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Luck was not on the side of Charleston police last night, as a sobriety checkpoint for The St. Patrick's Day holiday was cut short because of two car chases. two drivers, not willing to comply with officer commands, thinned out the number of officers, making it too difficult to sustain through the evening... The first pursuit began just after 9 p.m. when a car pulled up to the checkpoint and the driver was asked if he had been drinking. The driver, identified as Todd Nelson Miller, 27, of Charleston, submitted a driver's license, but then sped off, nearly hitting several...

THE BALLAD OF MIKE MORAN is now on YouTube. It honors those who gave their lives trying to protect others on 9/11. "Osama bin Laden, you can kiss my royal Irish *ss" LOADS OF ST. PATRICK INFO ON THIS SITE

Apostle of Ireland, born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland, in the year 387; died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, 17 March, 493. [Some sources say 460 or 461. --Ed.] He had for his parents Calphurnius and Conchessa. The former belonged to a Roman family of high rank and held the office of decurio in Gaul or Britain. Conchessa was a near relative of the great patron of Gaul, St. Martin of Tours. Kilpatrick still retains many memorials of Saint Patrick, and frequent pilgrimages continued far into the Middle Ages to perpetuate there the fame of his sanctity and miracles.

Since 1962, Scranton, Pennsylvania has hosted the second largest Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the country. This year was no exception! Thousands of people lined the streets, watching the 9,000 participants of all ages! The Obama campaign was present in all parts of the parade as surrogate speaker Max Kennedy met parade watchers and encouraged them to vote for Barack Obama. Scranton residents rallied for Obama by wearing special Saint Patrick’s Day Obama stickers, holding signs and carrying around balloons. Jennifer, Marissa and Debbie are excited to vote on April 22 for Barack. Jennifer, a teacher, supports Barack’s education...

  And a Happy Saint Patty's day to ye from the FReeper Canteen! Just a wee bit o' fun for your holiday!    The History of St. Patrick What's Your Irish Name? (Please share!) Billy Bear's St. Patrick's Day Pages  Please remember:  the Canteen is a politics-free zone.  We are here for the enjoyment of our troops and their families!  Thanks for honoring our tradition!

(CNN) – There was no red or blue politics Saturday, only green as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton marched in this city's annual St. Patrick's Day parade. It was the first of two holiday parades for the New York senator. She travels to Scranton in eastern Pennsylvania to take part in that city's St. Patrick's Day festivities later in the day. Pennsylvania is the next big battleground in the race for the White House. There are 158 delegates at stake when the state holds its primary on April 22.

It's depressing. It's not usually sung in Ireland for St. Patrick's Day. Its lyrics were written by an Englishman who never set foot on Irish soil. Those are only some of the reasons a Manhattan pub is giving for banning the song "Danny Boy" for the entire month of March. "It's overplayed, it's been ranked among the 25 most depressing songs of all time, and it's more appropriate for a funeral than for a St. Patrick's Day celebration," says Shaun Clancy, who owns Foley's Pub and Restaurant, just off Fifth Avenue opposite the Empire State Building. The 38-year-old, who started...

Here’s a shot of Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson--two likely mayoral candidates--at the all-inclusive St. Patrick’s Day parade in Sunnyside yesterday afternoon. Quinn marched behind the parade’s official banner, while Thompson marched behind the flag for the Stonewall Democrats, a major gay Democratic club in the city. The parade is an annual event, held in response to a larger parade in Manhattan that doesn’t allow gays to march under their own banner. (That parade will be held this year on March 17). Christine Quinn was one of the grand marshals of the Sunnyside parade, along with newspaper columnist and author...

As some of you know, this year's (very) early Easter -- earliest since 1913, they say (and, yes, thanks for the corrections) -- has necessitated a chain-reaction reshifting of the liturgical calendar's most popular, and most solemn, March feasts. As a result, two have been moved up, and one delayed. With Easter Sunday falling on 23 March and the "privileged days" of Holy Week and Easter Week prohibited from observing anything other than the the Triduum's pre-game and post-game, a universal decision announced last year will see the solemnity of St Joseph moved from the Wednesday the 19th to...

That famous saint named Patrick will have his green-drenched party this year, but it's unclear when the guests are supposed to arrive. For the first time since 1940, St. Patrick's Day will fall during Holy Week, the sacred seven days preceding Easter. Because of the overlap, liturgical rules dictate that no Mass in honor of the saint can be celebrated on Monday, March 17, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. But a few Roman Catholic leaders are asking for even more moderation in their dioceses: They want parades and other festivities kept out of Holy Week as well....

