Culture

Why I Can’t Stand St. Patrick’s Day

I’ve always instinctively disliked St. Patrick’s Day. Growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I was inured to the multicultural calendar of ethnic holidays I didn’t resonate with or understand. But no one ever expected me to actually celebrate Rosh Hashanah—or wear T-shirts that read “I’ve got a little Jewish in me” or pinch anyone not donning a yarmulke. At one point, I started wearing Orange on March 17 . . . though the message was seemingly lost on most everyone I encountered.

Much like Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day has emerged as an excuse to get dressed up, get drunk, and get laid. The same goes for the German festival of Oktoberfest, which is growing in popularity. But Ocktoberfest retains a connection to authenticity and tradition, which I find totally absent in the spring festival of idiots wearing Guinness novelty top hats and obnoxious women screaming while making group selfies.

We moderns, who are living out the End of History, think that cultural festivals are something for those other peoples. The Day of the Dead, the Thai Pongal, and Carnival are for those who haven’t quite entered modernity, who lack our self-consciousness, rootlessness, and irony. In this way, we don’t consider St. Patrick’s Day to be a real holiday at all. But truly, what we celebrate and how we celebrate it reveals who we are, and the shared assumptions amongst Americans of many races.

In The Good Shepard (2006), Robert De Niro’s flawed but fascinating drama about the origins of the CIA, there is a quotable exchange that might be a fitting epigraph for the tombstone of the Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite. It occurs when the blue-blooded Yalie Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) visits the home of an Italian mafia boss, Joseph Palmi, played memorably by Joe Pesci.

Joseph Palmi: Let me ask you something. . . We Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish, they have the homeland; Jews, their tradition; even the niggers, they got their music. What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?

Edward Wilson: The United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.

It’s all too easy to read that last line as an expression of arrogant WASP supremacism—or as Hollywood’s smear of the now-defunct American elite—and overlook its tragic dimension.

Edward Wilson is equal parts “company man” (dutiful, anonymous upper-level manager) and patriotic samurai. He has dedicated himself totally to his agency and to the Cold War, which was imagined as a titanic, all-or-nothing battle for the world. At the end of his life, Wilson is so estranged from his wife and son, he barely seems to know them; his only passion appears to be building model boats in bottles.

Wilson here is an intense example of a general tendency among WASPs to dissolve their ethnic and racial identity into a corporate entity, the United States of America. Wilson is America . . . and isn’t at the same time. The USA is the vehicle for WASP power and identity, but its real essence is that of a mass, managerial bureaucracy and geopolitical administrator. Ultimately, Wilson and his class were also “just visiting”; they were just one more people to occupy the U.S.A.’s upper-levels management positions, and were easily replaced by Liebowitzs, Chens, and even O’Reillys.

St. Patrick’s Day is the celebration of the Underdog—not only the Irish themselves but the perennial, mythic Underdog that is always “just visiting” the United States. What is characteristic about the U.S. is that there is no celebration of the Overdog. There is no St. George’s Day festival, memorializing the people that defined America. In this way, America has no culture. And St. Patrick’s isn’t even about the Irish anymore.

Editor’s Note: This blog post first appeared on St.Patrick’s day of 2015.

Richard Spencer
the authorRichard Spencer
Richard Spencer is American Editor of AltRight.com; he's President of The National Policy Institute and founder of RadixJournal.com.

68 Comments

  • There are so many flaws to this piece, I wouldn’t know where to begin. So lets just start with “The Good Shepard.” TGS was a bad movie with an incorrect premise. The idea that the CIA, (and indeed it’s very inception) was any kind of bastion for “WASP” America is simply not true. The agency itself (and American Intelligence more broadly) was founded by Col. William Donovan, an Irish Catholic and Medal of Honor winner. There have been more Irish Catholic Directors of the CIA than Directors of any over singular ethnicity (8 – Brennan, Hayden, McCone, Colby, Casey, Morrell, Beddell-Smith, McLaughlin) and the CIA has long had the nickname “Catholics In Action.”

    So, like most of Hollywood’s subpar output, “The Good Shepard” was pure fantasy (and bad history to boot).

    The other irony is the cultural notion of “underdog” being applied to either Irish Catholic or Ashkenazi Jew. Especially so in relation to a supposed “WASP” ruling class. It’s laughable. Jews have been ahead of “WASPs” for at least 100 years, and Irish Catholics moved ahead of “WASPs” in the 1960’s and haven’t looked back. So in a sense, Spencer is getting exactly what he wants…his deeply desired celebration of both the “Overdog” and the “people that defined America.” It’s called “St. Patrick’s Day.”

