Corned beef and cabbage

by Denny Banister

In America, St. Patrick’s Day celebrates the Irish who emigrated to the United States and toasts their descendants (with green beer) who today are very much part of our culture. Nearly everyone claims to have at least some Irish blood in their veins on St. Patrick’s Day.

St. Patrick’s Day, of course, was not intended to honor Irish people. Instead, St. Patrick’s Day honors a Roman citizen who, in the 5th Century A.D. at the age of 16, was forced into slavery by Irish pirates.

As a slave, Patrick worked as a shepherd until he escaped and returned home. While studying in Gaul (France), Patrick had recurring dreams of Irish children asking him to return to Ireland.

Once he became a Christian missionary, he did return to Ireland where he founded a great number of monasteries, and by the time of his death in 465 all of Ireland was Christian.

When most of us think of Ireland, we think of corned beef and cabbage, Irish stew, shamrocks, Irish stout beers, leprechauns and potatoes — but hold on to your shillelaghs. Potatoes did not come from Ireland at all — they were discovered in the Americas and exported to Ireland in 1590.

It was the Irish, however, who are credited with really developing the potato into a staple food. In fact the population of Ireland tripled due to the successful adaptation of the potato to the Irish soil and climate where the tuber flourished. The potato produced more food per acre than any food previously grown by Irish farmers.

Unfortunately, many of the Irish were poor and depended on the potato for their sole source of food. A fungus called phytophora infestans hit Ireland’s potato fields in 1845, leading to a total crop failure in 1846 which was followed by the harshest winter on record in 1847. The result was famine.

Facing mass starvation, multitudes of Irish emigrated to America. While none would wish famine on anyone, our country is much better for the influence of the Irish. We know of the Irish success as policemen and firemen, but the Irish found success in all areas of American society.

Notable Irish Americans include: Matthew Brady, the famous Civil War photographer; John L. Sullivan, the first boxing heavyweight champion of the world; playwright Eugene O’Neill, winner of both the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize for literature; from the American wild west, Davy Crockett and Buffalo Bill Cody; and entertainers Jackie Gleason, James Cagney, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly and Helen Hayes.

There was George M. Cohan, composer, director and performer who wrote I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy, You’re a Grand Old Flag, and who won a Congressional Medal for his song Over There — it doesn’t get much more all American.

Consider the impact on America of labor leader George Meany, CBS correspondent Edward R. Murrow, the first female Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Conner, and automobile industrialist Henry Ford.

We tend to think of John F. Kennedy as the first Irish American President of the United States, but Andrew Jackson holds that distinction. Then there are the gifted Irish American journalists, such as William Randolph Hearst, Nellie Bly and Denny O’Banister. (Sure it wouldn’t be St. Patrick’s Day without a wee touch o’ the blarney, would it now?)

(Denny Banister, of Jefferson City, Mo., is the assistant director of information and public relations for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)