Just as we thought things couldn’t get worse during this period of the pandemic, we come to St. Patrick’s Day again, with no celebration by the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick headed up by Everett’s popular state Rep. Joe McGonagle.
This will be the second year in a row without a Friendly Sons dinner and political roast.
Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day without a public celebration, the traditional dinner and the Irish music is a shame, especially for McGonagle.
From year to year for many years, he has put his heart and soul into the annual celebration.
“We must continue the battle against the virus and then next year we’ll have a major celebration,” McGonagle told the Leader Herald.
He suggested we print this poem by William Butler Yeats, the late, great Irish poet who is buried in Sligo in the old country.
A Drinking Song
Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That’s all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.
As the Irish like to say: May the roof above us never fall in. And may the friends gathered below it never fall out.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone celebrating the holiday from the Leader Herald – and from Rep. McGonagle.