The echo from the shots which rang out some twenty-six years ago near the intersection of Locust Street and 12th Street in Philadelphia can still be heard today. In fact, on Sunday, March 18th they will be especially loud. Exactly 85.9 miles from the spot where Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner fell, masses will be gathering and preparing to march in the Newark St. Patrick's Day Parade. However, for the first time in many years a deeply entrenched tradition will be broken: there will be no police officers among the participants. To serve as this year's parade honoree, organizers chose...

It's not luck the Irish have.By Chris EdwardsOn Saint Patrick’s Day, we wear green and celebrate the culture of Ireland. I’ll be down at the pub Saturday, but I’ll be toasting Ireland’s success at attracting greenbacks — all that investment flowing into the Emerald Isle and the resulting prosperity.Ireland has boomed in recent years, and it now boasts the fourth-highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. In the mid-1980s, Ireland was a backwater with an average income level 30 percent below that of the European Union. Today, Irish incomes are 40 percent above the EU average.

Hillary on parade from The National Post, March 16th 2000 As my favourite 1970s McDonald’s jingle put it: Hey, come on down The weather’s getting better Have a big thick shamrock shake We’ll welcome in the spring together... Ah, St. Patrick’s Day was so simple back then: In the “Irish Alps” of Massachusetts, they’d be skiing on green snow; in Buffalo, they’d dye the Niagara River green, instead of its usual toxic orange (a tad too Unionist). All you had to do was just colour everything emerald. But Ireland’s multi-hued greens are not enough to embrace the exotic tints of...

Sen. Hillary Clinton may be skipping New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade (see below), but the state’s other presidential contender is not. Rudy Giuliani will march in the parade with Congressman Peter King and Manhattan College’s contingent, his campaign just announced.

Find a partner or grab your favorite beverage & listen to some Irish tunes .A couple of wave files - full-length, lilting, Irish melodies - they are so beautiful! I hope you can open them, or "save target as" to your hard drive and listen to them later. "My Wild Irish Rose" ~ John Gary "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" ~ John Gary MIDIS "Irish Lullabye" "The Last Rose of Summer" "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" "Danny Boy" Why Saint Patrick's Day? Saint Patrick's Day has come to be associated with everything...

         We celebrate Saint Patrick's Day each year on March 17th. The festive holiday has everyone wearing green (so they don't get pinched) and chatting of four leaf clovers, shamrocks, lucky leprechauns, drinking green beer and kissing some big rock called a blarney stone.  Want to be lucky this St. Patrick's Day? Follow this advice:    1. Find a four-leaf clover. 2. Wear green (so you don't get pinched). 3. Kiss the blarney stone. 4. Catch a Leprechaun if you can. 5. Drink as much green beer as your heart desires.    6. And don't forget that corned...

Pay to buy jokes to use at the St. Patrick’s Day breakfast in Southie - I don’t think so. Paying not to have to actually go to the breakfast - no price is too high. It’s priceless, to quote the credit card ad. As Dapper O’Neil used to say, “Who wants to go some place where you can’t take a (bleep) for four hours?” Hey, Dap, when you gotta go, you gotta go. And the hacks in Boston today are gone, sliding into a three-day weekend with the traditional “Evacuation Day” holiday. I hope someone from my radio station called...

Marines Feel Slighted From Parade Lineup. Denver's St. Patrick's Day Parade will have one fewer group marching in it this year. The First Marine Division opted not to be in the parade after it was moved back nearly 50 spots in the parade lineup. "We just felt that we kind of got slapped in the face," said Sgt. Max Brown from the First Marine Division. The honorary group that usually leads the parade was cut down this year. The president of the parade committee said politics influenced the committee to put a limit on the group. "The parade committee has...

