Friday, March 17, 2006

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

I have a confession to make. Saint Patrick’s Day bores me. I really cannot get my head around today and don't understand the appeal where everyone is Irish for a day. I only wear green its strictly an accident. Sure I wear a Claddagh and my mother’s surname is McNamara, but so what? We have been in Canada so long that I am sure that any ties to Ireland were severed long ago and probably with more than just cause. I never had a fear of snakes so I don’t have much use for St. Patrick and frankly, I always preferred St. Anthony of Padua, patron saint of loss things but perhaps that’s just the Scot coming out in me.

So in the spirit of the day, I thought I would share my favourite story of my mother. She was with a group of people who were trying to out do each other on the tales of their illustrious lineage. If you live long enough, you run into that type. You know, the ones that claim to be descended from the bastard love child of the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great-lovechild 17th removed of Lord Mountbatten’s cousin.

She sat very quietly and listened to the all the high tales being told by a few bores of their allegedly illustrious lineage. Someone turned to her and asked her to share stories of her ancestors. Very coyly she stated that her maiden name was McNamara and that Mc means “son of” and Namara means “sheppard” in Gaelic. The family got the name because her ancestors were none other than the three sheppard’s that were present when Jesus was born, so in honour of those three; the whole family got to share in the glory till the end of time. That turned a few faces red and the conversation took a decidedly different turn. Throughout the years I have claimed that story as my own and have always found it useful when faced with the ancestral bores.

1 comment:

K. Shoshana said...

Its not that I disagree with the sentiment, but I do think that was the one false step the IDF took in the operation was allowing the press to photograph the guards stripped down to their underwear.

I totally agree with the aim of the mission, and I sleep easy with the execution of the mission. I understand perfectly well the why the IDF had them stripped down to the underwear and I don't disagree with it as a security measure.

But having said that, why the IDF didn't restrict the press from taking these pictures is beyond my ability to understand. The IDF has never hesitated before to restrict the movement of the press in a field of operation. The IDF knew full well how modesty is perceived by Arabs and deliberately flaunted it for the expressed purpose of humilating them.

The Palestinians manage to humilate themselves as human beings on a routine basis so I don't consider that it was necessary for the IDF to give them any additional help or a hand up in that department.

Imagine for a moment that during the removal of the religious teenagers from Amona that the teens had been forced to strip down to the underwear and the press allowed to photograph it - the cry of outrage would still be ringing in our ears to this day.