Last night my wife and I had an argument. This is not something that happens frequently so it was an unusual way to spend part of a Saturday night. More unusual than the fact that an argument took place, perhaps, was what we argued about.
St “Patty’s” Day or St “Paddy’s” Day. What is the correct spelling?
To be clear, I did not start this fight and have long been of the view that both are acceptable. Here’s some potentially necessary context: I have Irish blood. Queen Faybomb does not. Maybe strange then that Webster’s, the Associated Press, and several other “scholarly sources” unanimously agree with the Polish chick in the house:
St. Patrick’s Day can be referred to in informal contexts as “St. Paddy’s Day.” Paddy is the shortened form of the original Irish spelling of Patrick, which is Pádraig, and for this reason is usually preferred over “St. Patty’s Day,” which could also be mistaken for the shortened form of the name Patricia.
Turns out, the world seems to think “Paddy” is short for “Patrick” because “Patrick” is spelled “Pádraig” in Ireland. Cool. We’re not in Ireland and we’re not speaking in Gaelic. Now, back in the day, 20-something Mike would have died on this hill. The stubborn Guinness-infused Irish blood coursing through my veins would have relegated my sensibilities to an argumentative permanence.
But this isn’t 20-something Mike that you’re reading and in effort to display my level of maturity, I’m going to describe how I came to grips with my error. A rough transcript of the end of the argument:
Queen Faybomb: “I’m sorry, everyone says it’s Paddy’s.”
Faybomb: “I don’t care what those lunatics at the AP say.”
Queen Faybomb: “Well, you’re wrong according to Webster’s as well. How does The Blarney spell it?”
Faybomb: “I will go by whatever Doyle’s in Boston says.”
Checkmate… so I thought.
I went looking for Doyle’s social posts. Surely, one of the oldest Irish pubs in one of the most Irish US cities would corroborate my side. Turns out, Doyle’s in Boston stopped operating in 2019. It didn’t even take lockdowns to assassinate this old Jamaica Plain favorite; it was liquor licensing laws. Evidently, both the license to operate that Doyle’s possessed and the building it owned were more valuable than the business itself. It made better financial sense to liquidate the assets than to keep using them for the cashflow they were providing.
There’s probably a far more important story there than who wins a silly argument about whether “Patty’s” is offensive or not to a country that doesn't really believe in speech freedom. In any case, we’re not going to be able to solve those problems today. For it is time to put away screens, take down some bangers and mash, and, of course, raise a glass.
To all of my fellow heretics, thanks for being here. To the boys at the bachelor party who threw caution to the wind and made the split second decision to ride that legendary mini bus from the Sam Adams Brewery to Doyle’s back in 2017…
Happy St Pádraig’s Day!
Sláinte.
That's because Polish women are ALWAYS right!!
Happy St. Paddy's Day! Up the Kingdom!