An Irish Tradition- Felecia Fast

Ever since I can remember, my grandparents have forced us to eat an authentic Irish dinner on Saint Patrick’s Day. This is because we are from Irish decent. My grandma told me that my generation is only 1/8 Irish, but still the dinner has to be kept a tradition for my mom’s side of the family. None of us grandkids enjoy this holiday; we don’t like being forced to eat something none of us care for. After a few years it starts to grow on you and become more tolerable.

The dinner includes little red potatoes, corn beef, cabbage, and Irish soda bread. The red potatoes are boiled in water in cheese cloth until they are soft and tender. The corned beef is cooked in the oven wrapped in foil to keep in the moisture. My favorite part of the dinner is the soda bread. I don’t like the real Irish soda bread; it had currents and nuts inside it. I like the loaf of my grandma makes for us grandkids. No disgusting things are found in the loaf of bread. We won’t even speak of the cabbage; it isn’t liked by anyone except my grandparents, and one of us grandkids, Madeline.

I always make sure to eat somewhat of a snack before heading over to my grandparents on Saint Patrick’s Day. I do this because I don’t want to let my tummy grumble after I have sat and “eaten” the dreaded dinner with my family. I don’t want to offend my grandparents and tell them I hate eating corned beef and cabbage, so I just eat it to make them happy.

As soon and you step foot in my grandparent’s house you can smell the aroma of the corn been and cabbage and the freshly baked bread that fills the house. The ten grandkids wait anxiously to eat because we are starving. While we wait for the dinner we play card games and do puzzles in the basement. When it’s time my aunts and uncles call us upstairs. We grandkids always get to fill our plates full. Well we don’t really FILL our plates; we all pick the littlest pieces of meat and take no cabbage. On my plate I take a lot of little red potatoes and a couple pieces of bread too.

All of the adults go back for seconds and thirds but we kids do not. My aunts and uncles, parents, and grandparents clean up all of the food my grandpa has prepared. When my grandpa cooks it looks like she has cooked for an army for a hundred people. But there is never any scraps left over.

I am so thankful that Saint Patrick’s Day only comes once a year because I would never choose to eat an Irish dinner on a normal day throughout the year. I do it just to make my grandparents happy. They want us to have a little culture from our ancestors. Even though corned beef and cabbage isn’t an authentic Irish dinner, my grandparents consider it to be close enough.