Traditional Irish celebration goes deeper than food, beer

Anna McGuinness spends her days surrounded by memories of Ireland.

McGuinness owns Mystic Ireland, a shop for all things Ireland from wool sweaters to Celtic jewelry in Appleton. (Her daughter, Clodagh, owns the shop of the same name in Elm Grove.)

You’d think that the one day “everyone is Irish” — a day filled with green beer and 6 a.m. bar openings — might bewilder her. You would be wrong.

“It’s great to see Ireland — such a wee country, not even as big as Wisconsin, right — to see nearly every country in the world wear green for Ireland,” McGuinness said. “We’re very proud as Irish people to see that.”

It doesn’t matter that most people don’t know the symbolism of the day, which began as a church holiday to honor St. Patrick, the patron saint of the country, and goes deeper than corned beef sandwiches and pitchers of weak green beer.

McGuinness, 70, grew up in Donegal on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way. St. Patrick’s Day, now a national holiday in Ireland, once started with a trip to church, then a parade with bands,

followed by a visit to the pub to toast St. Patrick with a pint of Guinness.

“Families would come in with young kids with green ribbons in their hair and something green on them or shamrock on their hat or wee pin in their coat,” she said. “They would never overdo it.”

This St. Patrick’s Day, McGuinness will work in her shop and then join her family for a celebration. They’ll take in the parade on Saturday in New London, renamed New Dublin for the day.

“We’ll have one for Ireland,” she said of the country she left 20 years ago.