26 + 6 = 1

I love being Irish. I don't know why, I'm not particularly into poetry, music, revolutionary action, alcohol or any of the other big Irish stereotypes, but for some reason that part of my heritage is hugely important to me. (I do love potatoes, but I don’t think it's that.)

My mother always made a big deal of St. Patrick's Day. She would have the whole family over for dinner and we'd eat corned beef and cabbage. I actually hated St. Patrick's Day dinner, because corned beef and cabbage is disgusting, but everybody else seemed happy and I mostly got away with eating just the boiled carrots and potatoes. Plus, you know, usually there was also cake with green frosting, so that was a win.

For the record, corned beef and cabbage is not traditional Irish fare. My mom was way wrong about that one, which means that I spent thirteen years choking it down for no reason. Thanks, Mom.

To be fair, Irish immigrants ate a ton of corned beef back in the day, but corned beef and cabbage tends to be presented as traditionally Irish, not Irish-American. My mother certainly served it to us as a traditional Irish dish.

That is a small and mostly harmless misconception, but I feel like it is representative of a larger issue. Specifically, that of actual Irish culture being overshadowed by stereotypes. Granted, all cultures suffer this to an extent, but as far as I know, Ireland is the only one that gets a whole holiday where everybody "becomes Irish" and therefore is permitted to booze it up and act like loud, rowdy assholes to their heart's content.

And why? Because they're Irish.

Don’t get me wrong. I know that is something that is never going to change, St. Patrick's Day douchebaggery is an American tradition. There's no denying it. But I resent all of the people who get all excited to be Irish for St. Patrick's Day because it is an excuse (nay, a reason) to get sloppy drunk, and they don't even wear green.

I don't get it. Here you are, appropriating an entire culture for a day just so that you can use an awful stereotype as an excuse (reason) to act like a drunken fool, and you can't even put on a green shirt? I don't care if you look bad in green, you don't look any better stumbling into walls, let me tell you.

So anyway, that is my (corned) beef with St. Patrick's Day.

For the record, I am indeed wearing green. Are you?