Forgive us for not decking ourselves out in 40 shades of green for St. Patrick’s Day. We’ve got Irish friends, some of us have Irish blood in us and, frankly, there’s a lot of pretty offensive (to my eyes) national stereotyping goes on out there in both SL & RL.

This image of the drunken, fighting, red-haired Irishman (or woman) is appalling crass and not very truthful. In a list of the top 10 heaviest drinking countries in the world, Ireland doesn’t make the Top 10.

In the 20th century, it was Ireland’s writers who were progressing English language literature at, arguably, its greatest speed of development since Shakespeare. Try reading James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, WB Yeats and more.

One of my Irish SL friends is even more scathing than I would be, berating what she calls ‘plastic paddies’ -wannabe Irish, the Irish of the diaspora- for their need for green Guinness and spurious claims to be Irish. ‘The only feckin’ ‘Green River’ we need to know about is Creedence Clearwater Revival’, she sneers, before we read from her profile -An Irish prayer, it’s entitled- that she hopes God gives her strength not to tell ‘the plastics’ that they aren’t and never will be Irish.

On the basis, here’s the only green you’ll find on SL Naturist this March  17th.

Pookes.