Editorial: St Patrick's Day heads back to the tradition it was a century ago, in which unionists play more of a role

​We report on pages 12 and 18 on some of the varied events that are taking place.

On these pages yesterday, Professor Brian M Walker of Queen’s University Belfast wrote about the changing attitudes and approaches to March 17 over the last century and before.

St Patrick’s Day was widely celebrated across Ireland prior to partition, but became less marked in Northern Ireland as the new state emerged. This was not a deliberate decision, but was linked to the way in which the fledgling independent Ireland approached the day, for example linking it to the Catholic church.

To this day, many associations of St Patrick’s Day such as green beer mean little to people in the unionist tradition. In some events in NI, the Irish tricolour is frequently waved, which heightens the divide.

St Patrick himself, however, not only pre-dates the division of Ireland into two parts in 1921, he pre-dates the Reformation by more than 1,000 years. It seems obvious that the memory of St Patrick is meaningful to all peoples of the Christian faith, representing the arrival of that belief on this island. Groups of Christians in turn helped to spread Christianity to what is now Scotland and the north of England.

In America, St Patrick’s Day has long been particularly associated with Irish nationalism. Celebrations in Washington DC were dominated by politicians from the Republic of Ireland.

This might be changing. Sinn Fein is the most outspoken of the main Irish parties against the US-Iran war, but other parties are sceptical too. Meanwhile, unionists are more visible in the US capital city and there will be Ulster elements to the St Patrick’s Day lunch. This is most welcome, given the influence of the Scots Irish in America.