  • What’s the difference between St Paddy’s Day and MLK Day?

    On St Paddy’s Day, everyone wants to be Irish.

  • Has any people in world history ever give up there country so easily as did the Wasps in America? Throw shekels at em and they’ll jump as high as you want. Maybe American Wasps are especially obnoxious because they descend from the craziest of the English, the Puritans, but the English themselves are so Jew-enslaved, and have been for such a long time (thanks Cromwell!) that there really is no hope for them going forward. They are a conquered people and are being slated for destruction.

  • “We must secure the existence of our race and the future for white children!!!”
    – But I hate a widely celebrated WHITE holiday, even though river dancing, good times and the recognition of our culture is portrayed in a positive light…

    And that line “I have a little irish in me” or whatever the hell you were saying about not liking.
    that’s like saying you don’t like someone admitting “yes, I have white ancestors” it’s like wtf???
    That phrase also seems a little more like a 1900’s melting pot victory. You know back when our immigration policy made sense and we had for all intent and purpose an ETHNOSTATE!

    I will continue to eat my soda bread, wear silly green items, have a few drinks, watch young whites carry on a traditional European dance and enjoy a brief moment in time where I don’t feel like the world is caving in on itself.

  • This has nothing to do with the Irish. These types of holidays bring out the tards everywhere in every nation. In Ireland itself many people avoid the Paddy day celebrations because all the tards are out.

  • Richard,
    I agree that we shouldn’t participate in the drunken stupidity of St. Pat’s Day. But enjoying a crockpot of corned beef & soda bread with family is a great way to embrace & instill tradition.
    We should celebrate European holidays here in the US.
    St. Lucia Day (Swedish) on Dec. 13. Our family loves it! Christians & Pagans alike participate. Red Ice did a special on Lucia Day.

  • The best way to celebrate our heritage is during Christian/Pagan holidays. Easter should “trump” St. Pat’s Day by a long shot.
    Good Friday is my day to focus on the transfigured Christ (golden-white, not Jewish at all.) He was a Thought Criminal put to death via a Hate Crime. How much more hateful can a human – albeit divine – being be treated?
    Christianity has been hijacked by St. Paul (Saul) Jesus is a nationalist. SJWs have hijacked churches.
    As Christian Europeans (you included) we need to reclaim real Christianity. I am willing to bet that many of our ancestors didn’t believe EVERYTHING about Christianity. I know regular church-goers who enter the doors with tremendous doubt or disbelief.
    Why do you identify as a Cultural Christian when most of us simply say Christian? Why qualify it? Our founding fathers didn’t qualify their faith. And I view you as a founding father of the AltRight. With sincere respect & honor… Jill

  • That’s multiculturalism in a nutshell. Your country embodies simultaneously all cultures and none at all.

  • Saint Patrick’s is a religious holiday you Nietzschean BOOB. How about encouraging Whites to enjoin their religious roots instead of complaining like an ubermunch. Standoffish atheism is just larping like 19th century bourgeoise (likely Jewish)

    • > whites
      > Cuckstianity
      > Religious roots
      LMFAO cuckstianity is middle Eastern it’s a Jewish creation. White religion is Paganism. Greek-roman/ Norse/ Germanic / Celtic.
      Rome fell when it adopted cuckstianity which brought the dark ages.
      But hey remember the chosen people and their Holly land. If you’re a whitey your only Holly land should be Europe.

      • If I worshipped Mithra instead of Jesus would I not still be worshipping a foreign, middle Eastern god? White/European people need to return to a spiritually grounded way of life, and I doubt their going to go back to Paganism on a mass scale anytime soon.

          • Exactly. I actually agree with most of what Nietzsche said about Christianity, but it gave Europeans a moral compass, a greater sense of meaning in their lives and a sense of community. It’s not a coincidence that as church attendance declines, degeneracy is on the rise. If something comes along that can fill the spiritual void of a post-Christian Europe, I’ll embrace it. Until then I encourage Europeans to Re-Christianize. If they find more meaning in Paganism, that’s fine too. It’s the Atheists that I really have a problem with.

          • Didn’t Nietzsche say to occupy that void by the pursuit of the Ubermensch ? Overman / Superman ? Here you got whitey just focus on self improvement. Go to the gym, read books honor your ancestors and live with Hamingja.

