March 2020 - St. Patrick's Day

Tomorrow morning, my children will wake up and run to check their shoes. Inside, they will find potatoes put there by the Leprechauns. And they will be excited about it much like normal American children check their stockings on Christmas morning. Nora already was talking on and on about it on the way to school this morning – “What if a Leprechaun got stuck in my shoe while putting a potato there?”

            Every year I wonder about her telling her teacher and classmates about this magical event only to find that she was the only child visited by the Leprechauns overnight. We’ll have to kick that can down the road for at least another year thanks to COVID-19.
            I’m sure that many of you are as bewildered by this tradition as Nora’s friends would be. This is strictly a Murray family tradition. And while my brothers are reading this and nodding their heads, their normal experience didn’t begin until I was probably 8 or 10 – before their time, but definitely an invention by my parents once they realized they had a child who longed to be visited by magical Leprechauns in the same way that Santa visits the children. If there was a magical visitation for Christmas and Easter, why couldn’t there be one more.
            I may have even been beyond believing in Santa Claus when the Leprechauns started showing up.
            So tonight, after my children fall asleep, I will place potatoes in my children’s shoes (and my wife’s as well) as a token of love that was taught to me by my parents, oh so many years ago. 


So, what can we do to celebrate while we stay inside? 
Darby O’Gill and the Little People is on Disney+. I highly recommend Derry Girls on Netflix. Netflix also has the series Rebellion – I haven’t made it though, but it seems interesting. Other movies out there worth renting: I can’t say enough good things about Song of the Sea – it’s made by the same people as Book of Kells, also good. And the Michael Collins movie starring Lliam Neeson and the late Alan Rickman is also quite good.

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