Leprechauns:
Folklorist D.R. McAnally Jr.'s Irish Wonders (1888) describes the leprechaun as being "of low descent, his father being an evil spirit and his mother a degenerate fairy." Its pranks were typically minor household mishaps. In the oldest images, leprechauns were shown wearing red coats—a color used to mock British soldiers.
Green Beer
Newsstory of Dr. Thomas H. Curtain’s “Discovery” of Green Beer, in New York City’s Evening Herald, March 18, 1914, page 11.
The Color of Ireland:
The earliest known image of Saint Patrick, from a 13th-century manuscript shows him in a blue habit, not green. Check out the image at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. https://www.huntington.org/verso/wearin-o-blue
“The Wearing of the Green,” the famous Iris protest song, evolved and changed over a century. The earliest version dates back to the Irish Rebellion of 1798, but it was popularized in 1864, by Dion Boucicault who adapted the Dublin street ballad for his play that was set during the 1798 rebellion. In one of his verses, the song suggests emigration to America over staying in continued defiance to British rule.
Lyrics for “The Wearing of the Green”
The Wearing of the Green (Common Traditional Version)
Oh, Paddy dear, and did you hear the news that's going round?The shamrock is forbid by law to grow on Irish ground!Saint Patrick's day no more we'll keep, his color can't be seen,For there's a bloody law agin' the Wearin' o' the Green.
I met with Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand,And he said, "How's poor old Ireland, and how does she stand?"She's the most distressful country that ever you have seen,For they're hanging men and women there for the Wearin' o' the Green.
An' if the color we must wear is England's cruel red,Let it remind us of the blood that Ireland has shed;You may take the shamrock from your hat and cast it on the sod,But 'twill take root and flourish still, though underfoot 'tis trod.
When the law can stop the blades of grass from growing as they grow,And when the leaves in summer-time their color dare not show,Then I will change the color, too, I wear in my caubeen,But till that day, please God, I'll stick to the Wearin' o' the Green.
Check out Spotify for the famous Irish tenor John McCormack singing the song in a 1904 recording https://open.spotify.com/track/7hWcqZbj81eYQ50ZdyfXGt
Fun Fact: It was also around the time of the 1798 Rebellion that Ireland was first referred to in a poem as the “Emerald Isle,” which further solidified green as the official color of the island nation.
Dyeing Rivers Green:
Chicago isn’t the only city to dye their river green for St. Patrick’s Day. Savannah, George was reportedly the first, while other rivers dyed green are in Tampa, FL, Charlotte, NC, and San Antonio, TX.
Eating the Past: St. Patrick's Day
