Lessons From My Irish Ancestors

On this St. Patrick's Day, TFP looks to the past for wisdom and guidance.

“Emigrants leaving Queenstown [Ireland] for New York,” Illus. from Harper’s Weekly, Sept. 26, 1874 (print from wood engraving).

To quarrel for riches I ne’er was inclined, 
For the greatest of misers must leave them behind.

             — “Limerick Rake,” traditional Irish song

By Michael Judge

If there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s that Jesus liked to pull a cork. In fact, given his propensity for keeping the party going at all costs—even if it took turning water into whiskey, or was it wine?—I’m doubly certain that the boy from Bethlehem was Irish. How can I be certain? He lived at home until he was 30, had 12 drinking buddies, and his mother thought he was God. Sounds Irish to me!

Yes, that’s right. It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and on this day even the big JC is an honorary Irishman, sitting—as he most assuredly is—at the right hand of the Father. Indeed, on each and every March 17 people from around the world with even the slightest drop of Irish blood—and many without—celebrate the Fe…