St Patrick Has His Day, Let Sheila Have Hers

BY LLOYD GORMAN

Even the most ardent agnostic would probably be better informed about St. Patricks Day than the vast majority of Irish people – including until very recently this writer – are about Sheelagh’s Day. But hot on the heels of the March 17 worldwide celebrations for the feast day of Ireland’s patron saint*, March 18 also used to be a day of significance and festivity for the Irish at home and abroad. Sheelagh’s Day (also spelt Shelagh, Sheila, Sheilah) – named supposedly after St. Patrick’s wife or mother – was traditionally celebrated as an extension of St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, but also Australia and Newfoundland where communities had grown from early emigration. While it has all but vanished, there is good evidence to suggest that Sheelagh’s Day was well known – even commonplace – in the fledgling days and decades of the country as a colony. The first documented mention of Sheelagh’s Day in Australia appears to have been in The Sydney Gazette, on March 24, 1832. The article in question was a court report of a woman who tried to argue that she was drunk because of the day that it was. “Shelah’s Day — Martha Grayburn, ‘a would if I could, but I can’t’ sort of a lady, was brought up for the commission of divers peccadilloes on the evening of Sunday. Martha pleaded ‘Shelah’s Day’ in extenuation, and was ordered to ‘go and sin no more’.” The same court report in the Gazette gave an account of one Anne Kirk who “was accused of drenching her intestines to the tune of ‘drops o’brandy’, till she was in doubt whether it was this world or the next she inhabited. ‘La! Yer honor, I was only keeping up Shelah’s Day’, exclaimed Anne. ‘Then keep it up a month longer at the factory,’ responded his

Photos courtesy St. Patrick's Festival WA

worship, and she was handed off accordingly.” The insobriety and excuse for it of these two women was by no means an isolated incident. The following year (March 21, 1833) the Sydney Herald reported: “Mary Folkes, quite in the dumps, was charged by the charley, who picked her up, with rolling through the streets on Sheelah’s day, in a state unmentionable”. This article published in The Sydney Gazette (March 28, 1837) painted a broader picture. “It is somewhat extraordinary that upon St. Patrick and Sheelah’s Day, Good Friday, &c., there were less cases of drunkenness upon the Police Office list than upon any day for a month preceding. It was usually the custom for at least double the number to appear.” While St Patrick’s Day and Sheelagh’s Day were closely

linked, people at the time did make a distinction between them as this Sydney Morning Herald article of March 24 1846 reveals: “The following, or what by the Emeralders is termed Sheelah’s day, our town was far more alive and noisy, and from several shindies we witnessed in our streets, we were inclined to think that some of the Paddys had mistaken the day of commemoration of their saint; but had made no mistake about having their spree out.” Sometimes the distinction was only minor. “St. Patrick's Day — In consequence St. Patrick's Day falling on last Sunday, the usual national manifestations were not discernible in Parramatta until the following day, when the only thing that reminded us that it was Shelah's Day, was observing a few of the fair sex in a state of inebriety,” the Star and Working Man’s Guardian said on March 23, 1844. “In the evening, a small band of private musicians circumambulated the town, enlivening it with the "dulcet sounds of flute and tabor." The number of drunken cases at the Police-office did not appear to have been increased by the festivities of the evening.” Sometimes the distinction was of major importance. On May 23 1873 The Brisbane Courier carried this colourful account of a court case. The journalist introduced the story with the line that a case before the magistrate at Clerkenwell police-court seemed to have some questions about when and who could get drunk on St. Patrick’s Day. “Ann Sarah Webb, aged fifty-eight, and described as a laundress, was charged with being drunk and disorderly in the Caledonian road on Tuesday. Mrs Webb expressed her sorrow at the occurrence, which she explained by stating that it was St. Patrick’s Day. The magistrate, however, declined to admit this plea, for, as he truly said, Monday was St. Patrick’s Day and not Tuesday upon which Mrs Webb, who was fined five shillings, exclaimed: “there, you see, that’s where you are wrong. Monday was the men’s St. Patrick’s Day and the women always take it the day after. That’s a fact, and everyone knows it. It is called Shelah’s Day?” It is only fair on St. Patrick to point out that although “poteen” is derieved from his name, and although he instructed the Irish in the art of distillation, he was not himself given to drinking, and indeed was almost if not quite a teetotaller. He highly disapproved of drunkenness in the day-time, and in A.D. 445 issued an order to his disciples not to commence their potations until the bell rang for vespers in the evening.” While largely told in tales of debauchery St Patrick’s Day and Sheelagh’s Day were not always disgracful displays of drunkeness. “Never, within the recollection of the oldest inhabitant in this town, did St. Patrick’s Day, in former years, pass over with so much decorum as on Monday last,” The Australian reported on March 20, 1845. “Whether to attribute this happy fact to the exertions of the friends of temperance, or to the want of cash to purchase the “cheering drop” is not known.

