BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards

Subject: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: ard mhacha
Date: 13 Mar 02 - 02:10 PM

What is the reasoning behind the ape-like features of the Leprechauns on all US St Patrick`s Day Cards. Is this a throw-back to the 19th Century Punch Cartoons which portrayed Irishmen in like manner. We don`t see it in Cards here in Ireland.

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: SharonA
Date: 13 Mar 02 - 02:23 PM

Really? How are leprechauns portrayed in Ireland? Got any links to pictures?

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: MMario
Date: 13 Mar 02 - 02:24 PM

?? I have to be honest - I have never seen a picture of a leprachaun that made me think "ape-like" - so I don't know of what you speak.

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: leprechaun
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 02:48 AM

Oh yeah, they're out there. You have no idea how distressing it can be to see those unflattering images. It makes it hard for people to take you seriously. I mean, what's with those goofy looking muttonchops? I haven't had muttonchops since 1973.

Some day, I'll have my day in court.

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: Paddy Plastique
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 04:25 AM

They may be all descendants of that horrible looking thing I've seen on Notre Dame merchandise -
a fists-raised leprachaun straight out of Punch. I always find it odd that an image drawn
up by London caricaturists with obvious anti-Irish leanings has become an Irish trademark in the US.
As to leprachauns over in Ireland - the damn photos never come back from the labs right..
Was it on here, by the way, I saw something about the origin of the word 'leprachaun' which, bizarrely
enough, is the same as the Irish for 'ashtray', I think Junior Crehan's nephew contributed
an anecdote that his uncle used to recount about it.

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 04:41 AM

For a view of an American version of a leprachaun, (other than Tommy Steele) see the "Lucky Charms" adverts. Late 70's and early 80's they were on the back of nearly all imported American comics! (I know, I just checked. Sad ain't it!)

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: ard mhacha
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 06:52 AM

So Leprechaun, obviously, wasn`t fooled by the inference to the ape-like Irish the good Tory Magazine Punch used to degrade the Irish. This also goes back to the various right wing organisations in the us who made life hell for the the Irish fleeing from the potato famine, they used the same caricatures to degrade them. Undoubtely our wee friends from the Planet of the Apes is a left-over from that time. Ard Mhacha

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: ard mhacha
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 06:54 AM

Sorry no capitals, should read, from the US. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: ShankhillPhantom
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 11:43 AM

Are leprechauns the same as fairys ?

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: Maryrrf
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 11:49 AM

I'm not fond of the leprechaun images (although I do believe in them - the real ones, that is!) that predominate on St. Patrick's day cards. I'd never thought about it but Ard Mhacha is probably right and it's a shame. If you look at those Punch cartoons the typical leprechaun image does resemble the degrading caricatures of the Irish.

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: ard mhacha
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 02:12 PM

A friend in Arlington, with Irish ancestry many times removed, pointed this out to me many years ago. The person in question refused to buy the monkey Cards and for years I always received a US type OIRISH Card with the Shamrock and the Collens. I discovered what she had been referring to when I joined the PC brigade and found the wee Ape like fellas with their Crocks of Gold and silly expressions on the US Card Sites. So those who think I am being too sensitive, have a look at the Yiddish Cards and see if any character is portrayed in a similar vein to the Nazi interpretation of a Jew. Ard Mhacha

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: leprechaun
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 09:34 PM

This leprechaun wears a green top hat and a tan sport coat, with a green carnation. (sounds like a 50's song) This year, I'll be sporting a horrible looking white-trash mullet, which I'll hide as much as I can.

(so I tucked my long hair under my hat, and I went in to ask him why)

I got no pointy shoes, nor pointy ears, and my pants are long and creased, with no buckles, and no buckles on my shoes.

I think leprechauns are different from fairies, but perhaps generally within a subset of what are referred to as faeries or The Faeries.

And Thank You, Maryrrf, keep believing, or we'll disappear.

Life is good.

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: The Pooka
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 10:33 PM

Leprechaun, you are the good faery. We *do* believe in you. Yer the Salt of the Earth & the Host of the Air. Never disappear! Now would yez please turn all dis water into Murphy's Stout. Thankyou. (See St. Patrick's Day jokes thread)

The stupid monkeymick leprechaun image is massculturally locked in here in the good ole U. S. of A. We homogenize & trivialize things. Stereotypes R US. I say don't fuss too much about it, it ain't worth it any more./ There ARE many alternative St. Patrick's cards on the market. Religious, patriotic, schmaltzy, reasonably-funny, etc. etc. One year when the validity of Pat's canonization, or historical existence, was being questioned I received one fom a lapsed-Catholic-like-me friend reading (cover) "I'd wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day but St. Patrick isn't a Saint any more." (inside) "But then -- who is?" I liked that./ Today I bought one captioned "What REALLY drove the snakes out of Ireland": picturing the reptiles slithering lemming-like off the precipice of a coastal headland, pursued by a red-haired greensuited fiddler calling out, "Okay. How about ANOTHER folk song?!" :)

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: leprechaun
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 02:31 AM

I liked the cover, "May the road rise to meet you...," inside with the fellow falling on his face.

I never liked, "May the wind be ever at your back." For a (land-locked) hunter, that's not a blessing.

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: Mudlark
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 02:49 AM

My grandmother believed in the little people. Altho French, she lived with an Irish family, in the early 1900's (and thus learned English with a bit of brogue). Old Mrs. Walsh not only believed in the little people she had seen them, in the old country, many, many times, coming home from dances and such. She claimed that if they saw tiny lights bobbing along in the dark, down the lane ahead of them, all in the party would head for the ditch. For this was surely a group of little people, and altho there was no harm in them so long as they were left alone, they got very touchy about being seen. So Mrs. Walsh said she spent many a long moment, with her one good dress going sodden around her knees, as she crouched in a damp ditch, waiting for them to go by.

To this day I don't know if these little people were leprechauns or fairies, but needless to say, I believe in them as much as if Mrs. Walsh had told me herself.

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: Banjer
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 05:40 AM

We received a St Paddy's day card which read on the front: 'This St Paddys Day I wanted to send you an authentic Irich greeting....', inside it reads; ..but I couldn's get the stamp to stick to the potato...!

On Sunday I think I will have a seven course Irish dinner.....A potato and a six-pack.

HAPPY ST PADDY'S DAY to ALL!

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: SharonA
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 09:24 AM

Do Irish greeting cards have leprechauns on them at all?? Are greeting cards in Ireland the same sort of big business that they are here in the US?

Subject: RE: BS: St Patrick`s Day Cards
From: ard mhacha
Date: 16 Mar 02 - 06:30 AM

Sending Cards in Ireland on St Patrick`s Day wouldn`t have the same impact as in the US,apart from the few we send to our relations in the US,we virtually ignore the practice. No we don`t go Ape. Ard Mhacha.