A quick post before I make the school lunches.  Thank God a St Patrick's Day with a bit of good weather - St Patrick must have turned the stone - whatever that means.  We had a larger than usual attendance at Mass today - one of the rare occasions when the Mc Camley's go together en famille - and thankfully all well behaved (apart from the brown crayon incident - best not ask). 

We had an unusual start to Mass this morning - a minute's silence for the Mc Donagh brothers who died yesterday in a fire at their home in Drogheda.  It's rare to get any silence at Mass so I appreciated it, even while I was thinking, em, why don't we just pray for them instead, like, you know, Catholics. 

We got to sing Hail Glorious St Patrick twice - but alas not the second verse - there was no "heretic throng" and calling for help in our battles.  Still, can't have everything. 

The parade was the usual display of - well, very little really.  If Drogheda didn't have a huge collection of rescue services there would be no parade - between the Boyne Fishermen, Drogheda Search and Rescue, Civil Defence, Coast Guard, Fire Brigade, Sub Aqua Teams - well there were more boats in the parade than anything else.  And about a thousand scouts - and yet somehow Michael's been on a waiting list for, like three years.  Funny that.

We used to always have a flyover by the Air Corps based at Gormanstown but they are no longer there.  We did have some very loud cannons being fired from Millmount - a sort of Martello tower.  And some lovely Irish wolfhounds.  And a few falcons, driven by a large collection of American jeeps.  A new obsession to replace dinosaurs.

Didn't An Taoiseach get a great welcome at the White House today - bet Gordon Brown was jealous - should have invented the "traditional presentation of a bowl of roses on St George's Day" - or should that be thistles.  Suppose it would help if the Brits actually had a national day.

I wonder is that why he's trying to steal a papal visit - to make up for the Obama snub - From Hope to Pope.

2 minutes left till midnight and then I gotta stop - sudden memory from childhood there.  You remember the news used to show the Queen Mother handing out shamrocks to soldiers in the Irish Guards.  Well the one time administrator of my home parish in Belfast (St Patrick's) - Fr Bradley (RIP) - used to fume at that image.  He once mentioned it at Mass - with words along the lines of "this nonsense was started by Queen Victoria - and it's nobody's business where she is today".

Perhaps we might have a moment's silence in her memory.  Might go and see her movie - hear it's quite good.