Beyond Green Beer

As I’ve written about before the research you do as a reenactor can take you down roads you’d never imagined you would travel. In some cases, you can gain a deeper appreciation of your cultural heritage.

Many people create a persona based upon their ethnic ancestor. This leads to research into what life was like for your persona (and ancestors) in the time period you are reenacting. Some of this research will deal with the nuts and bolts of daily life, what they ate, wore, how they build their houses.

Then there is the research on the culture—the music, what holidays were celebrated, how they worshipped. This research can be enlightening and satisfying, especially if you have a cultural identity that has been commercialized.

The best example of commercialization of an ethnic identity is St. Patrick’s Day. The holiday is used to sell St. Patrick’s Day memorabilia, t shirts, Guinness, travel to Ireland (I swear I never see Aer Lingus commercials at any other time of the year), the list extends beyond whatever retailers think you need to celebrate. Just look at your newspaper and see the different types of merchants that feature shamrocks and leprechauns in their ads during March. Let us not forget green bagels, green donuts and shamrock shaped pizzas.

Because of this commercialization, people may think that Irish culture is limited to wearing green, that shamrocks are the only plants that grow in Ireland and a parade. Or that “Danny Boy” is the only song the Irish pipe bands can play.

As a child I dutifully wore green and enjoyed corned beef, potatoes and cabbage. While there is no harm in enjoying the superficial aspect of St. Patrick’s Day, I will say the more I researched Irish history, the deeper my appreciated grew for March 17.

As any reenactor will tell you, there is so much more to a nation’s history that what is studied in history class. I had to go beyond the school textbook to discover St. Brendan the Navigator, Queen Maeve of Connaught and Grace O’Malley. It’s not just the historic personages that were waiting to be uncovered. It was the Brehon laws, the bardic tradition, rituals preformed on St. Brigit’s day, and how all of it was almost suffocated under British occupation.

As I learned more about Ireland’s history, St. Patrick’s Day become less about corned beef and Guinness. It became more of a celebration of a culture’s survival, more awareness of the struggles my ancestors overcame and a realization that Irish culture is more than green beer.