It seems to be a never-ending annoyance and debate, that those of us who are not Irish mispronounce or misspell 'St Patrick's Day'.
Time and time again, other parts of the English-speaking world - mostly across the Atlantic - refer to the holiday as 'St Patty's Day'.
This is wrong - for the majority of people.
And on this special week (yup, it’s now a week), this goes out to all of my US friends.
A special Fògra, just for you!
For the love all that is good and Irish, Nìl sè Patty, Tà sè Paddy.
Be a legend, do it for Paddy#StPatricksDay #PaddyNotPatty #Ireland pic.twitter.com/kD7asCDlH8
— Tina Kavanagh (@TKav) March 14, 2022
But as Newstalk reporter Simon Tierney explains, linguistically they may not be so wrong after all.
"Paddy is short for Pádraig, but we don't generally call it Lá le Pádraig anymore.
"We use the anglicised version of Pádraig - which is Patrick.
"Now technically, 'Paddy' is not short for Patrick: one has a 't', the other has a 'd'.
"The short for Patrick is actually 'Pat' - hence St Pat's Day or St Patty's Day.
"Therefore Patty's Day makes more linguistic sense than Paddy's Day - in English at least".
I realise this is a controversial move but...I've decided the Yanks were right all along. It is ST. PATTY'S DAY after all...Let me explain my reasoning...
Today's 'How to do Stuff': How to celebrate St. Patty's Day #StPatricksDay 🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/sRt8Esdo3f
— Simon Tierney (@tierneysimon) March 15, 2022
Convinced? We're not sure either...
