The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-03-17
Enthusiastic Spirit
 Observed In City's
 Tribute To Ireland
Shamrocks, Flowers, Ribbons Sported Today in Tribute to St. Patrick Parochial Schools Sus-
 pend Sessions for Holiday

Fifteen centuries ago and little more, St. Patrick came to Ireland and started the work of the faith which has brought to the island whence many Waterbury family derived a tradition moulded into past and present so firmly that his memory is immortal.
 In Waterbury today, on the anni- versary of St. Patrick, tho!sands revered his memory The patron saint of Ireland was the parton saint of Waterbury today, with many one who claimed on other days no Irish ancestry joining the observance.
 To the salutation 'Erin Go Bragh" or, in more modern par lance, "Top O the Morning, Water burians started the day with real ization that the Irish not only have a word for it--but a day-St. Pat rick's day.
 Dances Tonight
 Every society and organization of the Irish in Waterbury is celebrat- ing St. Patrick's day in some man. her, this afternoon and tonight. Dances, parties, public and private, will be held throughout the city.
 Special decorations have been placed in all public places and the preponderance of green today in Waterbury indicates the general scope of the celebration.
 While no special public observ- ance was held in the city, the paro- chial schools and Catholic high school were closed; many attended masses although the special music commemorating St. Patrick's anni- 'versary forms part of services on thre preceding and subsequent Sum- days.
 The actual observance of the day was social, in large degree, with thousands adhering to the display of a bit of green; green of flowers. green or ribbons, green of "The Emerald Isle"
 A thousand celebrations-Cread Mile Failte-"A thousand well Mile Failte-A hundred thousand welcomes"-the principal toast marked the day and will mark the evening. And many an Irishman will LOOK forward to day to the time which may arrive some weeks hence when Ramon De Valera, prime minister of Fire and one of Ireland's mod ern "immortals", may come to Wa terbury to hear sons and daughters of the nation but recetnly become free land pay tribute to that pro- gress which is dear to all of Irish birth and extraction.
 Irish Spirit
 It Is a day of laughter, typically Irish; a day of song and poetry: of trubute to the attributes nowhere else found in such rounded propor- ton as in thise of Irish birth and extraction; the pioneer spirit; the will to fight for conviction; the re- gard for the faith transcending all mortal impulse.
 Thus. 1907 years from that time, : 432 A.D., when St. Patrick came to Ireland to commence the work of evangelising the inhabitants, al- though Christianity then had some footing, historians tell us, observ- ance of the ''real conversion" of Ireland is commemorated in city where most of the population claim Ireland for their own.
 There was a list to the atmos- phere hereabouts which bespeaks the love of the Irish for beauty, for music, for poetry such as that of the late William Butler Yeats in his Fiddler of Doon;" The lines. "For the good are always the merry. save by an evil chance; for the merry love the fiddle, and the merry love the dance ..." epitomized Irish feeling for the homeland which now is Fire, a land of modernity but, withal, a land destined to retain the Gaelic speech, the tradition and