SHEELAGH’S DAY

This year, Paddy’s Day is a little bit longer and for 48 glorious hours we can enjoy a double bank holiday, and all the lazing, eating, drinking and ambling that that entails. But Friday need not be an afterthought as it is, after all, the day of Patrick’s wife. Sheelagh (or Sheila) was the wife (or possible mother) of St Patrick. On 18th March, she comes in and sweeps away the old season in time for Spring.

Sheelagh is largely forgotten here on the old sod, but the day is still celebrated in Newfoundland, and is potentially the root of the Australian ‘Sheila’.

For many, the prospect of four days off in a row, to dance, drink, dally and jive is a much-welcomed respite for just over two years of curtailed fun. This magical fourth day off, the 18th March, is a mixed blessing however. We have it as due recognition of the blight of two years. The reward was hard-earned, and is bittersweet for it.

On the upside, though, this Friday is also a full moon - so any one of us can claim innocence in the ensuing lunacy!