IRELAND
Irish Mirror
BY PADDY CLANCY
13 MAR 2017
Hail, glorious St Patrick!
How proud I was as a youngster to sing Ireland’s favourite greeting to the man after whom I was christened.
What excitement raced through my boyhood mind as I chanted the next line in the hymn celebrating his name – “Dear Saint of Our Isle!”
I was a bit puzzled when I reached “On us, your poor children; bestow a sweet smile.”
OK, I got the bit about asking him to smile on us! After, all hadn’t he brought Christianity to us and the nuns and religious brothers who taught us and the priests who prepared us for Holy Communion and Confirmation made sure we never forgot that.
But for a long time I couldn’t figure out why we were being referred to in the hymn as “poor” children.
Of course, in my childhood mind I thought poor just meant financially not well off.
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