Some readers may remember a particularly infamous episode of The Simpsons which saw the town of Springfield descend into anarchy during their annual St Patrick’s Day parade.

As the crowds thronged Main Street, a drunken brawl erupted, prompting a shocked TV newsreader to declare: ‘What you are seeing is a total disregard for the things St Patrick stood for. All this drinking, violence and destruction of property. Are these the things we think of when we think of the Irish?’

With grim inevitably, this year’s St Patrick’s festivals around the country are no longer a celebration of Saint Patrick and Irish traditions

With grim inevitably, this year’s St Patrick’s festivals around the country are no longer a celebration of Saint Patrick and Irish traditions

At the time, that episode was far more controversial with Irish Americans than people who actually lived in Ireland, who thought it was hilarious. But that was then and this is now – and the modern Irish tend to take themselves far more seriously. 

If the traditional ‘Paddy’s Day’ parades around the world had a reputation for drunken rowdiness that was often associated with an Old Ireland that was largely rural, Gaelic and........

© The Spectator