Funny Irish T Shirts for St Patrick's Day 2010

Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá 'le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig), is the annual feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick,the apostle of Ireland who was born at Kilpatrick in the year 387 and who died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland,17 March, 461.St Patrick's Day is generally celebrated in Ireland,and around the world on March 17th.

St Patrick is linked to Ireland's national emblems,Irish religious sites and landmarks throughout Ireland,aswell as countless Irish folk tales.One of St Patrick's famous miracles was the banishment of the snakes from Ireland.St Patrick's banishing of the snakes is supposed to have occurred following his great fast on Mt.Croagh in County Mayo.St Patrick climbed Mt.Croagh where he fasted for 40 days,following the fast he proceeded to expell all the snakes from Ireland,whether there were any snakes in Ireland to expel in the first place is a different story!

The whole snake banishing episode is probably symbolic of St Patrick converting the natives to Christianity and banishing the Druids,whose symbol was the serpent. However,St Patrick banishing the snakes makes a better story and to this day Croagh Patrick attracts thousands of pilgrims who make the trek 765ft to the summit on the last day of July.

St Patrick is as much an integral figure in Irish culture as he is in the Christianity of Ireland and if you visit any town in Ireland you'll more than likely come across a cathedral, a church or maybe a street named after St Patrick.If you're lucky enough to know anyone with Irish roots,chances are they'll have a Patrick or Pat,a Paddy or Padraic and a Patricia somewhere in their family.

Across North America, Britain, and Australia the expat Irish plus crowds of people with no Irish connections whatsoever,but who proclaim themselves to be "Irish for a day", celebrate St. Patrick's Day on March 17th, usually with the consumption of large amounts of traditionally Irish drinks. (Beer and stout, such as Guinness,Murphy's, Beamish, Smithwicks or Harp ; Irish whiskey; Irish coffee; or Baileys Irish Cream) Many of these ex pat Irish and "Irish for the day" folk also celebrate St Patricks Day with the wearing of green coloured clothing,and quite often dressing so as to appear like Leprechauns!

Of all the St.Patrick's Day celebrations outside of Ireland,the largest by far is the New York parade.In a typical year the St Patricks Day festivities attract upto 150,000 marchers,including piped bands, city firefighters, the military,police groups, county associations, emigrant societies, and social and cultural clubs.Add to this approx 2 million spectators lining the streets and you get an idea as to the scale of this St Patrick's Day parade.TheSt.Patrick's Day parade marches up 5th Avenue in Manhattan and is always led by the U.S. 69th Infantry Regiment.

1759! No,not as the current Guinness advert would have us believe,nearly 6 pm,but 1759,the year of our lord 1759,the first year of Guinness.The year 1759 has to be one of the most important dates in world history,or at least Irish history.1759 has to also be one of the most important dates in the growth of St Patrick's Day as a cultural and commercial event,can you imagine St Patty's Day without Guinness?

SOME KEY GUINNESS DATES


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1725
BIRTH OF THE GUINNESSMEISTER
Arthur, son of Richard and Elizabeth Guinness is born in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland at 17.59,the time bit's not recorded but it would have been cool.

1742
FAMILY TRAGEDY
Arthur's mother,Elizabeth Guinness dies at the age of only 44.

1759
I'LL PUT A BREW ON!
Arthur Guinness signs the lease on a disused brewery at St. James's Gate, Dublin. It costs him an initial £100 with an annual rent of £45.The lease is for 9,000,yes 9,000 years and it crucially includes water rights.The brewery site covers 4 acres and consists of a copper, a kieve,2 malthouses, a mill plus stabling for 12 horses.The loft in itself holds 200 tons of hay.

1769
ROLL OUT THE BARREL
Guinness is exported for the first time with the first shipment of 6 and a half barrels being exported to England.

1775
TROUBLE AT BREWERY
16th May 1775 sees a Dublin Corporation committee & sheriff sent to cut off and fill in the channel from which the Guinness Brewery takes its water. Mr Guinness himself,Arthur, is forced to wield a pickaxe to protect his supply.The dispute is finally settled in 1784 when water rights are granted to Guinness for nearly 9,000 years!

1790s
IT'S A GROWTH INDUSTRY.
The first major brewery expansion takes place during the 1790's.The present day vathouses 1 and 2 are built during this early expansion and appear on a map in 1820 for the first time.

1803
GUINNESS' FOUNDER ARTHUR GUINNESS DIES.
Raise a glass of the black stuff to the memory of a true genius. Arthur Guinness' son, Arthur Guinness II, inherits the fledgling brewing empire.

1811
PORTUGAL HERE WE COME
Guinness is exported to Lisbon for the first time

1815
A TONIC FOR THE TROOPS
Guinness is now well known across the Continent of Europe - reputedly aiding the recovery of a British cavalry officer wounded at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

1833
BIG IS BEST.
Guinness is now the biggest brewery in Ireland and the largest employer of coopers aka barrel makers in Ireland.

