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Irish to lobby U.S. Congress to have St Patrick’s Day as national holiday

San Antonio, TX, local wants the U.S. to acknowledge the impact the Irish have had

KATE HICKEY,

IrishCentral Editor

Published Wednesday, January 2, 2013, 5:25 AM

Updated Monday, January 7, 2013, 10:21 AM

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Vice President Joe Biden greets spectators along Grant Street during the 2012 St. Patrick's Day Parade in Pittsburgh

Photo by Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette

A member of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians from San Antonio, TX, has launched an online petition to have St. Patrick’s Day officially declared a national holiday in the United States.

Jimmy O’Halligan's petition aims to have St. Patrick’s Day established as a national holiday, similar to Memorial Day or the 4th of July. He says that the Irish holiday would allow the American people to understand the impact Irish immigrants have had in shaping the country.

The Ancient Order of the Hibernians is America’s oldest Irish Catholic Fraternal Organization, which was founded in 1836.

Jimmy O’Halligan, President of the AOH division in San Antonio, TX, established the petition. He told IrishCentral that he was spurred on to begin this campaign after the cancellation of the St. Patrick’s Day parade in San Antonio in 2012.

Speaking to IrishCentral he said, “The city hit local Irish organizations with thousands of extra dollars in fees to hold the parade. Something our local groups combined couldn't come up with. It was seen as not socially relevant. This happened across the south last year except for Savannah, GA, of course.

“It made me realize how the story of the Irish in America is getting lost in this part of the country. It's a very timely subject in the south as immigration is a big debate.

“A lot of people down here forget the contributions immigrants have made to this country of ours. St Patrick’s Day not only is a day to pay homage to the Patron Saint of Ireland but a day for the Irish and Irish Diaspora to celebrate their heritage and their gifts to society the world over.”

As part of the “Name St. Patricks Day as a National Holiday” petition, he states, “A national holiday in the U.S. would show our appreciation and allow the Irish and Irish at heart the acknowledgment and gratitude of the American people for their impact on the U.S. as we know it.”

Read more: Outrage as St. Patrick's Day deemed too religious and renamed "O'Green Day"

One of the supporters of the petition, John Ziomek from Missouri, TX said, "Of all European Americans, people of Irish Heritage make up the 2nd largest group. We should honor that.”

O’Halligan has also established a petition for the same cause on the White House’s site.

He told IrishCentral that he hopes to have the petition on President Barack Obama’s desk for St. Patrick’s Day 2013.

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52 Comments

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IrishJets47 | Mar 17, 2013, 12:14 AM EDT

Hey Obamas we waited long enough send a bill to Congress that we Irish American and born here in America who GrandParents and GreatParents came here a hundred years ago from Ireland to make a better life to us all. Lets make St, Patrick Day a National Holiday.

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IrishJets47 | Mar 16, 2013, 11:56 PM EDT

Lets get this Message out to Obama's that we want to make St, Patrick Day a National Holiday.

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harp579 | Jan 12, 2013, 12:41 PM EST

I think this would be counter productive for Americans with an Irish heritage as it's another brick in the wall separating us from 'true' real American status. (there is no similar English or German holiday) It works to relegate us to a second class hyphenated citizenship and engenders hostility from those who see us as trying to separate from the larger American culture.

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Will Hamilton | Jan 08, 2013, 09:54 AM EST

What happens in Ireland is no business of Hindu's in India, Iranians in Iran or Plastic Paddies in the US. "St" Patrick was a pathological liar who displace native Irish religions with an insidious foreign religion from Italy. What they do in the UK has nothing to do with it either. You can't call the 17th of March a "national" day when it's named after an icon of a foreign occupying power that spends it's time poisoning the country. If it's a national day it should not involve any religion at all. Neither should it pander to deluded foreigners in another country who can't figure out where they were actually born.

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WoundedKnee | Jan 05, 2013, 02:32 AM EST

This is nonsense and garbage. The Irish would do better to put Ireland back into their own St Patrick's Day. I've been in Dublin on March 17. It's a teenage boozefest, no more. As to culture, if you look at the floats in the Dubln parade all you see are Nepalese tribal dancers, Pakistani singers, Romany panhandlers etc etc. There's nothing Irish about the St Patrick's Day "festival" in Dublin, they just copied everything directly from the Notting festival in London.

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curtisjohnson | Jan 04, 2013, 08:20 PM EST

St. George's day - is that sectarian? Is it sectarian when the northern supremacists deify bill the orange in their vulgar displays of protestant triumphalism? Moreover, the protestants have as many abuse scandals as Catholics – just much less publicized.

