| that the element of “fair play” _is lacking on this continent national saint. by the name of | ' about the Irish identity, as the page 6 - March 1, 1978 - North Shore News’ Ye ou can never: talk. for very iong to a W jeishman _ (father King Ceredig who was . without the phrase “fair play!”: cropping up in his | conversation. It’s not a complaint or an accusation. It’s simply one of the many. colorful (and. possibly | revealing) idioms with which the Welsh season their everyday. speech: to. give: emphasis. to a: particular - point — in much the same. way.as. an Englishman’ will say “after all” o or ‘ “mark you” ‘Nevertheless, I've often felt | TT when it comes to the national | ‘celebrations . ‘of the various. -races that have settled here from the British Isles. > - _ The Scots, of course, who- op it up in. grand style on Burns © Night with, haggis, whisky and pipers — in addi- tionto havinga perfectly good wee woske meen . Andrew, whose day (Novem- ber 30) gets a rather quieter — billing. . A couple of weeks or so” from now nobody within ear- shot will be left in any doubt land. St. George of England is reputed to have been killed in ~ action in the Middle East in St. Patrick’s Day shenani- _gans_ get under way once more. : ssswea we Scotland, of course, was one of the Twelve Disciples. _2UIN V EEN A AN SEER a ZEEUIN ANCIENT BRITONS: “But the Welsh, who. have . onverting the heathen Welsh He was in. business around. the year 550,:some 150 years {h later than St. Patrick of Ire- the early years of the. fourth - seentury. And St. Andrew of PN i TT Sy ars ee WRT a WWE AUER St. _David’s business “was - {Arthur’s. uncle (you: work out - {that one). - Stern. though he was, Bish- - lop’ ‘David's. ‘Christian. teach- y tings went. over big with the — ‘Welsh’ right. from the start. It. seems he finally got the heath- jen: Druid hangover out of “..-|their biood and by the early — “= | Middle. Ages, 500 ‘years after | |his death, pilgrimages to. his . ‘shrine were.a “must” with | God-fearing Welsh people.So jin 1120 Pope” Calixtus- " joamed hhim.a saint. ANNUAL BINGE? | oP “Maybe all this i is. hardly the stuff of which. parties are . made. Maybe, from the angle of. twenticth-century festivi- . ties, the Welsh would have done better to stick, with the. heathen Druids. — ‘who were ar Se see ae ee ee er nee - quite high on parties of a sort: \the ‘worship of nature gods, . sacrifices, magic and that kind of thing. But after all this time Tm sure that even authoritarian. |St. David would be prepared — to bend a little and bless a really good annual binge by his descendants _ in North America — if only to put those Scots and Irish in their If you happen’ to come from ‘st David's lovely little coun-. ‘try and would. like to-do something about. it once a year, there's: quite a. flour- Fathers in real style, CYMRU AM BYTH, FAIR PLAY! “Bor . despondent business: |people i in these tough econo- imic times Canadian Monthly Newsletter tells the following. true fish story — and suggests tits moral. “A. ‘naturalist divided an. aquarium: -with a-clear glass partition. He put a bass in‘one section and some minnows in ithe other. The bass would istrike every time a minnow Meanwhile, .