Happy St. Patrick's Day!

As you may know, I'm a "dual". In addition to my citizenship in the U.S. by birth, I obtained citizenship in Ireland a few years ago thanks to my Grandparents having been born there. I even carry two passports, yet I have not so far traveled to my "new" homeland! You know how it is, when you have the funds you don't have the time, but when you have the time... I think I'll have to make it a vacation trip once I'm reestablished in the workforce.

The picture above is of a fence around a family grave plot in Montgomery, and while it is green, it's also somehow appropriate for the holiday. It's family...and it's death. It's memory, and morose, all familiar territory for St. Patrick's folks!

A book I mentioned recently has taught me something sad about the Irish in America, and that is their racism, at least in New York City, at least in the years leading up and during the U.S. Civil War. The draft riots there were largely an Irish event, and largely a protest against the very idea that Irish blood should be spilled to end black slavery. Mobs of Irish immigrants murdered any black person they came across. My ancestors didn't arrive in American till a couple of decades after that war ended, and I've no idea what their own racial prejudices may have been, if any. When I talk with people who were children in Alabama during the 60's Civil Rights era, I'm often told you had to be there to understand, that they were insulated from the marches and protests "Downtown". And I wonder if the children of the draft riots would say the same thing.