The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-21
smEILA ST. PATRIoK's WIFE.
Some Information About This Inter-
esting PersOnage.
From The Philadelphia Times.

From the Philadelphia Times.
Did you ever hear Of Sheila?
Did you ever hear Of Shellas day?
Did you ever know that II followed 81.
Patricks day and was supposed to be
slgna.ized by weeping and waiting?
Did you ever hear that Sheila was ST.
Patrick's wife?
And do you know anything about sheila
at all? The narrator does not care how
Irish you may be. he yet feels assured
that you cannot answer that question.
Can you?
A little more than two years ago we
had inquiries as TO what was meant by
Sheila's day. Those heterogeneous led
to much tabor, frutless labor. There
came back to a mind that had within 1t
some Irish fruition, a recollection of a
statement made by an Irish nurse that
Sheila was st. Patrick's wife; made al a
time when the word wife" meant noth-
ing to the Juvenile brain. Al that time
every recognized source of literary re-
search or authority was exhausted TO dis
cover the identity of Sheila. There came
to a boyish brain a recollection that an
Irish nurse had said that the day fol-
lowing St Patricks natal anniversary,
Erin patron saints too hearty enjoyment
of fervent liquor Therefore there was
splitting of rain and a weeping OF snow
on the 18th day of March. But, as asked
before what Irishman can tel you who
was Shela?
Here is a letter bearing upon the sub
ject:
you would favor me very much II you
would grant me the Information in regard
Csl.. fI.res ylu,xt .I,,.
the origination of it, as / have heard some
talks on the subject for some days past,
particularly in the spelling of the word.
Enclosed you will find a copy of a paper
entitled 1.-THE Shan Van Yocht." which
might be able to give you some informa-
ton. The Philadelphia Record of Satur-
day, March 10, on the front page, in the
column under the heading, I'm and Aboit
the CITY," has IL spelled Shelahs day,
which spelling for that word doubt"
The publication referred to has for its
motto these words:
Ireland shall be free from the center to
the sea,
And hurrah for Liberty, says the Shan
Van Voeht.
On its first page the Shan Van Vocht
under a silhouette of Robert Emmett, pub
Hshed these lines:
TO sheila NJ Cara.
Qreland)
out of the wind and out of the rain,
Shela, come 20 my arms again;
Close though your grave clothes wrap you
round.
Come from your quiet underground.
Near your head though the rose root
grows,
out in the free air lifts the rose.
csuyaat NTH erUaefppgg fhaf'a half min
Sheia, come 10 me once again.
The little green leaf that's ono in three
VIII greener grow when you come to me,
The strong hill-fen of your foot will be
fam;
sheia, come to me once again.
My door is open toward the night.
My hearth Is waiting and warm ana
bright;
Your children wait. Of your coming fam
shei.a, come TO me once again.
In those lines you have Sheila repeated
again and again; but still you are given
no word as to who sShella is. The clear
est revelation of the name is contained
in william S. Walsh's "Curiosiues of Pop
ular Customs" in which he uses this Ian
guage:
THE Irish celebrate the 18th of March,
the day after ST. Ratrick's, under the
name. Who Sheelah was Is uncertain
Some assert that she was Patrck's wife,
others that she was Patrick's mother, but
All agree, says Hone, that her immortal
memory Is TO be maintained by potations
Of whisky. The shamrock worn on 81.
Patrick's day should be worn also on Shee-
lah's day and on the latter night be
drowned in the last glass. Yet IL fire.
auently happens that the shamrock is
flooded in the last glass of ST. Patrick's
dav and another last glass. or two or
more on the same night deiuges the over
sodden trefon This is not quite correct
hi,t IL Is endeavored 10 be remedied the
next morning by the display of a fresh
shamrock, which is stepped at night In
honor OF Sheelah, with equal devoted
ness"
There is a good bit Of rot contained in
tbis story OF a curious custom. We all
know that St. Patrick had no wife. 1t is
lIkely that he had mother. That part
of the story is doubtless true. MI Walsh's
fable only clouds In deeper mystery the
inquiry as 10 Sheelah; II is spelled here
again the way that Walsh spells il. Won't
some one come to our rescue and reveal
the identity Of this unrevealed woman?
The narrator has struggled with The
Sroblem for many moonsi has questioned