1834
I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW.
Glass Tax is repealed and the black stuff can now be seen clearly and is bottled in glass rather than stoneware

1840
IRISH NEW YORKERS CELEBRATE
The black stuff reaches America and New York,Slainte

1850s
ARTHUR GUINNESS' GRANDSON'S NOW AT THE HELM
Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, son of Arthur Guinness II, takes over the brewery on the death of Arthur Guinness II. Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness later becomes a Member of Parliament for Dublin City and also serves as Lord Mayor of Dublin.

1858
DOWN UNDER THE TABLE DOWN UNDER.
The first exports of the delicious Guinness reach New Zealand .

1861
IT A VELVETY BLACK DAY IN LONDON
While London is in mourning over the death of Albert, the Prince Consort, a bar steward at Brookes Club has an idea ,which will I'm sure the original Arthur Guinness would have been proud of. Legend has it that he decides that even the champagne should be in mourning, and adds Guinness Extra Stout to the bubbly. With this respectful gesture 'Black Velvet' is born and the drink is still enjoyed across the world today.

1862
SOMETHING TO HARP ON ABOUT.
The Guinness trademark beer label is introduced - a buff coloured oval label with the harp and Arthur Guinness' signature. The Guinness Harp is registered as a trademark in 1876.

1868
FAMILY BUSINESS WON'T BE DERAILED
Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness dies,his son Edward Cecil takes over. The Guinness brewery under Edward Cecil doubles to accommodate a cooperage, a racking shed, new vathouse, a storehouse for fermenting vessels,a maltings and even an internal railway system!

1886
GUINNESS INCREASES ITS LIQUIDITY IN THE MARKET.
The Guinness brewery becomes the first major brewery to be incorporated as a public company on the London Stock Exchange. By now Guinness is the world's largest brewery with an annual production of 1.2 million barrels.

1906
GUINNESS,ONE BIG FAMILY.
There are over 3,000 employees at the Dublin brewery.10,000 people are rely on the Guinness brewery for their livelihood which at the time was 1 in 30 of the population of Dublin.

1912
WORLD'S BIGGEST GROCER'S GOT BOTTLE.
Seigal Cooper, the world's largest grocery firm starts to bottle Guinness in the USA.

1914
OUTPUT AND MORE OUTPUT
3,000,000 barrels are now produced annually

1954
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
Guinness' first "Bottle Drop" promotion sees 50,000 numbered and sealed bottles dropped overboard from ships in various oceans of the world. Finders of the Guinness send the enclosed slip back to Guinness Exports to receive a reply and a memento. Guinness bottles are returned from many ocations across the world, including the Liverpool Docks, the Bahamas, the Azores, Mexico and Thaiti.

1963
NIGERIAN GUINNESS.
Nigerian independence from British rule is granted. Guinness and Unilever (UAC) set up a 50/50 deal to brew and distribute Guinness in Nigeria. Opening in 1963, it's the first Guinness brewery outside Britain and Ireland.

2000
OVERTAKEN BY OVERSEAS SALES .
Overseas Guinness sales overtake GB and Ireland Guinness sales for the first time, accounting for 50.6% of total brand volume.

2000
USA AND CANADA STAND ALONE.
Canada starts to brew Guinness Extra Stout for the US from the Labatt's Breweries. Guinness exports from Great Britain and Ireland now cease.

2001
2 BILLION PINTS WITHOUT THE HANGOVER!.
Almost 2 billion pints of of the black stuff a year were sold around the world in 2001,with over 1 million pints of Guinness sold per day in Great Britain alone!

2006
GUINNESS TAKLES IRISH RUGBY
Guinness becomes the official beer of Irish Rugby in a four year sponsorship deal,Slainte.


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US President Barack Obama can now count himself as one of the millions of Americans with Irish heritage.

Research has traced Barack Obama's maternal family tree back to his great-great-great-great grandfather Joseph Kearney, a well-to-do shoemaker from Moneygall, Co Offaly, who lived from 1794 to 1861. Mr Obama's roots were uncovered by Canon Stephen Neill, a Church of Ireland rector, who found baptismal and marriage records in the house of a late parishioner, Elizabeth Short.

Obama's great great great grandfather Falmouth Kearney sailed to the USA from Ireland to New York in 1850 at the age of 19 on the S.S. Marmion arriving on the 20th of March.

Obama's great great great grandfather Falmouth Kearney initially settled in Ohio, got married, had eight children, and later moved to Indiana, right next door to the state Obama represented in the US Senate.

Mr Keaney was part of the great American migration to escape the Irish potato famine of the 1840's.The research shows that Joseph's brother Francis had already left Ireland and bequeathed land to his sibling in America on condition that he emigrated from Ireland to inherit it.

Barack Obama's father was a goat herder from Kenya, while his mother grew up in Kansas.



President Obama is the first multiracial US president in history - and joins a long list of those with Irish ancestry including Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and of course, John F. Kennedy.

Ronald Reagan's great-grandfather, Michael O'Reagan, was born in Ireland in the 1820s. John F Kennedy's great-grandfather Patrick Kennedy came from Dunganstown, Co Wexford, while Bill Clinton's maternal ancestors are said to have come from Co Fermanagh.