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Smyrnian | Jan 04, 2013, 03:29 PM EST

Hamilton - Go back on your meds and take anger management classes.

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Will Hamilton | Jan 04, 2013, 01:14 PM EST

Any so called national parade that celebrates or commemorates any religious figure is sectarian. Religion in general has no place in anything national. In particular it's nonsensical for Ireland to have anything to do with a man who was responsible for helping a child abusing insidious organisation like the Vatican gain a foothold on the island.

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Smyrnian | Jan 04, 2013, 07:49 AM EST

Steven - relax pal-no need to be aggressive. Visiting the US and living and working here are two vastly different experiences, especially as you live and work around this vast country it differs greatly by geographic region. As an Irish born person I can assure you there are excellent expressions of authentic Irish culture here and a pride in Irish heritage I do not often see expressed on this anti-Catholic website or in Ireland itself. You simply don't know what you don't know. Furthermore, Ancavker has it right, Irish culture is dying fast in Ireland as we, thanks to the liberal Irish government, gleefully exchange third world immigrants for our own people that are being exported at the rate of well over 1,000 a day. You also imply emigration and the immigrant experience is all green grass and flowers and warm puppies but I can assure you it is a very difficult experience with zero guarantee of even modest success.

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curtisjohnson | Jan 03, 2013, 11:29 PM EST

swill, take your meds. It's been celebrated by Protestants for ages and any loyalist don't even consider it sectarian. Moreover, the pre-Roman Celtic Church was not adulterated by toxic materialism such as the later Roman Church and, in particular, Protestant denominations of the degenerate calvinist variety (which arguably led to supremacism and mass consumerism).

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seamus60 | Jan 03, 2013, 08:18 PM EST

Will. How many Sectarian St Patrick day parades plough through Protestant areas causing offence ?

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Will Hamilton | Jan 03, 2013, 03:31 PM EST

"St" Patrick's day should be abolished in Ireland for the sectarian festival it is and especially since the introduction of the foreign religion he supposedly introduced has proved so toxic for the people of Ireland. Had the deluded Briton not landed how many children might not have suffered rape and torture at the hands of Catholic clerics. Romanism has poisoned Ireland, corrupted it's politics and psychologically scarred millions of people. The Pope is a relic of the Roman Empire: he belongs in the dustbin of history where most of his speeches seem to be written.

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ancavker | Jan 03, 2013, 02:59 PM EST

STEVEN: Relax. First off it will never happen. Second I am Irish born and live in the U.S. The Irish-Americans(for the most part) are a great community. And have done much to preserve and enhance Irish culture. And they do not disparage it like so many Irish in Ireland do. We will continue to do a great job keeping that culture. The way things are going in Ireland there will not be any Irish culture left in Ireland.

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curtisjohnson | Jan 03, 2013, 02:57 PM EST

Searlit " think they should make President Kennedy's birthday, in May, a National Holiday. He is beloved by most Americans, Irish or other nationalities around the world. I know there's a few here on the page that will have gasped at that suggestion. Catch your breath though, it's a dream I've had since I was 12." I agree - we owe the major technological advances of the 20th century to the space program he pioneered (not to mention that he was the first president to fully support civil rights). However, the anglo establishment on both sides of the Atlantic take every conceivable opportunity to trash his legacy and inflate toxic racist vipers such as Woodrow Wilson (not to mention Churchill who saw no problem with bombing "brown" people with chemical weapons).

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STEVENSTAR | Jan 03, 2013, 01:16 PM EST

@@Smyrnian | Jan 03, 2013, 07:32 AM EST Stevenstar - lighten up, pal. I am Irish born and living in the US. You have no idea what you are talking about. How could you; you don't live here or have a notion of American or Irish American culture. >>>>> MATE I HAVE BEEN TO AMERICAN MANY A TIME... THE CULTURE THE PEOPLE THE FOOD THE WHOLE COUNTRY IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT TO US AND THE IRISH.. IM GLAD THAT YOUR WORKING THERE AND MAKING $$$ MY FRIEND BUT I DONT SEE THE POINT IN SELLING OUR CULTURE, TRADITIONS AND WHAT NOT TO A BUNCH OF PLASTIC SPOILED PADDIES WHO THINK THEY CAN LITEALLY BUY WHATEVER THEY WANT ... THEY MAY HAVE IRISH ANCESTARY BUT THEY ARE STILL AMERICAN ..END OF STORY ..

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