Putting the ‘Saint’ Back in St. Patrick’s Day, Despite Mamdani’s Push To Reframe It Around Palestinian Arab Cause

Politicians regularly invoke others’ culture and history, refracting them through their own agenda-driven lenses to celebrate themselves and their own worldviews. So, it’s no surprise that Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the opportunity at the St. Patrick’s Day breakfast at Gracie Mansion to reframe Irish identity in service of his views on the Palestinian cause and his beloved “oppressor-oppressed” narrative. Praising his guest, a former Irish president and UN high commissioner for human rights, Mary Robinson, the mayor said: “Her solidarity is many things: unwavering, sincere, and chief among them Irish.” In other words, to be Irish is to do what Ms. Robinson did: call for a Palestinian state and accuse Israel of genocide.Whatever one thinks of the Israel-Hamas war, it’s hard to argue that the definition of being Irish hinges on defense of a group of Middle Eastern people led by a terrorist organization. Yet, our mayor essentially made that argument. And why wouldn’t he? Mr. Mamdani might be excused for thinking a day to celebrate Irish identity is rightly used to acknowledge the identities of everyone else. Irish leaders themselves make the same deracinated, globalist claims.A former Irish President, Michael Higgins, in a recorded St. Patrick’s Day greeting last year said, “On this St. Patrick’s Day 2025, let us invoke the spirit of Saint Patrick by acknowledging our shared responsibilities to each other, to our global family.” Ireland’s current president, Catherine Connolly, just days ago, told her countrymen that, “The story of Patrick’s life serves as a reminder of the resilience and courage of migrants, the invaluable contributions that they have made and continue to make to the countries they now call home.”Many angry Irishmen noted that Ms. Connolly omitted St. Patrick’s title in her remarks. They should be equally upset that she also failed to mention his main historical achievement — the one that earned him that title and his enduring role as patron saint of Ireland — expanding Christianity across the country. St. Patrick was many things, but most of all he was a Christian missionary and an Evangelist.Ireland remains a predominantly Christian country. As of 2022, 69 percent percent of Irish citizens identify as Catholic (down from 78 percent in 2016). Even with secular trends being what they are, it would still be more appropriate to say Irish identity has more to do with Catholicism than it does with contemporary ideas about political “social justice”. And yet, few Irish leaders say so.As Irish barrister and Iona Institute member Maria Steen laments in an Irish Times opinion piece today, St. Patrick’s Day is a celebration of everything other than Christianity: “when it comes to the promotion and celebration of our heritage, the Irish language is acceptable, but Christianity is not – not even for the one day in the year when we commemorate our patron saint.” If Irish leadership can’t define what it means to be Irish, acknowledging Catholicism as a central component, the mayor of New York City will define it for them — and make his faith the central issue.The Irish people, however, may not be as willing to abandon their particularism as some of their leaders seem to be. A study commissioned by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference and published this month shows that weekly Mass attendance by Catholics in Ireland is the fourth-highest in Europe. There has been a notable uptick among young people, ages 16 to 29, to 17 percent in the years 2023 and 2024, compared with 7 percent between 2020 and 2022. Attendance at Mass is highest nationwide on St. Patrick’s Day.One entrepreneur, Declan Ganley, posted videos of Irish village bands arriving at Mass this morning and a poem paying homage to St. Patrick for bringing Christian faith to the people of Ireland: “All praise to St. Patrick, who brought to our mountains, The gift of God’s faith, the sweet light of His love.” He added: “for the glories of faith they can never decay, And the best of our glories is bright with us yet, In the faith and the feast of St. Patrick’s day.”Only the people of Ireland can determine what it means to be Irish, but even a Jewish New Yorker like me can see that Christianity ranks high among Ireland’s list of defining characteristics. One does not have to be Christian to be Irish, but respect for the country’s Christian heritage and a desire to see it perpetuated is essential.

Putting the ‘Saint’ Back in St. Patrick’s Day, Despite Mamdani’s Push To Reframe It Around Palestinian Arab Cause

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