          • Yes, but most normies aren’t going to be Supermen. They were better off as Christian sheep. Christian sheep are preferable to Marxist/Consumerist sheep.

          • I prefer nihilistic atheists to religious zealots. Especially cuckstianity DUDE when your religion is based on cuckolding it’s not wonder Europe is dying. Poor Joseph got cucked by Yahweh.

          • When the Catholics threw the Moors and Kikes out of Spain, was that cucking? When the Crusaders pushed back the Muslim hordes was that cucked? When the Catholic Church built Europe was that cucked?

          • Europe was built by the Greeks and Romans. The church spent a thousand years destroying knowledge that was there before. Until it was translated from Greek to Arabic then Latin giving you the Renaissance. The crusades were about muh Jewsalem the Holly land. It was cucked as fuck. Now Jews control it and Muslims are invading Europe and cucksaders didn’t get shit in return. Your only Holly land should be Europe. + You’re implying Europeans wouldn’t have defended themselves against a violent invader regardless or them being Christian or Hindu.
            When the church committed a genocide on the Cathars. Sent your back a thousand year in terms of progress.( Especially cleanliness ) made sure the pretty women would be virgin nuns not giving birth to kids with good genes and that the strong men would also take a vow of Chastity and poverty. Making sure they wouldn’t reproduce or gain political power. Then yeah all of it is cucked. Honestly what the church did is genocide for a millennia without even talking about slavery and forced conversion for other races.

          • But hey if you prefer to follow a communist with a funny hat and womanly clothes living in the Vatican who KISSES THE FEET OF BLACK INVADERS while his friends are raping European boys then be my guest. Hell you’re the white and I’m defending Europe more than you.

          • The current pope is a Jesuit (Protestant infiltrator.) I don’t recognize his authrority or any other Pope since Pope Pius XII.

          • “Oh I don’t agree with this Pope”

            Same as “it failed because it wasn’t TRUE Communism” interesting that you didn’t counter any of my points. Anyway enjoy your religion dude I’ll keep to my tea and philosophy.

          • Big difference. Mary was not a THOT who cheated on Joseph. Even non believers who theorize that Mary was raped by a Roman soldier recognize that Mary was an innocent. Joseph simply loved her and wanted her son to have a father…it was “HIS STRUGGLE.”

    • Tbh Johnny it is kinda weird that the coloured guy (North African) who dislikes Whites becoming nationalist is better able to defend European identity than you are. Though, since I know that you are also a critic of nationalism I can jus sum this up as the North African is jus the better shill around this site’s comment board.

  • What a garbage view of the Matter … You people that think you are too good to have fun … are LOSERS. No wonder people reject your nonsense. The Most White Holiday in the Year … and the SPOILED ANGLO BRAT SNIVELS about degeneracy … What a pathetic stick in the mud. Here is the Man’s View of the Matter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q53nTqJlnyc

  • 1) People who have a low disgust threshold naturally detest St. Patrick’s Day. It is pure filth involving people for whom filth simply does not come naturally. At least the Brazilians make Carnival look good. I bet it smells good too. St Patrick’s Day is like Carnival with one color & no ass.
    2) Also, any self-respecting white person with a healthy race pride finds whites behaving like they so often do on St. Patrick’s Day to be loathsome. It’s like when Trump fired that guy on the apprentice for calling himself “white trash”. It was revealing. It bothered Trump to see a white person demean himself like that, on explicitly racial terms no less. No proud white man likes to see other whites demeaning & disgracing themselves in ways that are so common on St. Patty’s Day. It feels as if they are debasing us. Nothing at all to celebrate.

  • Get a life. The Irish who came to this country faced obstacles and overcame them but, unlike their WASP island mates, chose to celebrate life instead of seeing it through some Calvinist lens that validates suffering as necessary for salvation.

    • Fair, but there is a fine line between revelry & indulgence on the one hand, & filth & debauchery on the other.

  • Yes, I see your points, but consider this: In a society constantly celebrating Black History Month, Hispanic History Month, Holocaust Day etc. is this at least not a good excuse to celebrate a European ethnicity?

  • These are (the fact that it´s a reposted article from earlier notwithstanding) extremely important observations. It says to me, regarding the question of White Identity: the White is the ADMINISTRATOR ! That´s an extremely important clue… on so many levels… or maybe… just on the level of the question of interaction between Whites and non-Whites.