If you ask people who Saint Patrick was, you’re likely to hear that he was an Irishman who chased the snakes out of Ireland. It may surprise you to learn that the real Saint Patrick was not actually Irish—yet his robust faith changed the Emerald Isle forever. Patrick was born in Roman Britain to a middle-class family in about A.D. 390. When Patrick was a teenager, marauding Irish raiders attacked his home. Patrick was captured, taken to Ireland, and sold to an Irish king, who put him to work as a shepherd. In his excellent book, How the Irish Saved...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- An out-of-town couple visiting a sick child encountered an unruly mob following the St. Patrick's Day parade. KMBC's Chris Nagus reported that two cars with two different couples were on the way to Children's Mercy Hospital when another car cut between them. One of the drivers asked the cutting driver not to block them. Then, things got out of control when a mob came out of nowhere, Nagus reported. "Just a whole bunch of people rushed the car. I was thinking 20 girls; my husband said more like 30," said Michelle Essig, who was driving to...

WASHINGTON — Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern gave President Bush a bowl of shamrocks Friday and then asked the president for more "transparency" about CIA flights over Europe. Ahern said he asked Bush if there was a way to bring more "transparency" to the issue of rendition. The European Union is investigating allegations that CIA agents interrogated al-Qaida suspects at secret prisons in Europe and transported some on secret flights that passed through Europe. Ahern said that while Ireland facilitates U.S. troop movements and is "happy to do it," there is public concern over the CIA flights. The prime minister...

It was St. Patrick's Day, 1988, when an unexpected visitor arrived at Pat Troy's Irish pub: President Ronald Reagan. For more than 20 years, Pat Troy's Old Town, Alexandria, pub has been a favorite watering hole for some Washington insiders seeking a respite from their hectic lives. Some of Mr. Reagan's advance men were regulars. They arranged the president's visit. The pub was half-packed when Mr. Reagan and his entourage arrived just before noon. As news spread that Mr. Reagan was there, the pub quickly filled to capacity. While Mr. Reagan enjoyed a pint of Harp and some corned beef...

The chairman of the nation's biggest St. Patrick's Day Parade marched Friday while sidestepping questions about remarks comparing gay Irish-American activists to neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and prostitutes. "Today is St. Patrick's Day. We celebrate our faith and heritage. Everything else is secondary," said the chairman, John Dunleavy, who wore a sash of the Irish colors. Dunleavy was blasted by the City Council's first openly gay leader for the remarks, which appeared in The Irish Times on Thursday. He told the newspaper, "If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow Neo-Nazis into their parade?...

  Canteen Music Dedication  Click for our National Anthem!(remove your caps please!)Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists...

Find a partner or grab your favorite beverage & listen to some Irish tunes .A couple of wave files - full-length, lilting, Irish melodies - they are so beautiful! I hope you can open them, or "save target as" to your hard drive and listen to them later. "My Wild Irish Rose" ~ John Gary "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" ~ John Gary MIDIS "Irish Lullabye" "The Last Rose of Summer" "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" "Danny Boy" Why Saint Patrick's Day? Saint Patrick's Day has come to be associated with everything...

With thanks for prayers offered and prayers answered and with deep respect and gratitude for our troops I offer the following special Saint Patrick's Day Blessing for our troops. (Graphic intense and be sure to click to link provided to play the audio portion of this offering)

Male room A ranking of the finest concocted cocktail bars St. Patrick's Day is our annual chance to celebrate a mythologically snakeless Ireland by stumbling around Fifth Avenue inebriated, vomiting into shrubbery and getting thrown out of FAO Schwarz for passing out on the stuffed pandas. But if a day of public drunkenness sounds less entertaining than staying home and renting a movie, go ahead and raise a glass in one of these fictional saloons. Here's a Post toast to the top joints where I'd like to hoist one - if only they existed in real life. 1. The Dexter...

Yesterday evening the President addressed the National Republican Congressional Committee in Washington. Yesterday evening First Lady Laura Bush delivers remarks at the Ayenda Afghan Children Initiative Benefit Dinner at the Afghanistan embassy in Washington. Today the President met with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern at the White House later on the President and the First Lady departed for Camp David where they are spending the weekend. The Vice President spoke at a Rally for the Troops at Charleston Air Force Base Click here for the transcript The Vice President also spoke at a luncheon for congressional candidate Ralph Norman in...

Today, some would call Patrick intolerant or bigoted. He was. He would have flunked a class on How to Win Friends and Influence People. Imagine how he would have reacted to diversity training. If he were ministering today, he might refer to Christians as “the Good,” the Druid gods as “the Bad,” and those who believed in the pagan gods as “the Misinformed.” The Druids didn’t like his message. They arrested him several times, but he was always freed to preach another day. During his 30 years as a missionary to the Irish, Patrick spoke out against what he...

