St. Patrick's Day. What's Gaelic for "Bah, Humbug"?

Chicago goes nuts. Frat boys drinking, river dyed green, multiple parades.... everybody's Irish. But, with a few exceptions, we're all American. Maybe we have some Irish ancestry (I don't), but for the most part, it's all just posing and drinking. If it stopped there, no harm, no foul. It's the "I'm Irish, and therefore I support the IRA!" bullshit that sometimes happens -- the knee-jerk "I know what this country I've never been to really needs" etc. etc. thing we tend to do.

Don't get me wrong: Celebrating your family's history is a great thing. I make the Danish Christmas cookies my grandmother made, and suchlike. But where does celebrating your history fall over into trying to dictate what another country entirely does? Sending money to people who blow up things, I would contend, does that.

Hmm. The Portadown News rubs off on you, you know?