The package that came in the mail to the Rev. Tom O’Neill in January was a long time coming.
He already had the sod.
The Rev. Tom O’Neill held Mass recently at San Damiano Chapel at Viterbo University. Dick Riniker photo
Taken from his ancestors’ land in County Mayo near the west coast of Ireland, the chunk of land hangs framed in his home.
And he had the kilt, which he might wear during an international dinner or a soccer match.
So O’Neill, vice president for ministry and mission at Viterbo University, was already Irish.
“Whenever I hear Irish music, the Celtic music, I feel an affinity to it as if there’s a little bit of me that has that in me,” O’Neill said. “It’s hard to explain, but if I hear the minuet or the waltz, I don’t feel my foot tapping or I don’t feel I’m connected to that music. But when I hear Irish music, I feel connected to it, kind of like it’s in my bloodstream.”
Which it is. Fifty percent of his blood is Irish, and 25 percent is Scottish, making him 75 percent Celtic, with 25 percent of French blood rounding him off.
He’s so Irish, he hardly celebrates St. Patrick’s Day. O’Neill, 60, said his cousins in Ireland say the holiday isn’t celebrated there like it is here, where Irish immigrants popularized the holiday like other immigrants have done with their cultural festivals.
“When you have a name like O’Neill, or Thomas Michael Patrick O’Neill,” he said, “you don’t need to be demonstrative about it. You don’t need to wear green or buttons.”
Once in a while, he noted, he does wear socks with shamrocks on them.
He also has taken bagpipe lessons in the past, has a collection of Irish films, has Celtic crosses and a book of Irish blessings in his office, and his birthday is 3/7, which is only a wee bit different from 3/17, St. Patrick’s Day.

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St. Patrick’s Day is special for different groups of people for different reasons.
For many Americans, when March 17 arrives, we don something green, head to the pubs, chow down corned beef and cabbage, listen to rousing Irish music and share stories and laughs with good friends.
For others, mainly Irish-Americans and native Irish, the day has significant religious connotations. It’s both a feast day and the anniversary of their patron saint’s death in the 5th century. For centuries, St. Patrick’s Day found Irish Catholics attending Mass in the morning and celebrating in the afternoon. The latter was especially enjoyable since Lenten prohibitions against consuming meat were waived allowing celebrants to dine on meals of Irish bacon and cabbage.
Down the road, the holiday morphed into a singularly religious occasion; pubs were mandated by law to close that day until the 1970s. It wasn’t until 1995 that the government decided to “loosen up” by initiating a national campaign to use the holiday as an opportunity to drive tourism and showcase the Emerald Isle to the world at large. Last year, a million people attended a St. Patrick’s Festival in Dublin featuring parades, concerts, theater productions and fireworks.
Locally and elsewhere, another special group, children, can’t wait for St. Patrick’s Day because, to paraphrase a famous song’s lyrics, children love a parade. Factually, the first such parade originated not in Ireland but right here in the U.S. Irish soldiers in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762. With the rise of the “Irish Aid” societies (e.g. Hibernian) and, following the potato famine migration, the emergence of the Irish as a political force, the parade evolved into a gala event replete with bagpipes, bass drums, baton twirling colleens, political hopefuls pandering for votes and more. For the more, don’t miss Utica’s version held every year.
The topic of parades reminded me of another American tradition (and song) – the Easter parade. Because of a quirk in this year’s calendar, St. Pat’s Day and Easter occur within a week of one another. For that group of people who view St. Patrick’s as a day to celebrate Irish history and culture, the aforementioned quirk is ironic. To them, Easter has great symbolic and real significance.
On Monday, April 24, 1916, the Rising occurred. About 1,200 Freedom Fighters led by the young poet-warrior, Padraig Pearse, took over a few buildings in downtown Dublin, issued their Declaration of Independence from repressive British control and put their lives on the line to remove the colonial boot from Irish soil. Badly out-numbered and out-gunned, the rebels were defeated in five days.

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Junior Addison Miller attended the 2007 St. Patrick’s Day Celebration in Dublin, Ireland last year. The Parade is part of a five day celebration.
With an orange, green and white-colored feathered boa around her neck, surrounded by a sea of people in leprechaun and Guinness beer hats, junior Addison Miller stood in the heart of the St. Patrick’s Day celebration last year: Dublin, Ireland.
“It was just madness. I wanted to do something really cool for St. Patrick’s Day,” she said of her study abroad experience. “I didn’t think that I would have the opportunity again.”
Miller said this year won’t be quite as riveting, as she will spend Monday’s holiday in Eau Claire.
But some local restaurant and bar owners say people don’t have to be in Ireland to find green paper shamrocks, corned beef, cabbage and Guinness beer.
If you’re stuck in Eau Claire for the holiday, there are several places planning celebrations to keep you seeing green and singing “When Irish Eyes are Smiling.”
Bring a sign of heritage, a musical instrument or dress as a leprechaun and take part in Eau Claire’s shortest sidewalk parade Monday.
This second annual benefit parade for WHYS 96.3 radio station, the community’s volunteer broadcast, begins at 5:30 p.m. at the station, 405 S. Farwell St., and spans the four blocks to Acoustic Café, 505 S. Barstow St.

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