The facts about shamrock

FOR all the ballyhoo surrounding St Patrick’s Day, the tradition of sporting a sprig of shamrock has faded in recent years, despite the fact that it can be bought packaged in many shops. Even the use of a little lapel sachet that keeps the plant fresh throughout the day is making little difference to the wearing of it.

Dare we say it, exiles lining the Fifth Avenue parade route, in New York, and other cities around the world today, are probably more avid wearers of the shamrock that has become accepted, in most places, as the emblem of Ireland. But it is not our official emblem — that falls to the harp — just one of the many myths surrounding the shamrock.

As children, we were sent out to pick fresh shamrock off the ditches on the morning of St Patrick’s Day for our elders to wear with pride. But one thing about wild shamrock was that it withered quickly: it would be dangling limp from a lapel by lunch-time and would be an even more pitiful sight by evening — definitely only fit for drowning.