Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Toledo Blade

        One of my most cherished St. Patrick’s Day traditions is complaining about all the four leaf “shamrocks” one sees at this time of year.  I may have a very liberal attitude about Irish soda bread but not about the shamrock, which has three leaves, not four.  My kids (now grown ups) participate in the St. Patrick’s Day celebration by pointing out the most egregious misuses of Ireland’s symbol.  T-shirts emblazoned with “lucky four-leaf clovers” accompanied by proclamations of the Irish-ness of the wearers are particularly offensive on St. Patrick’s Day. 

        This year my son, George, has outdone himself by calling to my attention a recent article in the Toledo Blade called “Shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day.”  This article is  fraught with blatant misinformation, utter nonsense and bad grammar.  My first thought was that it must be from The Onion until I realized that Onion writers have much better grammar.  So I called George to congratulate him on having found the absolute worst example of Shamrock heresy.

http://www.toledoblade.com/Kelly-Heidbreder/2014/03/12/Shamrocks-for-St-Patrick-s-Day.html

        The second paragraph should have been fair warning, as the author asks, “And who can pass up those adorable shamrocks?” and continues, “I just feel better having a small pot of luck on my desk to get me through the day with a smile.”  After that it just gets worse. Here are some highlights-

“St. Patrick gets the credit for making the shamrock popular.  Back in 432 A.D. he used the symbol of the shamrock as a symbol for the church.  One leaf of the shamrock is for faith, hope, love and the last one is for luck.  Some Irish traditions believe the three leaf clover represents the Holy Trinity for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the special fourth leaf symbolizes God’s grace.”  Good grief.  

        As a child I attended St. Patrick’s School in Corning, N.Y., where the girls’ uniform included a dark green jumper with a gold shamrock below the left shoulder.  On the three leaves of the shamrock were the letters S.P.S. for St. Patrick’s School.  Our teachers, the sisters of St. Joseph, talked to us every day about God’s grace, but never in the context of a “special fourth leaf.”  We learned that the shamrock, which has three leaves, was employed by St. Patrick to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity- the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.  There isn’t anyone else.  

        Perhaps the most ridiculous part of the Blade article is this paragraph-

“He died over 1,500 years ago on March 17th, and that day still holds his memory with that three or four leaf luck charm.  It has been a tradition in Ireland since 1903, first at the Church.  Then in the 1960’s the celebration spilled over into the local pubs.”  It’s difficult even to think of anything to say about such malarky.  If the author didn’t have the time or inclination to consult any actual sources, she might have at the very least glanced through Wikipedia.