Green day: Irish brothers discuss their St. Patrick’s Day traditions

On March 17, a sea of green sweeps through all of America as people celebrate the most famous Irish holiday. Although America often associate St. Patrick’s Day with the traditions of wearing green and pinching those who don’t, in reality, the holiday is supposed to celebrate the arrival of Christianity in Ireland.

One family that has celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in the past is the MacFhionnlaoich family. Junior Feargus celebrated the holiday all through elementary and middle school and his brother, freshman Conall, still celebrates it today.

Conall said that he would try to wear as much green as possible on St. Patrick’s Day.

“We used to go to Party City and buy hats and green shirts. I had an earring a while ago and I got big four leaf clover earrings,” Feargus said. “My mom would dye the milk green, so when we had cereal, it’d be green. I think we used to buy Lucky Charms, it was really cliché.”

Feargus no longer celebrates the holiday because he “grew out of it,” but when he did, he loved setting traps. “I looked forward to building leprechaun traps for school. I loved doing that because I was totally convinced leprechauns were real,” he said.

Feargus said that much of his family lives in Ireland and the way they celebrate the holiday is very different from the way people celebrate it in America.

“Here, it’s more like a Hallmark holiday with decorations. Over there, there’s a parade in Dublin and you eat foods like Shepherd’s pie,” he said. “One year they even dyed the River Liffey, the river running through Dublin, green.”