Happy St Patrick's Day

I am late with this post, but it has been a busy day and I did not pre-write something.

I did go to the Manager's St Patrick's Day Breakfast this AM.  The most important thing about the Breakfast is that it is a money raising event for Lowell Youth.  It is also about seeing and being seen.  In my case it also was about being with friends, George Anthes to my left and Linda Bown to my right and John McDonough to George's left and Jack Mitchell to Linda's right.  And, I wanted to pass a copy of the latest copy of The New Yorker to Councilor Franky Descoteaux.  There was an article on the "ACE Study" and its implication for childhood development and learning.

The New Yorker is an interesting magazine.  I think of it as being a bastion of Post-Modernism, but when it comes to medicine it seems to treat it like real science, based on fact.  And it has great wry cartoons.  So, week after week I can't justify the annual expense to my wife and then it happens.  A great article.

But, back to Breakfast.  The City Manager was there, as was the Mayor and the City Council and a reasonable number of the School Committee.  The new Sheriff was in town, Peter J Koutoujian.  Two of our three State Reps (Kevin Murphy was missing) and our State Senator.  Niki phoned in from Washington.  Neither of our US Senators showed, but Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray showed, the Governor being in the Middle East, apparently orchestrating the No Fly Zone for Libya.  And a lot of local personalities.  I was in awe.

But, back to St Patrick.  Europe as it is, or at least as it was at the turn of the last century, is what it is because St Patrick converted Ireland in the early 5th Century.  We do realize that St Patrick was a "blow in", don't we.  Actually, he was a slave taken to Ireland.  There is irony in that, given that many Irish became indentured servants in these United States, before it was these United States.  One of my relatives, way back, according to my papa, was one of those indentured servants.  Which is how we got the "Krieger", from the family to which that relative was indentured.

But, back to St Patrick and bringing Roman Catholicism to Ireland.  From Writer Thomas Cahill we have How the Irish Saved Civilization

In this delightful and illuminating look into a crucial but little-known "hinge" of history, Thomas Cahill takes us to the "island of saints and scholars," the Ireland of St. Patrick and the Book of Kells. Here, far from the barbarian despoliation of the continent, monks and scribes laboriously, lovingly, even playfully preserved the West's written treasury. When stability returned in Europe, these Irish scholars were instrumental in spreading learning, becoming not only the conservators of civilization, but also the shapers of the medieval mind, putting their unique stamp on Western culture.

Some reject Mr Cahill's view, but I like the story.

Thank you St Patrick.

Regards  —  Cliff