St. Patricks Day, Both Celebrated and Condemned
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- March
- 13
Every year, it seems there’s some kind of controversy surrounding St. Patrick’s Day.
This time, feathers have been ruffled over an edgy piece titled, “I’m Not Irish—Why Should I Wear Green On March 17?” published in the March issue of Westchester Magazine by editor, Robert Schork. To say the least Schork, a self-described Presbyterian of German descent, is not in favor of the annual celebration because of some bad past experiences he had while commuting into New York.
Sean Griffin, a reader, fired off an e-mail to me, charging Schork with utilizing “hate speech.” He wrote:
“It is disappointing to see this kind of thing especially after all that the Irish have suffered and endured in this country and how far we have come. Not to mention the tremendous contribution we have made. This kind of Anti-Catholic/Anti Irish xenophobic attitude is unacceptable and I believe newsworthy.”
At any rate, I personally plan to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by stopping in at Bill O’Shaughnessy’s traditional St. Patrick’s bash at Dudley’s Bar in New Rochelle. The silver-haired smoothie will do live. stand-up radio interviews with an assortment of local characters who stop in to say hello.
Head out to Dudley’s, or tune into Bill’s show on WVOX- 1460 AM (wvox.com) 
from 12 noon to 5 p.m.
This entry was posted
on Friday, March 13th, 2009 at 1:12 pm by Phil Reisman.
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Phil Reisman is a veteran journalist and native of Westchester County. He began his career in 1977 as the head copy boy of a startup New York City newspaper that quickly went belly up. Reisman was not to blame for the newspaper's failure, or so he claims.
Hatespeak? this guy must have been from the ministry of Love.
Now when someone doesnt agree with your opinion you get hit with a hate crime.
I celebrate St. Paddy’s only because its a reason to eat and drink.
I celebrate rabby Burns/dr. seuss’ Birthday/vincent prices birthday (every so often when i remember)..
if there’s food i am in.
People have to realize the more we take away free speech we might as well have Big Brother.
While I commiserate to an extent with Mr. Schork, having one’s cordovan wing- tips vomited upon once a year by a jolly, besotted leprechaun pales as a complaint in the face of the morass of problems we are now experiencing in NY.
You know what guys—I’m pushing to make a national holiday out of Sam Adams birthday, Sept. 27…As you know, he was the nation’s original rabble rouser, who used all sorts of tricks to kick the British in the ass.
He was born in 1722, which means his 287th birthday is coming…that’s approximately the age Bernie Madoff will be when he’s released from prison.
I’m not kidding…I think I’m going to start a Sam Adams movement. Great excuse to drink beer, too…maybe even a better excuse than St. Patrick’s Day.
Agreed! but drink something better than the one named after him. I am not all to fond of what i call spam adams.
why? because even out of a bottle it tastes like its out of a can.
Let me know where the party is for his Bday and I am there with a few friends.
This is why Westchester magazine is about as interesting to read as a tech manual written in Mandarin (an obscure dialect spoken in County Antrim-but thats for another time)
uh no Mandarin is the offical language of China and therefore not obscure. if you want obscure. then it would be Cantonese or even more obscure. Ha Ga. 2 dialects very rarely spoken anymore.
and no i am not chinese but i know a few things and am tolerant of people that come to learn english and share their language, as well. I am not tolerant of people not willing to speak our language and force their’s on us.
As for newspaper journalist everyone has an agenda. if you dont like something speak out. As i do. all the time.
One thing I cant stand is the “agenda” all these papers follow.
just my 3 cents
or one more things.. when written all chinese is pretty much the same. its how the word is spoken that makes the difference. hence when 2 people speaking 2 different dialects of chinese meet. they may communicate via written language.
another 3 cents
That’s six cents! The Chinese would never throw their money around like that! They save because they have little confidence in the government taking care of them in their old age. Sound thinking on any continent.
I heard Schorck vomited on his own shoes.