I'm Irish, I'm Irish every single day of the year, and I have been Irish since I was born, I will also continue to be Irish until I'm dead, and even then I will be a dead Irishman.

So, this morning on Ryan Trubidy there was a discussion on the importance of being Irish on St Patricks Day, March 17th, and how we should all be proud of our heritage and our place in history. We should also make an attempt to speak Irish during the 5 day St Patricks Festival, or St Patricks piss up, depending on your point of view.

I am a proud Irishman, I love my country even if there are things in it that really annoy the shite in me about her, for example, poor health service, crap roads,cold/damp/overcrowded classrooms, but I am still proud of my country. I sing my national anthem with pride when I attend football/hurling/rugby matches,or other events that it is sung. I speak to my children on occasion "as gaeilge". So why should I be told that I must show my pride on one day of the year?

We as citizens should show our pride in our country everyday, we have achieved a lot and we have even more to achieve, but to be patronised from those so high is a load of bollocks, dupek in polish.

We are not a nation of leprechauns, swigging whiskey, and running away with the pot of gold, we are a modern European Nation, with all the problems of any other modern nation.

So enjoy St.Patricks Day, put on your shamrock, bring your children to the parade, have a pint of green beer, be proud of our country, but keep it going for the other 364 days.

Very true, it's a 365 day a year job

Hey Blacksheep, Just registered so that I could say how much I agree.

This shit the yankees and others have that think we are all running round getting drunk on St. Paddys day is just that Shit. We do it when ever we please.

Reminds me of a St. Paddys day parade I attended in NYC USA, about 8 or 9 years ago. It was the year my nephew was born, so I can remember to send him a birthday card and pressie every St. Paddys day. Anyway I digress, my story was about my brother, his daughter (in a buggy) and myself standing on 5th Avenue in the f**king freezing cold watching a parade of people walking and bands marching past us. How f**king boring. Where were the floats, all the kids dressed up all the .....everything ?. No Where, and this was the Great St. Paddys Day parade in NYC the mopst famous city outside Dublin City Ireland ?????.

Anyway I me this Black guy (as black as the ace of spades - No Racism Comments Please, I am not a racist) and we got chatting. He says to me in his best NYC drawl, hey man, isn't it great to be Irish on St Patricks Day (Can you just hear the voice & accent), so I says Yeah, and what part of Ireland are you from and he says I'm from a small village in County Kerry, I can't remember the village name but I know I had heard of it because I had spent many family holidays there. So he says to me and where you from man, when I told him I was Irish he nearly collapsed and a No Shit Man, we must be brothers. So I says may be and if thats the case the heres another brother and a sister introducing my brother and his daughter. We had some great chat about being Irish, but I never found his family in Kerry. What a day and a night, finally I got to drink Green Beer in an Irish Bar in New Jersey that night and did it taste like PISS - Yea Man.

So getting back to the blog, Yea lets all be Irish ALL THE TIME, and as Roddy Doyle put it so nicely

The Irish are the Blacks of Europe

The Dubs are the Blacks of Ireland

So Stand Up and say it I'm Black and I'm Proud (To Be Irish!)

I tend to agree, it is nice to be Irish, and I am very proud of the fact that I am, but this annual ritual of wearing green, with funny hats like eejits is beginning to annoy me.

We have come a long way in one sense and perhaps backwards in another sense, but I am proud of our country. Even our expectations have grown,for example, we won our third triple crown on Saturday in 4 years, and this now appears not be enough,as our collective expectations are much higher, I remember in the 1980's we won two and the country went mad for weeks on end.

We have matured, and as I say its great to be Irish, but perhaps we should cahnge the focus of our celebrations, I still think the parade should go on, but perhaps we could have floats celebrating things like, the submarine, invented by an Irishman, representatives from all the navy's that were either created by or helped by Irishmen/women, to name a couple.

I hear on the news this morning that there will be a hightened Garda presence outside off-licences to curb asbo's on St Patricks Day.This is the other side of St Patricks Day.

We have a very proud heritage and we should be proud of it and as you say Blacksheep, its a 365 day a year job.

Just overheard a debate on Pat Kenny with the Minister for Education Mary Hannifan regarding the best way to teach Irish. The Minister said that her Department was carrying out studies into using modern technology to help students learn and speak Irish, she went on to say "the internet is one of those mediums that we are looking at ", Minister Irish is already on the internet go to Google any you can surf "as gaeilge", so why spend money on studies?

I agree with you, If I hear another feckin ad telling us all that we can by all the beer and other alcoholic drinks in my friendly Centra , or I can go to my Eurosaver shop where everything for St. Patricks Day is €2 I'll vomit.

I am sick and tired of being associated with drinking just because I am Irish. I have travelled the world and I am still looked upon as a Leprechaun looking to get steamed. I too am a proud Irish woman, and I love my country but wish the muppets who give us a bad name when it comes to drink to feck off.

Why do ye guys need a parade anyway, parades are marketing tools, I love your country and I love the people from your country, you are right a vast majority of you d'ont drink heavily and d'ont look like lepreachauns, and all the Irish people that I know love their country, and so they should, the world has a debt to Ireland for all the greats that you have produced, and exported for the betterment of the world.

Maybe you should talk to your politicians.......

I see where your coming from.

I happen to be mostly irish and have my birthday on St.pattys day. I cant stand the people that pinch you if you dont wear green. If they really want me to be green on my birthday they can dig up my grave in 80 years.

and about every1 thinking were heavy drinkers and look lepurchans.

theres an old irish proverb that goes "Drink is the curse of the land, it makes you fight with your niebhor and shoot at your landlord. and miss him"

yea.... real heavy drinkers....