Comments on: St. Patrick’s Day

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:15:55 +0000

You idiots, the “luck of the Irish” association comes from leprechauns.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:40:17 +0000

My grandmother always made references with “Luck of the Irish” in a sarcistic way,… A “it’s bad, but, could be worse” kind of thing.

By: dodi

dodi — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:39:15 +0000

My grandma always used it in ways like this:

I stepped in dog poo, Luck o the Irish I wasn’t wearing my GOOD shoes!

By: rob

rob — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:38:17 +0000

I think that “the irish”, though it sounds plural, is refering to an individuals luck as opposed to the whole of the irish population. I am pretty lucky, and so are most of the Irish people I know, and I think the reason is that individual Irish men and women, through their attitudes, tend to make their own luck.

By: Fraoch

Fraoch — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:05:35 +0000

For Happy St. Patrick’s Day, I’ve always seen “Lá ‘Le Phádraig Shona Dhuit/Dhaoibh”… Aside from the shortening of “fhéile” into “‘le”, I’m curious about the absence of lenition in the translation posted here. Is it merely a dialectic preference? Or am I mistaken?

By: joeslove21

joeslove21 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:23:56 +0000

i agree with treesong the “luck of the irish” goes with when life gives u lemons make lemonade they delt with what was needed and made the best of what they had.

By: Treesong

Treesong — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:59:58 +0000

I’ve always seen the “luck of the Irish” as good luck in the face of bad circumstances, or good luck that mitigates bad luck. Something along the lines of: “I fell off of that roof and broke my arm — but at least I landed on an old mattress by the trash instead of the pile of bricks right next to it! I would’ve broken my back otherwise!”

As others have pointed out, this is probably related to some of the difficult history the Irish have been through in the past few hundred years, and the attitude and faith that they’ve used to get through it all. Not all of the Irish have been so lucky, but the ones who made it through to today have been. Thus, you might say it’s an evolutionary trait… Only the lucky survived, and they passed their good luck (and good attitude, and good faith) onto their kin.

By: Patrick’s Day Happenings Around The Channel

Patrick’s Day Happenings Around The Channel — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:48:57 +0000

[...] Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Duit! [...]

By: Joey

Joey — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:02:31 +0000

I believe its origins may have had some very sarcastic or facetious overtones to it; sort of like when it rains it pours, If it weren’t for Bad luck I’d have no Luck at all; If on bad thing after another keeps befalling (or imposed upon) a people- well that’s the Luck of the Irish… (see Carpenter, Kipp’s comment). Today I think the phrase certainly takes on more of the ideaology expressed by Eion and Dickdona- The Irish persevere, despite the circumstances, regardless of whether they’re in control or not…

By: Dickdona

Dickdona — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:35:40 +0000

I think the “luck of the Irish” came about by the amount of Irish people who survived against the odds down through its history and especially through emigration. The Irish seem to have “the gift of the gap” and can talk their way into and out of situations for their own benefit. When a nation has been “suppressed” through it’s history it sometimes can go under, but it seemed to have made the Irish more “glic” (wily/shrewd)