During the Great Irish Potato Famine in the mid­1800's, anti­Catholic zealots would occasionally bring large kettles of soup to Irish villages. The soup was free, but there was a catch. Before a starving Irishman could have even a sip of the soup, he would first have to renounce his Catholic faith. So strong was the Catholic faith in Ireland at the time that many starved to death rather than selling their souls. However, a few did drink the soup. They became known as "soupers" — a derisive label that would stick to their families for generations. Today, we are witnessing...

To eat or not to eat corned beef and cabbage is a question worth chewing on. It is a culinary decision facing many area Irish Roman Catholics celebrating St. Patrick's Day today who debated the issue this week, given that the holiday falls on a Lenten Friday. But, as the luck of the Irish would have it, they don't have to feel guilty. Area Catholic bishops have given their parishioners a dispensation, meaning they won't have to avoid meat today.  However, just in case people don't want to eat meat, the owners of Fitzgerald's Harp'n Bard in Clifton say the...

Shh! Shamrock is a sham! DUBLIN, IrelandFor one week a year, nursery owner Cecil Geddis is knee-deep in shamrock, the delicate three-leafed plant that people the world over associate with Ireland and St. Patrick's Day.  "You have to move fast in this business. Nobody wants to buy a shamrock on March 18," said Geddis, whose nursery has produced 80,000 shamrock plants, most shipped out in cartons bearing leprechaun decorations and labeled: "Authentic shamrock -- grown in Ireland."While wearing a freshly cut shamrock is a fading tradition in Ireland, a few savvy growers and seed merchants are wooing foreign buyers and...

NEW YORK - The city's first openly gay City Council leader said Thursday she plans to boycott the St. Patrick's Day parade because organizers barred Irish gays and lesbians from joining the festivities for a 16th straight year. "I can't deny who I am on any given day," said Council Speaker Christine Quinn. She said she will attend several pre-parade breakfasts, along with Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, but will not join the 150,000 marchers Friday on Fifth Avenue. Quinn, who took office in January, said attempts at brokering a deal with the Ancient Order of Hibernians for the 245th...

Mass Equality, a militant gay organization pushing for national gay marriage, has announced that it plans to do a petition drive in South Boston during the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Petitioners will approach individuals and families watching the parade, urging people to sign their petition which demands national gay marriage rights. As you might expect, Catholics and parents who plan to be at the parade with their kids are angry at this latest assault and are calling-in to the show to protest. The Mass Equality rep is countering that her organization has the right to do this and that anyone...

St. Patrick's Day began as a religious observance to commemorate the death in the fifth century of Ireland's patron saint. Because March 17 falls during Lent, the Catholic Church in Ireland has traditionally allowed parishioners a one-day reprieve from their fast. [snip] By 1995, the Irish government realized that it was missing out on a chance to cash in on this holiday bonanza and established a St. Patrick's Festival in Dublin. In the decade since, attendance at the four-day event has more than tripled to some 1.2 million people. These days it's popular in some quarters to warn that globalization...

                Some Irish tunes for your listening pleasure. A couple of wave files - full-length, lilting, Irish melodies - they are so beautiful! I hope you can open them, or "save target as" to your hard drive and listen to them later. "My Wild Irish Rose" ~ John Gary "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" ~ John Gary MIDIS "Irish Lullabye" "The Last Rose of Summer" "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" "Danny Boy" Finest Friends.... May you always have work for your hands to do. May your pockets hold always a coin...

Irish Quotes I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing I ever do with it. It is never of any use to oneself. - Oscar Wilde Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get. - George Bernard Shaw The intellect of man is forced to choose Perfection of the life, or of the work. - W.B. Yeats He who can does. He who cannot, teaches. - George Bernard Shaw He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career. - George Bernard...

It's after midnight here in Ireland, so.. Happy St.Patrick Day!!!

'Oh, gosh, no!" said Joan Finkel, a Dublin Jew, when asked if she wears green on St. Patrick's Day. Neither does she paint a shamrock — a symbol of the Trinity — on her face, as many St. Patrick's Day paraders do. In fact, when asked about what Irish Jews do on March 17, the day Ireland celebrates its patron saint, Finkel was fairly unequivocal. "Not a lot," she said. Today, approximately 1,000 Jews live in greater Dublin, 500 in the rest of the Republic of Ireland and 350 in Northern Ireland, mostly around Belfast. There are six synagogues in...

