St. Patrick’s Day is often associated with parades, green beer, and Irish pride, but this year, let’s engage with it on a deeper level—a day to honor the resilience, trauma, and hope carried by our ancestors.
In 2023, I traveled to Ireland for a transformative Louise Hay training (author of You Can Heal Your Life) with Eileen Clair and my Irish sisters. I chose Ireland not only for the deeply spiritual nature of the work, but also to walk the lands of County Mayo and County Sligo, where my ancestors once lived before seeking survival and renewal in America.
I brought my daughter along to introduce her to our ancestral homeland. As we stood on those rolling green hills, breathing in the misty air, we felt the presence of those who came before us. I could almost hear their whispered prayers, their footsteps pressing forward despite hunger, loss, and the unknown.
My ancestors crossed the Atlantic in waves—my mother’s side as early as the mid to late 1700s, my father’s during the desperate 1840s, fleeing the devastation of the Great Hunger. Like so many Irish immigrants, they arrived in America with little more than hope, finding refuge in the Catholic Church, which provided comfort and community. Though that same institution later felt constricting to me, I still honor the way it sustained my ancestors. Resilience is woven into my bloodline—and yours.
We all carry ancestral trauma, the weight of past hardships passed down through generations. Inner child work has shown me how often we hold fears and beliefs that aren’t truly ours but belong to those who came before us. Whether we descend from Irish immigrants, Spanish conquistadors, African slaves, indigenous peoples, or any other lineage, our histories hold both suffering and strength. America itself was built on this paradox—a land of promise and pain, of milk and honey mixed with sacrifice and the sins of colonization.
This St. Patrick’s Day, I invite you to celebrate with intention. Yes, wear your green and raise a glass if you wish, but also honor the resilience and renewal this day represents. Here are five ways to celebrate with meaning:
- Learn Your Family’s Immigration Story – Whether or not you have Irish roots, explore where your people came from. What hardships did they endure? What dreams carried them forward?
- Honor Ancestral Resilience – Light a candle, say a prayer, or create art reflecting your heritage. Recognize the courage and strength it took for your ancestors to survive and thrive.
- Engage in Inner Child Work – Reflect on inherited beliefs. Are they serving you? What messages about survival, faith, or scarcity were passed down that you can now rewrite?
- Give Back – Many of our ancestors arrived with nothing. Honor their journey by supporting immigrants and refugees today. Donate to organizations helping those seeking safety and opportunity.
- Reflect on What St. Patrick’s Day Means to You – Is it just a day of revelry, or does it hold a deeper significance? Take time to sit with the spirit of the day and what it represents in your life.
Ireland has endured famine, oppression, and revolution—yet it has thrived. So have we. This St. Patrick’s Day, let’s celebrate not just with pints and parades but with gratitude, reflection, and a deep honoring of the past that continues to shape us.
The “Coffin Ship” at Croagh Patrick is a bronze sculpture, part of the National Famine Memorial, depicting a ship with skeletal figures in the rigging, commemorating the Great Famine and the many who perished during the voyage to a new life.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours
-John O’Donohue- Irish poet and writer
