I am not Irish (although my wife is half Northern Irish), but I love St Patrick’s Day. The parties, the camaraderie, and celebration of all things Irish. When I was an undergraduate at, what was, Luton University, you did not pass 17th March without seeing it being celebrated somewhere, and going to a celebration yourself, whether at a pub or a house Party. But then, Luton has a lot of Irish immigrants.
So why do we not celebrate St George’s Day as much? There may be a number of good reasons. Partly it will be down to the English reserve, partly a sense of guilt over our colonial past, partly because, well, it is harder to celebrate the life of a person who might not even have existed over a missionary in the 5th Century who definitely did exist.
But I would argue that, in spite of all the faults and obstacles, we ought to celebrate St George’s Day more.
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