I have somehow managed to time this post on Green Things that I’ve been thinking about for awhile so that it lands on St. Patrick’s Day. Which is sort of fun, but also strange because I have not managed to write a ‘themed’ post on either International Women’s Day or Mother’s Day, both of which are far more aligned with what I am exploring here at Beauty & Bone. (If I was to write one on either of these I’d definitely write about my ambivalence towards them and struggle not to rant about how one Hallmark day does not all the rest of the years bulls**t negate!). I did manage to write a post in and around St Brigid’s Day, which has been one of my most popular shares, you read that here.
If I’m honest, I’m not a massive fan of St. Patrick’s Day either. My main childhood memories of it involve the check-out boys from SuperQuinn standing on the back of a flatbed truck driving up Greystones main street, carefully aiming the free satsumas they were giving away at our (by then, very wet) heads. And then there was the surreal St. Patrick’s Day just as Covid hit, when all parades and festivities were cancelled, and me and the kids marched up and down our country lane in fancy dress playing Irish dancing tunes out of a tinny speaker and my five year old daughter held a corona-virus painting with a large red line through it that she’d made and stuck to a bamboo stick, chanting Go Away Bug! (I took photos, I can’t find them).
There was one glorious St. Patrick’s Day about 25 years ago now (dear god) when I marched through the streets of Dublin dressed in little more than body paint and a drum as part of a college theatre show and the sun split the stones and we were burnt to a crisp and it felt like a carnival and the world felt full.
Read on below the paywall for why I’ve developed an obsession with all things green, as well as three delicious green recipes :-)
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