A little lesson in Irish national holidays: Today is St Patrick’s Day, the feast of Saint Patrick, the saint who christianised Ireland in the 5th century. Legend has it that he did so by explaining the Holy Trinity with the help of a shamrock ☘️ – available in abundance on the Green Isle. Not a lucky clover 🍀!!! And just to make it clear – it is Paddy’s Day, not Patty’s Day. Very important 😉.
Happy St Patrick’s Day!
I had my traditional Paddy’s Day shrine reveal planned for today. But *umph*, I have “fecked” up, as one might say in Ireland. I was a little bit too rigorous with my computer tidy-up the other day and deleted all the images I had taken on my iPhone for the charity sale. Among them the four/five customary pictures of the 2022 Paddy’s Day RAPS.
I was only able to recover the picture collage I had put together for the Etsy listing. And that one had been a rush job, too, as it contains the unsightly delete dots from inserting them onto a tumblr post and screenshooting the whole shebang prior to posting. *doh* And not to mention the fuzzyness due to picture-of-a-picture mode. I obviously did not have the “lucky charm” when I was tidying up…
But well, never mind, here is the story behind the RAPS. It came about because I had that big green leaf left over from Kate’s 5 items. In my stash I also had a small lapel pin in the shape of the popular Claddagh ring. You can see Ray up there holding it in his hands. The Claddagh ring is a well-known Irish design, named after a small fishing village near Galway on the West coast of Ireland. It depicts two hands which are holding a crowned heart. The meaning of this is “Let love and friendship reign” – with the 🤲🏻 standing for friendship, the 👑 symbolising loyalty, and the ❤️ symbolising love.
The pin in the shrine is removable, i.e. the new owner of the shrine can prize it from Ray’s hands and attach it to her own lapel. (The pin back is also included in the shrine.) For the decoration of the shrine I had to incorporate the colour green, hence the green leaf, the green stripy background and the dotted green design. Fun fact: The text cut-outs and the Celtic knot design are from the packaging of the lapel pin. I cut it out and used it instead of printing my own. It was a typical case of the material actually determining the design of the shrine. In any case, the shrine is on the way to the new owner, and will hopefully serve as a reminder of friendship and love. And possibly loyalty – to RA himself?
As for the Paddy’s Day festivities in Casa Guylty – I am sporting my latest green t-shirt today.
Unlike the US, where I have heard people eat corned beaf and cabbage on Paddy’s Day, there aren’t any particular dishes associated with the national holiday. Well, copious amounts of Guinness, if liquids count? If I am lucky, I’ll get some potato cakes out of the husband tonight for dinner 😉. And with our children grown-up at this point, the Paddy’s Day parade is also not mandatory for us anymore. It’s a normal working day for me, so I better get back to my current translation now…
I’ll leave you with the other six Patrick’s Day shrines so far.
Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit
Guylty Pleasure 
Oh, my first RAPS. I knew it is a Patrick’s Day shrine! 😊 🍀 💗 I still can’t believe my luck that this RAPS was still on sale when I joined the sale. It‘s beautiful. I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful first RAPS. Thanks for explaining the meaning of the Claddagh ring. Super that the pin is removable. I think I will sometimes prize it from Ray’s hands. I‘m incredibly lucky 🍀. Thank you, Sonja, for this most beautiful RAPS. 💗 😘
Happy St Patrick’s Day! 🍀
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Hehe, the green colour was the give-away. I am delighted that you were able to snag it, Graza. So yes, with the removable pin this is a two-in-one 😉. You can discreetly wear the pin – and think of RA instead ❤️.
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Yes, it is really a happy St Patrick’s Day 🍀 Thank you again for creating this beautiful RAPS, Sonja. I will think also of our fandom 💗
Sonja and Kate, do you want to hear the latest news? RA was teasing us for more than an hour. Do you want to know the news?
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Have already spotted the news myself. Whoa. The mind boggles!