For as long as I can remember, all I've ever heard about the Irish in general or the Irish in America or the meaning behind St. Patrick's Day was ... drink, drank, drunk. That's it. And I'm not alone. Back in 2001, social activist Tom Hayden published a stunning book entitled "Irish on the Inside: In Search of the Soul of Irish America"; it's a memoir-social history-travelogue combined. In a chapter called "Drinking, Sexuality, and Assimilation," Hayden writes: "Drinking was the only Irish legacy passed along to me. You drink because you're Irish, I learned, which soon became you're Irish...

Invites to the White House for St. Patrick's Day celebrations have been issued to the leaders of all Northern Ireland's main political parties. The Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, will be among the leaders despite last year`s public snub by the US administration over accusations of republican involvement in the murder of Belfast man, Robert McCartney and the £25 million Northern Bank heist. Other leaders attending the celebrations will be DUP leader Ian Paisley, SDLP leader Mark Durkan and Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey. Alliance leader David Ford and the Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine have also been...

(CNSNews.com) - Many U.S. Catholics will be allowed to partake in the St. Patrick's Day tradition of corned beef and cabbage Friday, in spite of the church's restrictions on eating meat on Fridays during the Lenten season. The Lenten observance honors the biblical account of Jesus' 40-day fast in the desert. The season begins on Ash Wednesday, which was March 1 this year, and ends on Easter Sunday, which falls on April 16 this year. The Sundays in between Ash Wednesday and Easter are excluded from the 40-day count. Traditionally, Catholics over the age of 14 must refrain from...

Bishops Bend Rules for St. Patrick's Day By EMILY FREDRIX Associated Press Writer March 15, 2006 MILWAUKEE -- Michael O'Leary doesn't need to choose between sinning and nibbling this St. Patrick's Day. O'Leary will enjoy his corned beef on Friday with a clear conscience -- thanks to a special dispensation from another Irish-American, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee. Dolan is among dozens of bishops -- from Green Bay, Wis., to Arlington, Va., to Chicago to Boston -- granting one-day dispensations from Lenten rules that prohibit Roman Catholics from eating meat on Fridays to observe the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In...

The Irish-American Catholic apologetics novel “The Cross and the Shamrock” is being offered for free by R.A.G.E. Media, publisher of the Guerrilla Apologetics series of books – just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. The novel, written by Fr. Hugh Quigley, is being offered as an ebook download at The Cross and the Shamrock. The book tells the story of the O’Clery orphans in 19th century America. Having lost their father during the voyage to America, and their mother soon after their arrival, the O'Clery children find themselves orphaned in the New World, where conspiring forces try mercilessly to deprive...

O.K. Folks, it's that time of year. I searched for a corned beef recipe post but couldn not fine one, unlike the extensive posts on frying Turkeys.

Corned Beef Controversy Over; Dispensation Granted St. Patrick's Day On Friday Had Some ScramblingUPDATED: 12:48 pm EST March 7, 2006 OMAHA, Neb. -- A corned beef controversy is over in Omaha after the Catholic Church granted a special dispensation Tuesday morning, television station KETV reported. Omaha's Ancient Order of Hibernians ordered corned beef for its annual St. Patrick's Day feed, but the Irish holiday's position on a Friday this year puts it in direct conflict with the Catholic rule to eat no meat on Lenten Fridays. The Hibernian leader said that plans for this year's event were in question without...

The responses just keep pouring in. All thanks to everyone for being so kind and helpful.... As the list is growing long, I'm just going to name the precincts which are reporting, and whatever conditions have been placed upon the respective indults (and if you're late to the party, you can find Round One and Round Two at the links). The Corned Beef Indult for the Traditional Celebration of St. Paddy's Day has been conceded in the (arch)dioceses of: Springfield in Illinois -- provided "one other day is observed as a day of abstinence in its place."Jefferson City --...

At the request of many of the Lads at the end of the electron stream, I be re-sending me Paddy’s Day epistle. As the High Holy Day [17 March for you Heathens] is rapidly approaching, I want to be taking a minute of your time to share few thoughts with you. Like many Irishmen at this time of the year I'm keenly awaiting celebrating St Paddy's Day - not that an Irishman ever needs an excuse to celebrate anything. Two Irishmen together is a party, add a third and you've got a family reunion. You know, I often wonder why...