By David Edge

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The most popular holiday celebrated in March is Saint Patrick’s Day on the 17th. The Patron Saint of Ireland is honored for bringing Christianity to Ireland around 400 AD. So fast forward a few hundred years to New York City, where in 1762 the first Saint Patrick’s Day Parade was held! You might wonder why the first parade wasn’t held in Ireland. Well, there are approximately 34 million Americans of Irish descent in America, and that is approximately 7 times the population of Ireland. Oh, BTW, you’ll hear the phrase “Erin Go Braugh” probably more than once on St. Paddy’s Day as
it means “Ireland Forever”!

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Other fun Irish facts;

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Ireland has been the land of superstitions as we tend to think of leprechauns, four-leaf clovers, fairies, rainbows with pots of gold at the end, and no one can deny the wearing of the green on this special day unless you want to get pinched! If your nose itches, someone is speaking ill of you, but if your palm itches you’ve got money coming to you. When you find a lucky horseshoe, you nail it to your wall pointing up so that the luck won’t fall out! Don’t break any mirrors because no one wants seven years of bad luck! There are dozens more of these fun, but irrational beliefs.

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There are more than one or two auspicious superstitions with Irish folk and another popular belief is Kissing the Blarney Stone for good luck. As the story goes, the King of Blarney Castle in the village of Blarney, Ireland once saved an old woman from drowning and in reward, she cast a good spell on the stone where it still resides today. Kissing the stone is a popular belief that it will bring you good luck. Others say kissing the stone will give you the gift of persuasion and eloquent speech.

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You can thank the Irish for popularizing limericks. Irish writer Edward Lear made these little ditties fun and a permanent part of our speech patterns in 1846 when his book “Book of Nonsense” was published. If you decide to try your hand at writing a limerick, remember its five lines of verse, the first two lines rhyme with the fifth line, and the lines are usually humorous. You can visit the fourth largest city of “Limerick” Ireland on your next trip!

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So kick up your heels with a little Irish jig and remember to wear some green!