St Patrick’s Day, Down Under.
This will be our seventh St Patrick’s Day away from Ireland. Seven years away from our beloved homeland. Seven years to integrate, assimilate, and become Australian. But that hasn’t happened. We are still 100% Irish!
To prove it, like all Irish abroad, we dress up in the most garish OTT St Patrick’s Day clothes we can find, and hit the city. Each year we get more outlandish. The boys love it. They get to proclaim their heritage, loud and proud. There is no way to make an Irish man more patriotic than to take him out of Ireland. We love Australia and it’s people, but we will be Irish to the end.
St Paddies Day 2009, before we went started to go all out with the costumes!
“When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, sure ’tis like a morn in spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter, you can hear the angels sing.
When Irish hearts are happy, all the world seems bright and gay,
And When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, sure, they steal your heart away.”