how about the toronto st pats. they were a hockey team--how canuck is that? they wore a green jersey with qa shamrock. they won a stanley cup, but they were bought by a protestant torontonian, con smythe, and he chqanged the name to the toronto maple leafs.he was an ulster unionist supprter--common in prewar toronto--and he abhored the catholic association.

so we had our own battel over st patrick in prewar toronto. the leafs weare st pats uniforms as alternative uniforms on special occasions now. con smythe is safely dead and and now toronto has a multcultural tradition. there are vast areas that are no longer white let alone emeshed in the debate over st patrick. i note thast the oldest irish bar in toronto still fles a st pats team flag, a tricouleur, a a starry plow flag and a st patrick cross. covering most of the bases. here in moncton the old irish bar has a tricouleur and a red hand of ulster flag--really trying for all the bases.

i'm a montreal canadiens fan so i never really cared about the leafs, but i like to see the st pats uniform displayed on st paddy's day.

almost half the ppulation of ontario have irish ancestry back there somewhere. the majority from the great hunger emmingration. they arrived diseased dying and starved, and they survived the worst life can deal out and helped build a nation. thomas d'arcy macgee was a fenian who came to canada and became one of our most prominemt fathers of confederation.

(and the irish make up a third of the quececois ancestry--they sent their children to catholic schools so they spoke french withoin a generation, but its no accident that mulroney, johnson, wagner, malone, are prominent "french" names in quebec. ) and down in acadie where i live the acadiens are thought to be half celtic--both scotts gaelc, bretons and irish--with a broad dash of native and french--of course. at the world celtic conference in france a few years ago therte was an acadien table as a recognozed celtic group, so erin go breagh and je me souviens--eh!