Like many Irish bloggers, I received an email from Niall O’Dowd’s new venture IrishCentral.com.
Dear Gavin,
As a prominent blogger in the Irish community, we would like you to be among the first to know about the launch of IrishCentral.com, the first-ever global Irish website and social networking community. The site is going live on Sunday, March 15 – just in time for Saint Patrick’s Day!
With its launch, we are hoping to do what has never been done before: use the power of the Internet to create a home for the more than 70 million people around the world who identify themselves as Irish.
Visitors to IrishCentral.com will have the opportunity to:
* Catch up on news from around the Irish world
* Check out Gaelic football and soccer matches
* Follow their Irish idols in the worlds of movies, music, theater, books and TV
* Find the most colorful editorial and video coverage about taking a trip to Ireland
* Look for the lad or lass of their dreams on an all-Irish dating site, or even consult IrishCentral.com’s own matchmaker
* Learn how to speak Gaelic with our English-to-Irish audio translator
* Trace their family roots with Ireland’s best genealogists; and
* Trade jokes, yarns, and videos in “The Pub”There will be a live streaming webcam from Dublin, special Irish crossword puzzles and Celtic horoscopes, and an online store for everything from books to bagpipes.
And, as it that wasn’t enough, IrishCentral.com is also the online home of the popular Irish America magazine and the Irish Voice newspaper. Readers will be able to discuss, comment on, or rate any article or video on the site. It’s a two-way street – powered by you, and us.
We hope in time to work closely with folks like you, the most passionate and knowledgeable bloggers in the Irish community, so please visit IrishCentral.com and feel free to reply to us with your comments and suggestions.
If you like what you see, please help us spread the word about IrishCentral.com by sharing the site with your readers, friends and family. With your help, we hope to make IrishCentral.com a real success, so please visit our site, and become part of our online community.
Thank you very much for your time. Here’s wishing you a happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
Sincerely,
Pam Abbazia
Web Relations Specialist
blogger@irishcentral.com
But the subject of the email was: “Just in time for St. Patty’s Day! The Official Launch of IrishCentral.com”
Is it just me, or does anyone refer to St Patrick’s Day as “St Patty’s Day”?
Perhaps Paddy’s Day, or St Paddy’s Day, but definitely not “St Patty’s Day”. It sounds like a cake. As for the site itself, it holds no attraction for me because I live in Ireland. If I lived abroad I might have a look, although the colour scheme of the site is at best dire. What’s with the lavender, and all the pixelated shamrocks?
Comments
12 responses to “Irish Central”
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22Patty%27s+Day%22
It’s trending on Twitter.
Is it an American thing? Do any Irish people ever say Patty as short for Patrick?
Never ever heard it. Pat, yes. But not associated with the Saint. Definately Paddy.
We need to get #Paddy or just Paddy trended.
When I hear Patty I think of patties, or Patty and Selma Bouvier.
American English pronunciation is more staccato than Irish English, which tends towards glissando (sometimes so much it almost slurs). So the -tt- sound in Patty’s Day would have a harder edge than we give it. In Ireland it just sounds and looks a bit wet. Using Patty’s Day might also stem from a perception that Paddy is a pejorative or even RACIST!!1! word.
Anyway, happy Paddy’s Day, Gavin!
I just got an email from another American source, also saying Patty. Stan might be right. It could be more insane American PC bullshit.
Yanks call it Patty’s day, had to listen to enough of them today at work. They bloody love it.
I never got any such e-mail 🙁
But the amount bnof people that refer to bit as Patty’s Day is insane. It’s PADDY for feck’s sake! Get that into yet thick non-Irish heads!
I got that email too and tweeted about it http://twitter.com/redmum/status/1322602426
I emailed them back pointing out that if they are contacting Irish people it would be an idea not to call it such. In fairness they replied back pretty quickly saying they are Irish-Americans and Americans and missed that and not to hold it against them 🙂
i wonder if these irish-americans realise that Patty is short for Patricia, and thus calling our patron saint by feminine shorthand is actually very insulting to us Irish.
Whereas they probably think they’re being all PC by not using “Paddy”.
Oh the joys of insane political correctness…
The reference to “Patty’s Day” is very common in the USA.
It pre-dates “political correctness” but I suspect it has the same origin as the “Paddy’s day” labelling in Ireland. It is a way to remove the religious aspect of the occasion. It would be very common to see it on Budweiser advertising for example. It used to appear on the green posters alongside the model Patricia Ireland.
Interestingly I have never seen or heard of a living male named “Patty” in the US. It is commonly an abbreviation for “Patricia”. Many Irish-American, or “Scotch-Irish” girls are called “Patty”.
Coming to Canada 25 years ago, one of my son’s was called “Patty” by his new friends,I just corrected then nicely, and therafter, He was called Patrick, and has been ever since..
Sharon Corr, of The Corrs fame, is going solo and has just performed a great gig at the Isle of Wight Festival.
Check out the WSJ for photos….