Beannacht La Fheile Padraig

That's "Happy St. Patrick's Day" in Gaelic, and I hope you all enjoy the day, whether you have Irish blood or not.

I am of Irish descent on both sides of my family, something I am very proud of.

And best wishes on this St. Patrick's Day to Ryan Westmoreland, the Red Sox' top prospect who had brain surgery yesterday in Arizona and it went well. More will be known how well very soon.

Godspeed, Ryan.

And a poem for this day, "I am of Irish America," with thanks to my friend Betty for sending it along:

I am of Irish America
I am a child of immigrants
I am of a people who for over eight hundred years
Have bent a knee to no king but the King of Heaven
And bowed a head to no queen but the Queen of Heaven.

I am of a dispersed people sent
In slavery to Barbados
In chains to Australia and
In famine to America

I am of a people who tore themselves from
Their father's trembling arms,
Kissed their tearstained mother's face good-bye and
Traveled all over the world
To keep a roof over beloved heads
And food on the hungry table.

I am of an empire upon which no sun can set, for
Wherever you go in this whole wide world,
Wherever a House of God has risen,
Wherever a house of learning founded
Or a tree of liberty planted by loving hands
And watered by the tears of an Irish exile,
There you will find the Irish empire.

I thank God for the blood of my Fathers.

I thank God for the land of my Birth.

I pray that God will save Ireland.

I pray that God will continue to Bless America.