St Patricks day

All you Irish gamers out there have a good day

:)

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sadly ye can only use this emoji (

) once a year. (and it's on me favourite holiday)
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Here's some history:

Saint Patrick's feast day, as a kind of national day, was already being celebrated by the Irish in Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries. In later times, he became more and more widely known as the patron of Ireland.[24] Saint Patrick's feast day was finally placed on the universal liturgical calendar in the Catholic Church due to the influence of Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding[25] in the early 1600s. Saint Patrick's Day thus became a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland. It is also a feast day in the Church of Ireland. The church calendar avoids the observance of saints' feasts during certain solemnities, moving the saint's day to a time outside those periods. St Patrick's Day is occasionally affected by this requirement, when 17 March falls duringHoly Week. This happened in 1940, when Saint Patrick's Day was observed on 3 April to avoid it coinciding with Palm Sunday, and again in 2008, where it was officially observed on 14 March. St Patrick's Day will not fall within Holy Week again until 2160.[26][27] However, the secular celebration is always held on 17 March.

In 1903, St Patrick's Day became an official public holiday in Ireland. This was thanks to the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act 1903, an act of the United Kingdom Parliament introduced by Irish Member of Parliament James O'Mara.[28] O'Mara later introduced the law that required that pubs and bars be closed on 17 March after drinking got out of hand, a provision that was repealed in the 1970s. The first St Patrick's Day parade held in the Irish Free State was held in Dublin in 1931 and was reviewed by the then Minister of Defence Desmond Fitzgerald.

In the mid-1990s the government of the Republic of Ireland began a campaign to use St Patrick's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture.[29] The government set up a group called St Patrick's Festival, with the aims:


Traditional St Patrick's Day badges from the early 20th century, photographed at the Museum of Country Life in County Mayo

• To offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebration in the world
• To create energy and excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grassroots involvement, and marketing activity
• To provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent (and those who sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive celebrations
• To project, internationally, an accurate image of Ireland as a creative, professional and sophisticated country with wide appeal.[30]

A Saint Patrick's Day parade in Dublin
The first St Patrick's Festival was held on 17 March 1996. In 1997, it became a three-day event, and by 2000 it was a four-day event. By 2006, the festival was five days long; more than 675,000 people attended the 2009 parade. Overall 2009's five-day festival saw close to 1 million visitors, who took part in festivities that included concerts, outdoor theatre performances, and fireworks.[31] Skyfest forms the centrepiece of the festival.

The topic of the 2004 St Patrick's Symposium was "Talking Irish", during which the nature of Irish identity, economic success, and the future were discussed. Since 1996, there has been a greater emphasis on celebrating and projecting a fluid and inclusive notion of "Irishness" rather than an identity based around traditional religious or ethnic allegiance. The week around St Patrick's Day usually involves Irish language speakers using more Irish during Seachtain na Gaeilge ("Irish Language Week").[citation needed]

Christian leaders in Ireland have expressed concern about the secularisation of St Patrick's Day. In The Word magazine's March 2007 issue, Fr. Vincent Twomey wrote, "It is time to reclaim St Patrick's Day as a church festival." He questioned the need for "mindless alcohol-fuelled revelry" and concluded that "it is time to bring the piety and the fun together."[32]

As well as Dublin, many other cities, towns, and villages in Ireland hold their own parades and festivals, including Cork,Belfast, Derry, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford.


Sign promoting the drinking of Guinness beer on Saint Patrick's Day at Dublin's Guinness Storehouse
The biggest celebrations outside Dublin are in Downpatrick, County Down, where Saint Patrick is rumoured to be buried. In 2004, according to Down District Council, the week-long St Patrick's Festival had more than 2,000 participants and 82 floats, bands, and performers and was watched by more than 30,000 people.[citation needed]

The shortest St Patrick's Day parade in the world takes place in Dripsey, Cork. The parade lasts just 100 yards and travels between the village's two pubs.[33

 

I'm not Irish but I live here. I have the day off!! Going to the parade and having a few pints at noon.

 

I had a distant relative that was irish. No, I never celebrate it. Today is a regular work day like any other. If I had a green shirt, maybe I'd wear it.

 

Gotta love that bank holiday Will be checking out the parade later then possibly having a few drinks

 

Not Irish myself wife is sisters hubby is, from Kerry

 

It was quite the time down at the local today. Great food, entertainment and a lovely drop on tap

 

I constantly get confused for an Irish man or American man :/ either way, have a great day to all you Irish gamers out there

 

Just back from a weekend in Dublin celebrating it - now some recovery and gaming time. Happy St. Paddy's all!

 

Hope you had a great time matey

 

Because I live in the melting pot called America, I don't who anyone "looks like" anymore. hehe I don't even try to guess.

 

Cloud you sure as hell dont sound either!

My other half is Irish, so thats a good excuse for a few bevvies - If i'm on Titanfall, god help you all!

 

I'm going green today. That is to say, green as in chlorophyll. By tonight I'll be hunting zombies! Prepare to meet your maker, zombies! ...again. Mwahahaha!!!

 

I don't drink, but this is my favorite holiday...only day of the year I get to eat corned beef, cabbage, and baby red potatoes, until I'm just about to burst.

Peace, J.R.