The saints day has been marked in Ireland since the 10th Century but became a holy day celebrated by both the Catholic and Anglican churches after a campaign by Franciscan friar Luke Waddington and was established in 1631 on the day of the Saint’s death 17th March. The feast day became a rallying and meeting point for the Irish wherever emigration took them, from New York to New Zealand. The first public parade in New York was in 1762, and was an outgrowth of the religious festival. The parade eventually made its way back into Ireland, featuring floats and marching bands. However, an interesting side note is that within Ireland itself the sale of alcohol was forbidden on the day, from 1927 right up to the 1970s.
The three-leafed shamrock, said to have been used by St Patrick to explain the nature of the Trinity while converting the Irish, became associated with the saint and his celebration. The green plant, widely and freely available in Ireland, has become a symbol of all things Irish.
According to my older siblings, bunches of shamrock would arrive from Wicklow just before St Patrick’s Day, and the older kids would have the shamrock pinned to their chest and sent off to school. We lived in Liverpool and the shamrock came from a grandmother in Wicklow. This widespread tradition had disappeared by the time I was at school, broken by a number of things: the death of my grandmother, and her generation’s passing away, and the onset of the Troubles.
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22 DECEMBER 2023 – UPDATED ON 2 JANUARY 2024
Tragic history: The start of the Troubles affected the celebrations
The end of the family tradition was mirrored in UK society as a whole. Social and political culture rapidly changed to reflect the situation on the ground, the time of what became termed the Troubles. As the civil rights movement, [largely driven by the catholic community] in Northern Ireland, was met with fierce British state repression, public displays of Irishness diminished in the rest of the UK. From 1969 when British troops were sent in, the inevitability of military conflict grew. It became irreversible after the Parachute regiment shot and killed fourteen unarmed protestors on what became known as Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972.
Through the following decades, from the seventies to the early years of the new century, St Patrick’s Day parades were a rare sight in London, Birmingham and Liverpool, if seen at all. These cities were centres of not only historic but continued migration of largely unskilled Irish workers like my father, drawn by the rebuilding projects after the Second World War. That flow of people from Ireland to the mainland continues to this day, but for some time now it is comprised of a highly educated and mobile workforce. Greg Quiery, author of In Hardship and Hope: A History of the Irish in Liverpool, noted:
‘The Good Friday Agreement, which came into force on 2nd December 1999 made a great difference to the situation of the Irish in Britain. People have come out more, and the momentum seems to continue to grow. My own lads were and still are, very confident in their Irish identity, and don’t have any memory of the problems my generation had… never having been regarded as inferior, for one thing. ‘
St Patrick’s Day in Liverpool today
Come March 17th and Irish flags will adorn many pubs in Liverpool’s vibrant city centre. St Patrick’s Day is one of the busiest of the year, celebrated by turning city landmarks green, the colour of the shamrock, the same colour as many hungover partygoers the next day, due to overindulgence in Guinness.
Next Sunday March 17th at 12.30 at Mount Pleasant, at the site of the old Irish centre, the eighth Liverpool St Patrick’s Day family friendly parade will start. The town centre will be buzzing, the Guiness will be flowing, and the music will be rocking in this celebration of Irishness. Images of the shamrock, if not the plant itself, will once again be in abundance on the streets of Liverpool.
Jack Byrne 
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