This Irish-American Life

Growing up, I thought all families went to Catholic mass on Sundays, came home to cook a big Irish brunch, and listened to Irish music. I was actually kind of shocked to find out later in life that most people considered New Jersey to be more Italian-leaning than anything.

My grandfather and I were born on the days of St. Brigid’s Feast, a special connection to the spirit world and Ireland.

The pagan goddess-turned-Catholic saint holds a special place in the hearts of my family members. Her cross sits above the door frames of my family’s homes, and her Saint card is adorned on my altar.

I grew up in a small beach town with a large Irish Catholic population. The women in my family were competitive Irish Dancers. The same Irish band that played at my First Holy Communion party was the same Irish band that played at the after-party at my wedding. It’s woven into my life and my spirit.

Growing up, we were deeply immersed in our Irish heritage and Catholic faith. So when St. Patrick’s Day rolled around in March, it felt like a big excuse to bring up our Irish lineage and brag that we heard these songs year-round instead of only on St. Patrick’s Day.

In 1995, I was the St. Patrick’s Day Princess for my town’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. I got to proudly wave a small Irish flag and cheer to my family and neighbors atop the backseat of a convertible in my Aran Sweater, with my clover scrunchie and plaid skirt. Beyond feeling super cool, I felt immense pride for my Irish-American heritage.

From Ireland to America

I didn’t sleep great last night. My ancestors kept me awake, asking me to be loud about my family today and proudly proclaim my magickal practice, which is rooted in Celtic Paganism and Irish Catholic beliefs.

Like so many others, my great-grandfather boarded a ship from County Mayo in Ireland and landed in New York by way of Ellis Island, eventually settling in Philadelphia. My grandfather has spent his life sharing the Irish pride he was brought up with, the music, the food, the stories, the history, and the folklore, which became a prominent part of our lives.

We knew our Irish music, we were devout Catholics, we could curse in Gaelic, and we never said nice things about the British.

Greedy Neighbors

The Irish diaspora is why St. Patrick’s Day is a massive deal in the States. The British did what they could to take Ireland’s native practices in Paganism and Catholicism, both deeply woven into the fabric of Irish culture. The British also suppressed the Irish language in an attempt to suffocate native traditions and declare another nation as British.

For those who need a refresher, more than 34 million Americans claim Irish heritage due to the massive immigration caused by the Irish Famine (1845-1849), where millions came to America, and millions more since, including my family, to feed and provide for their families.

The British colonized anything they could, including their neighbors. While the famine can be attributed to the disease that hit the potato crops in Ireland, the British government played an exceedingly significant role by exporting all good potato yield from Ireland to Britain, effectively starving people under their rule.

The British not only contributed to the death of more than a million people, they did their best to suppress the Irish population’s deep ties to the Catholic Church. The British prevented the Irish from owning land in Ireland if they practiced Catholicism. Irish Catholics were forced to live and work as tenant farmers to pay rent to the British landowners.

Ireland was a colony under British law until the Irish War of Independence, which ended in 1921, and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922.

Suppressing Celtic Magic One Institution at a Time

Celtic Paganism was practiced by the Celts long before the Romans arrived with the Catholic Institution. The Celts worked with the seasons, gods and goddesses, and the fae and maintained a magical connection that lives on today. They consorted with spirits, practiced magic, believed in the fairy folk, and tied their magic to the land.

You can thank the Celts for the Pagan Wheel of the Year, which contains the threads of holidays celebrated today and co-opted by the Catholic Church and other offshoots of Christianity for what you know today.

Samhain, or Halloween, wouldn’t exist without the Celts. It represented the final harvest before the winter and the thinning of the veil between the living and the dead—a huge feast and celebration before a long winter.

Yule, or Christmastime, marked the shortest day of the year and a celebration of lights to welcome back the growing days of light. The Romans and the Church co-opted the tradition, which became Christmas. The yule tree, yule log, and several other traditions can be attributed to this celebration.

You get the idea.

These holidays were then “adopted” by the Catholic Church to promote more pagan conversion. Ireland is a predominantly Catholic country. Irish Catholicism is more than just a religious practice; it is a culture deeply tied to magic and folklore passed from generation to generation.

Threads of paganism, magical beliefs, and folklore are significant to Irish Catholics, the very same who traveled across the Atlantic into Irish communities established in the States and passed on to new generations born outside of Ireland.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Irish Americans lived among other communities as they attempted to put down roots. This meant taking traditions from home and building something new with what they had.

Corned beef and cabbage, a dish often attributed to St. Patrick’s Day and Ireland, is a blended-culture American meal. Pork is as Irish as it gets and is used in traditional dishes. Corned beef and cabbage was born in the States when the Jewish and Irish diasporas lived in close quarters in low-income neighborhoods. The Irish tried the Jewish corned beef and added cabbage as an efficient, cheap meal that tasted close enough to home. This resulted in a new American tradition associated with St. Patrick’s Day.

Between the history of the Brits stealing Irish land, culture, and faith, homesickness in a place, and the strength of communities, you can see the thread of tradition come alive in America’s St. Patrick’s Day.

Which also includes a lot of singing, drinking, partying, and, of course, drinking.

Ancestral Magic

While I’ll never align myself with the Catholic institution, I would be remiss not crediting it with my current magical practice. Those flashy weirdos taught me everything I know on that altar every Sunday.

I am my ancestors’ wildest dream.

I read tarot cards and share them with the world. I consort with spirits and other mythical beings tied to my ancestral homeland to carry on the magickal practices they once used. It’s my greatest calling, and I will continually answer to it.

In a world asking us to choose capitalism as our culture, I refuse. I refuse to choose the same endeavor that suppressed my ancestors’ native language and magickal practices in favor of supporting capitalist institutions that don’t care about anyone but their bottom line.

Spirit calls on us at this moment to reach into our ancestral practices and the cultures left on faraway shores and reclaim them to strengthen our communities. Our cultures bring communities together, releasing the confines of individualism built by capitalist and patriarchal tunnel vision to line their pockets, much like the British endeavors that didn’t cease but evolved.

Our foundations become unmovable when we rediscover our strengths, folklore, beliefs, and self-confidence.

We don’t need to comply. Now is a great time to listen to those rebel songs and dig deep.