On this St. Patrick's Day at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, it's fitting to wonder why this holiday is celebrated in the US by the non-Irish.

It's much more than about green beer and shamrocks.

Irish woman, Sadhbh Walshe, comments at The Guardian:

"But it's not surnames that start with an O' that bring these people together nor is it to celebrate a catholic saint, who offers only a limited version of Irishness to those of us who are atheists or Protestants or subscribers to the numerous other belief systems on offer. What brought all these communities together in Queens and what causes millions of people from all sorts of backgrounds across America to become Irish for the day is the shared bond of being immigrants.

"As one of those immigrants, I can attest that leaving your country and your family behind to find a more feasible life in a foreign land is no small decision. And it is one that's made, more often than not, out of necessity rather than choice. As almost every family in America, other than the natives, has someone from some generation who has made that decision, it's no surprise that they can connect so easily with the diaspora of a nation who has lost so much of its population to emigration.

"I'd like to think anyway that St Patrick's day is something more than a grand old excuse for a party – not that there's anything wrong with that. But either way, this year again the Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen who hails from County Offaly will meet up with the great-great-great-grandson of a fellow Offaly man called Fulmouth Kearney, better known outside of Ireland as President Barack Obama, and the business of the White House will be put on hold for the day so that a nation of immigrants can celebrate the legacy of a nation of emigrants."

Food for thought when discussing revising immigration laws to be just, fair, humane, and moral, unlike the shameful current situation fueled by racist, bigoted right wing hatred of immigrants.