IT wouldn’t be often you’d feel sorry for An Taoiseach, but the prospect of having to smile and plámás Donald Trump, for the second time no less, is nightmare-inducing.
However, a refusal to go to the White House is not an option, no matter what kind of moral stance opposition politicians think we should take. To achieve balance, most weekend radio talkshows had the debate: should he go? The ‘he should not’, halo-brigade got their five minutes of ethical grandstanding but it rings hollow. Shamrock was presented to Bush, to Nixon, to Reagan, throughout the Vietnam War and the invasion of Iraq, when the US was funding Contras in Nicaragua.
It’s naïve to think that any American administration is ever going to be clean, and this is not the time to be marking a new precedent. The only thing different about Trump is he wears his heart, or his lack of it, on his sleeve. A boycott is more than idealistic thinking; it’s lunacy. You don’t draw a mad dog on you, no more than you antagonise a drunk man. Trump is not in possession of morals, or reason; what would taking a moral stance with someone who detains children on their way home from school achieve for us, or even for those children?
ADVERTISEMENT
There’s no right way to act with a man like Trump, but there is a wrong way, and a snub on St Patrick’s Day would be exactly that.
__________________________________________________
St Brigid's Day, truly one for the women
BEFORE St Patrick’s Day, we have St Brigid’s Day. It feels like we still haven’t quite come to grips with the surprise Bank Holiday yet, and we still have the pleasant shock of a Monday off just as we were getting so very weary of dull, ascetic January. There’s no shamrock or other such cultural symbolism for St Brigid’s Day (long may it last), but there are multiple opportunities to find your inner goddess, wherever she’s hiding the rest of the year.
What is fascinating is the online trade in St Brigid’s Day crosses. One seller on Etsy will send you a ‘wild Irish rush’ cross (as opposed to the farmed or cultivated rushes?) for €18. A DIY kit is €30. One canny florist in Louth is selling bunches of rushes for €15; in the economics of supply and demand, that’s an interesting price point.
It’s still free to visit St Brigid’s Well in Lough Hyne, one of about 15 in Cork although she is more closely associated with Kildare. She’s travelled even further than West Cork though, as the Haitian tradition has the Iwa Maman Brigitte, who is white skinned, red-haired, associated with our own Brigid, and is a death spirit known for being ‘loud, rowdy, and using foul language’, and is a protector of graves.
There something blessed about having a Bank Holiday that doesn’t have a ‘thing’ associated with it. Easter fills itself with things to do, as does May, June, August, and October with its inescapable Halloween links. On bank holidays it’s invariably the women who are packing bags, cleaning the campervan, cooking Sunday dinner, navigating 10 WhatsApp groups. St Brigid’s Day should stay a true holiday in honour of the feminine, and remain empty of obligations.