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A removable pin? You really are a marvel. And I love that you repurposed the packaging. That is very much up my street. For the XO purple RAngel I thought about using some stickers… and ended up die-cutting the XOXO from the cardboard backing of the sticker set instead. 😂
You’ve made some marvelous St. Paddy’s Day goodies over the years. I will have to gaze at them a little longer before I can chose a favorite. Just a few more minutes
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Repurposing and upcycling are the best creative prompts, aren’t they? I mean, I have to be in the mood to do it, but when packaging is really pretty, I find a way to use it.
I am slowly running out of ideas and slogans for the Paddy’s Day shrines. I have used a lot of them already. Seven years running 😂😱
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I’m curious, can your husband/children speak Gaelic or is it something that’s taught in school but not really used?
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The latter, Kelly. Irish is a mandatory subject in all schools in Ireland, including the international schools. And *all* children, no matter whether Irish or foreign, have to take part in Irish class (unless they have been born abroad; then they can apply for an exemption). Usually children start learning Irish in first class (“junior infants”). Since my children went to the German School, their first “foreign language” was German (in their case it was the “German for native speakers” class). So they only started learning Irish from 5th grade. All school children *must* take Irish in their final exams, too, and there are extra points available for students who take other subjects in their final exams through Irish. Ireland has many “Gaelscoils” – schools where all teaching is done through Irish. So, both my children as well as my husband learnt Irish in school, but none of them is particularly fluent in the language despite having studied it for seven years or more. Granted, it’s a difficult language to learn (complicated grammar), but it also looks as if it isn’t taught in a manner that inspires students. Moreover, there are only approx. 70,000 Irish speakers in ROI (about 1.5% of the population), so to many it feels like a useless skill and they prefer to study another language that might come in useful when they travel or work abroad.
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Happy St Patrick’s Day! Since 2 years now finally this evening is a little celtic rock concert in our next village. It gives the village youngsters good vibes and distraction.
I love your Paddy’s Day shrines, maybe because I love green and a lepRechAun in the shamrocks
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Fantastic – a Paddy’s Day celebration abroad. Are you going?
“World’s tallest leprechaun” 😉
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I am only the chauffeur. My eldest son is going and speculating to get a free drink because his name is Patrick
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I hope he makes his name known. All Paddies should be celebrated today!
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See, we can turn any holiday into a Richard Armitage holiday. (Hee hee hee.)
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QED! There is always a connection to be found, even if the most tenuous…
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Still love my “sham rock” shrine!
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Hehe, you make my sham rock 🎸…
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Late as usual to wish everyone a happy St. Pat’s Day, but here in the U.S. we party all day, even on workdays. There are several parades — decorated floats by local “clans” and plenty of Irish dancing by young lassies in traditional dress. Then there’s the corned beef and cabbage, washed down by copious amounts of beer. A lovely way to spend the day. But oh, tomorrow’s hangover…
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And a late one back to you. I saw snippets of the NYC Paddy’s Day parade on telly last night. A much bigger affair than here, I think.
We got away without a hangover 😁
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Beautiful work G and I especially love the Claddagh ring. 💕It looks so much like one of my earrings sets too. ☘️
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A set of claddagh earrings or just coincidentally similar?
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It was a platinum set, but like my most valued earrings, I lost one of them.
I’ve also lost a diamond earring that belonged to my great grandmother from Spain, an emerald one from my mother and a big ass sapphire one. All the less expensive ones I never lose. 🤦🏻♀️ My mother still doesn’t know I lost the one she gave me from her mother, who got it from her mother. Shit, hope it isn’t older than that. Yeah, I’m a dumbass.
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Nah, you are not a dumbass. Earrings easily get lost, almost by definition. Maybe you could take the remaining earring singles to a goldsmith, though, and have them turned into a pendant? That may even be possible with stud earrings. I know that my mum had several such single ear studs turned into little pendants…
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Good idea, maybe I could have them make a matching one of the platinum 👍🏼
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Worth a try!
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It seems too late to sat happy St Patrick’s Day but I hope you enjoyed the festivities – and potato cakes! The shrines are wonderful lucky mementos.
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Well, they decided to make it a whole St Patrick’s Day extended weekend this year, making up for the cancelled event in the two previous years. So technically the festivities have continued 😉
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