associated with this day: Guinness. Founded in 1759 by Arthur Guinness, the brewery at St. James Gate (Gheata Shan Séamuis) uses water from a well once used by St. Patrick himself to perform baptisms. And the Guinness family had a stained glass window installed in St. Patrick's Cathedral, the seat of the Irish primate. On it are inscribed a rather appropriate portion of Matthew 25:35: "I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink."

I myself will raise a Guinness or two while enjoying my corned beef and cabbage tonight- and perhaps also a drop of Bushmill's Irish Whiskey (Irish and American spirits are properly spelled whiskey, whereas Scottish and Canadian distillations are properly whisky; in practice, the distinction is often ignored). Bushmill's is distilled in County Antrim, the Waters ancestral home. Interestingly, in Irish Gaelic "Waters" is Uisci- pronounced "Hiskey," but related to uisce beatha, meaning "water of life-" the Irish name for whiskey, and the source of the English word as well.

In Ireland, btw, they don't eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day. The culinary tradition there is to eat peas, potatoes, and carrots at dinner, symbolizing the green, white and orange of the Irish flag.

In any case, sláinte! ("Health!," the traditional Gaelic toast in both Ireland and Scotland).