    So IMO it says: when in contact with non-Whites, the White will assume the role of the administrator, in an execution of division of labor. I.e.: RELATIVE to the colored, the role of the White is always: RULING !!! For example, I refer to, I think “March of Titans”… or in any case.. that in pre-Columbian South America, there where Whites as ruling class, the Incas were Whites or descendants… and that is the reason why all of their myths were: one day a White savior will return from over the sea. I.e. this constellation has asserted itself over and over again.

    But for me, there´s also another extrenely important aspect, regarding the RELATION between the races. The stupid White position is… yeah ha ha extermination he he… and that´s what WN is confronted with by the jewterrorleft (we are violent exterminationist supremacists… and let´s not kid ourselves: the comment sections are exactly that). But here´s my take: what is blue, cannot at the same time be green. We Whites are administrators but at the same time we are not the joyous careless dancers. But that is also part of the human experience: and THAT is the role of the non-Whites… at least relative to Whites. Btw, from my understanding, that was also Hitler´s view: he always viewed the germanic element as builders of nations: in THAT sense the masterrace… but ONLY in that sense! E.g. he conceded the Slavs to have the more beautiful, soulful music (I think from Tabletalks with Hitler, from Carolyn Yeager´s series).

    Lastly: so where´s the Jew in all that? Well…: in competition with the White for the role of leadership… and frankly… I fear : above the White. While the White only administrates… the Jew is the power broker… the one who really decides, makes things roll. The White only administrates what eventually results from the Jew´s machinations.

    I don´t want that constellation re Whites and Jews… but we´ll have to wise up like hell to turn that around. But risk is that, as little as negroes as a group will ever outcompete Whites… so it goes with Whites and Jews. Dire… and reason to ever increase determination for our self-assertion.

  • Due to their history as an oppressed/discriminated against diaspora community, the Jews deserve their own ethnostate; due to their history as an oppressed/discriminated against diaspora community, the Irish would be hypocrites not to support mass immigration from sh@thole countries.

    These days, the left-wing narrative spin on any given subject pretty much always comes down to one question: ‘how can we use this to get back at whitey?’ The story of Irish oppression (greatly exaggerated in the case of the US) is just another example of this.

  • The Irish Roman Catholics are like their Mexican co-religionist cousins, they want to get drunk, march around, and, wave a foreign flag, but, they don’t want to go back and stay.

    • Only 100% pure-blooded Irish, Scot & Welsh have ROR to their country of origin. The current PM of The Emerald Isle is half Indian and a full-blown homosexual. Plus #Ireland2040 genocide project leaves little desire to visit Ireland, much less establish residency.

  • “…replaced by Liebowitz, Chen, and even O’Reilly.”
    Jew, Asian, Irish
    Yep, sounds about right.

  • Yes. It was depressing seeing all the Pakis and Chinks at work wearing green yesterday, who think that St Patricks day is just a drinking holiday. This is what you get when you let Protestants, Jews and Freemason run a country. Faggots… all of them.

      • Protestantism is basically just proto-liberalism masquerading as Christianity to keep up appearances. You can still be saved in the eyes of the lord if you convert to Catholicism or an Eastern Orthodox sect, but Protestants will not be tolerated in the Ethnostate. Their Spiritual Jews.

        • Irish and niggers were seen as the same scum of the earth in America. A journalist even wrote ” at least black families keep their homes clean, not like the Irish” and used to racemix.

    • They do the same thing on Christmas Day, pretending to be Christian, while really they are Buddhists, Toaists, or Hindus.

      These same people think New Year’s Eve is to get loaded, too. While I was at several Alpine Festivals over past summers, and Oktoberfests at various German Restaurants, Churches, and even one Celebration at a County Park, the majority of people here weren’t German, or even White of other ethnic backgrounds. No, the good portion of who shows up are all the non-Whites that think every White Holiday is an open invitation to come in and take over; much like this Country, itself. This is why the concept of Neighborhoods were so important. In my father’s, and Grandfather’s time, if one of these non-Whites stepped foot in “their Neighborhood” they were descended upon, and received a beating to remind them not to do it again. There would be no way, then, that these same types would try and venture inside a Neighborhood Gasthaus, Biergarten, or Pub. That was for the Neighborhood people, or any outside visiting White that wanted a meal, a drink, but no trouble.

      Now, certain types have changed the laws that things once was once yours, is no longer yours, but everyone’s. And it sucks.

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