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St. Patrick’s Day is a time to celebrate the rich history of Catholic faith promoted by the archdiocese’s patron saint as well as the culture of Irish Americans. For many, however, the feast day has become a caricature of itself, with a distorted message of drunkenness and debauchery propagated by merchandise sold in stores and at kiosks at fairs, malls and parades.
Members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians are not standing for it any more and have taken steps to have defamatory items removed. Actions have included protests, news conferences and going straight to the sellers themselves.
“As Hibernians our history is to defend the Church, and defend and protect the Irish-American community,” said Neil Cosgrove, national anti-defamation chairman of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH).
“For the first time this year we have been successful in getting the Town of Orangetown, which issues the vendor permits associated with the Pearl River St Patrick's Day parade, the second biggest in the state, to add a clause to the street vendor permit application stating that the vendors will not sell defaming merchandise,” Cosgrove said.
“That’s been a major success for us,” he added.
Cosgrove noted that the sellers of the merchandise have targeted 18- to 24- year-olds. Slogans such as “Drink until you’re Irish,” “St. Patrick: Patron Saint of the Drunk” and other derogatory remarks are featured. Many of the slogans are offensive towards women, he added.
“St. Patrick is the patron of the archdiocese. He is such a role model, but nobody mentions him. Instead, we have an image of St. Patrick with a miter in one hand and a beer in the other,” said Cosgrove sadly.
In Pearl River, the group has experienced much success. The Christmas Tree Shops and mall kiosks have stopped selling such merchandise, Cosgrove said.
CVS stores there pulled such merchandise off their shelves last year thanks to the efforts of women who are members of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians (LAOH). Katie Basler, a parishioner of St. Aedan’s who is president of Division 3 LAOH, told CNY she was approaching the issue as a mother as well.
She explained that she picked up the cause six years ago when her then-6-year old son read an expletive off a shirt being sold for St. Patrick’s Day. “I teach my children to respect everyone’s cultural differences. But they see their religious and cultural heritage demeaned every March,” said the mother of three.
“It goes against everything I teach my children. They should be proud for their rich heritage. To see it made fun of this way is terrible.”
