For St. Patrick's Day
We celebrate March 17 in commemoration of St. Patrick's
great and noble deed: driving the Norwegians out of Ireland.
It seems that, centuries ago, many Norwegians came to
Ireland to escape the bitterness of their winters. Ireland was
having a famine, and food was scarce. The Norse were eating
most of the fish caught in the area, leaving the Irish with
nothing but potatoes.
St. Patrick, taking matters into his own hands, decided the
Norwegians had to go. Secretly, he organized members of the
Irathicans (Irish) Republican Army to rid Ireland of the
Norsemen. The Irathicans sabotaged all power plants in the
hope that fish in the Norwegians' refrigerators would spoil,
forcing the invaders to a colder climate where the fish would
keep. The fish spoiled, as expected, but the Norwegians, as
everyone knows, to this day thrive on spoiled fish.
Faced with failure, the Irishmen sneaked into the Norse
fish-storage house during the night and sprinkled the rotten fish
with lye, hoping to poison the intruders. But, as everyone
knows, this is how lutefisk was introduced to the Norwegians,
they thrived on the lye-soaked smelly fish.
Matters became even worse for the Irish when the Norse started
taking over the potato crop and making lefse. St. Patrick was at
his wit's end. Finally, on March 17, he blew his cork and told
the Norwegians to go to Hell. It worked. They all packed up,
left Ireland and came to North Dakota.
o~~~ O |
