Happy St. Patrick's Day

You don’t have to be Irish to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t have a scrap of Irish blood or at least not that I can tell.

I’m sort of the typical mongrel American mix; I had a half-Italian grandfather born on St. Patrick’s Day and he took Patrick for his middle name so maybe there was some Irish there somewhere.

What I’m happy to celebrate on March 17 when everybody in town puts on a little green—and most of them don’t look Irish either—is that lyrical country that gave us great writers and great poets and some music that’ll make you smile or weep.

One of the Irish bards who put down the old melodies and fixed his lyrics to them was Thomas Moore (1779-1852). He was born in Dublin but lived most of his life in Britain, France and even the Americas. What could be more Irish than that?

As Irish as I’m not, I love to sing an Irish song and here’s one that was written by Thomas Moore from his immensely popular Irish ballads. “Tis the Last Rose of Summer” is my Irish tenor moment. Sing along!

Rick Hamlin is the executive editor at GUIDEPOSTS.