Éirinn go Brách We say all these brave and cheerful things today: Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! And Éirinn go Brách, Ireland forever! And you wear your green necktie Which you never wear the rest of the year, and we Do actually stop and think about old Ireland, once Or twice, remembering a grandfather, or Maureen O’Hara, or Samuel Beckett’s seamed-granite face; But right now, all together, for a long moment, out Of real love and reverence for a place and a people, Let us think about the adamant courage of the Irish, Enslaved for centuries, forbidden their own tongue, Forbidden their religion, their own rich moist land, Forbidden to teach their own children in ways they Thought right and proper. But the enslaving empire Could not kill their imagination, their laughter, their Love affair with literature, their wild joyous music; The empire could not quell their spirit, their defiant Grace and endurance; and they ejected the invaders At last, and built their own country, and millions of The children of wild green Ireland sailed across the World, and helped spark other brave free countries, Among them the very one in which we stand. Don’t Forget the real Ireland: not today, of all days. Never Forget the actual Saint Patrick, his courage, his lack Of bitterness, his life teaching the miraculous Word. Sing today, yes! Sing with all your heart; but do sing A courage that could not be crushed, an imagination That could not be imprisoned, a song sung anywhere Free people insist on telling their own wild holy tales. Your Theatrical Training Most of what we learn when we are young is how to get by, How to cruise, how to accomplish the required and not a jot Or tittle more, how to fake it in every way, shape, and form, How to pretend or hint toward interest while not being at all Interested, how to seem to do one thing while doing another, How to wear a mask, how to wear a mask under the mask in Case of emergencies, how to say something you don’t mean; And this is not to even get into learning to smile and sneer at Once, how to be present and absent, how to appear absorbed While being the definition of unattached and inattentive. We Learn such fakery, to be blunt. Why is that? We learn acting. We are