The McGrath homestead in Northfield, Vermont. Submitted by Martha Lang, Burlington, VT
My family never celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at our house. When I got older and realized how Irish I was, I asked my mother why. She said she did not approve of all the drinking and she wanted her children to identify with their English background. Also, my father’s Protestant relatives from Boston were very prejudiced against Irish Catholics; they had a false sense of superiority because their ancestors had settled in Massachusetts starting in 1629. To avoid fights, my mother said as little as possible about being Irish. It was only towards the end of her life that she started to talk more about her Irish heritage, and when I visited Ireland she was very proud of me.
town, said, wait a minute, this could happen. cast your mind back to 1995, thomas. you and i were doing the macarena, and the government was being shut down when republicans come into power during the clinton administration. a similar situation in terms of the timing. there was the there were disagreements over spending bills that led to two government shutdowns and republicans, largely, took the blame, for a lot of reasons that perhaps had nothing to do with the actual issues involved. anyway, fast forward now. it s coming up, thomas, march 4th. the bill that runs the government, it was a temporary bill, the democrats and republicans got together at the end of last year, they passed it. they said, new republicans coming into the house, we re going to give you an opportunity to get it together and pass a bill by march 4th. a lot of people assume if they can t do it by then, they ll do the usual thing, pass a bill that lasts another week, another two weeks. but what john boe