Topper's St Patrick's Day Dance 2014

Did You Know? - On St Patrick's Day it is customary to wear shamrocks and/or green clothing or accessories (the "wearing of the green").

St Patrick is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish. This story first appears in writing in 1726, though it may be older. In pagan Ireland, three was a significant number and the Irish had many triple deities. The triple spiral symbol appears at many ancient megalithic sites in Ireland.

The colour green has been associated with Ireland since at least the 1640s, when the green harp flag was used by the Irish Catholic Confederation. Green ribbons and shamrocks have been worn on St Patrick's Day since at least the 1680s.

Green was adopted as the colour of the Friendly Brothers of St Patrick, an Irish fraternity founded in about 1750.

However, when the Order of St. Patrick—an Anglo-Irish chivalric order—was founded in 1783 it adopted blue as its colour. This led to blue being associated with St Patrick. In the 1790s, green became associated with Irish nationalism when it was used by the United Irishmen. This was a republican organization—led mostly by Protestants but with many Catholic members—who launched a rebellion in 1798 against British rule.

The phrase "wearing of the green" comes from a song of the same name, which laments United Irishmen supporters being persecuted for wearing green. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the colour green and its association with Saint Patrick's Day grew.

Irish Sayings....

1. May the luck of the Irish be with you!

2. If you want praise, die. If you want blame, marry.

3. Here's to a long life and a merry one. A quick death and an easy one. A pretty girl and an honest one. A cold pint and another one!

4. If you're enough lucky to be Irish... You're lucky enough!

5. May you have the hindsight to know where you've been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far.

6. A man may live after losing his life but not after losing his honour.

7. "All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed." - Sean O'Casey

8. You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your father was.

9. It is often that a person's mouth broke his nose.

10. It is better to spend money like there's no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there's no money!

Did You Know? - The Blob is an independently made 1958 American horror/science-fiction film that depicts a growing amoeba-like alien that came from outer space and terrorizes the small community of Downingtown, Pennsylvania. In the style of American International Pictures, Paramount Pictures released the film as a double feature with I Married a Monster from Outer Space.

The film was Steve McQueen's debut leading role, and also starred Aneta Corsaut. The film's tongue-in-cheek title song was written by Burt Bacharach and Mack David and became a nationwide hit in the U.S.