While I wore orange on this day because my dad suggested it, there was never any rancour nor stereotyping of Irish in our home. I also wore green. My dad wasn't a religious man; in fact he blamed religion for a lot of the woes of the world, esp., as he put it, "the Holy Pappy in Rome." I don't remember it being quite so important to my siblings or mom, but Dad and I always made a point of celebrating this day AND wearing orange AND green. It was just a special day for us, celebrating the bit of Irish we had in our blood; nothing negative towards any Irish. I didn't even know enough about the "Troubles" to understand anything different until I was an adult.