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Shelah’s Day passed off equally credibtable to the town.” The Irish Citizen (published in NSW between 1871 and 1872) reported on March 30 1872 that: “The celebration of St, Patrick’s Day (1872) at Gulgong was a complete success… St. Patrick’s, or rather Shelah’s, Day passed off very quietly.” Published in Sydney’s The Empire newspaper on March 18, 1865 there is a positive mention of the day itself. “St. Patrick’s day was duly honoured in New South Wales yesterday is beyond question, and we can only hope that Shelah’s day, which is usually understood to be the day following, may be equally enjoyed by the ladies of Ireland in receiving, which they might, presents of nice silk bonnets and gloves”**. Decades later, a March 16, 1876 report in the Brisbane Telegraph showed that many parts of Australia were still very much ‘under the influence’ of this occasion. “It is in small towns, villages, or hamlets, in the bush, on the outside of civilisation, where Above and right: Irish mammies enjoying the St Patricks Day parade in Perth. Opposite right: The Rose of Tralee entrants

drunkenness reigns on St. Patrick’s day, and worse on Shelah’s day.” And again in the Hobart Mercury, on March 26, 1887: “All residents here appear to have once again become quite fixed in their various avocations; St. Patrick’s Day and Sheelah’s day also having had that attention paid to them which was considered their due.” Curiously, an extensive search of the online database of old newspapers and journals known as Trove did not produce any references to Western Australia. It is not clear when or why Shelagh Day died out in Australia, or Ireland for that matter, but apparently the tradition is kept alive in Newfoundland. It is a part of our heritage we have lost but can still reclaim. Indeed it should be proclaimed in the same way that Little Christmas – Women’s Christmas – on January 6 – or St Brigid’s Day (Imbolc) every February 1 are

TAKE A BOW, SHEILA

If Sheelagh’s Day is something we no longer remember then Síle na Giġ is something Irish culture has never forgotten. Ireland does not have a monopoly on these ancient and mysterious carvings or sculptures of a naked fertility goddess exposing her genitalia but it does have more of these grotesque figures than anywhere else in Europe (right). Thought to be around for more than a thousand years old, they were given the name Síle na Giġ in Ireland in the 1840’s. They offer a fascinating look into primitive and probably pagan rituals and practices which we can only speculate about now. Síle na Giġ deserve an article of their own in a future edition of Irish Scene. But for now the website Ireland’s Síle na Giġ reminds us how little we understand them or their appeal. “The truth is, that we have absolutely no idea what Sheelas were used for, where they came from and why they have survived so long,” the site states. “Through Reformation, Plague, Cromwell and the hippocritic Victorians, the Sheela has survived to the 21th Century, where it is hoped she can now be given proper recognition and a rightful place in world archaeology.”

actively recognised and celebrated widely today. It could become a fixture in the diary for the Rose of Tralee or womens GAA sports. Perhaps an added motivation for the Irish community in Australia are its roots here. While the use of the once commonplace word Shelia to describe a woman or girl is old fashioned and out of touch with modern day sentiments, Shelahs Day does at least suggest that its origins are Irish. We should own our past and embrace the best bits for the future. Lets bring back Sheelagh’s Day for the women in our lives.

*Ireland has three national patron saints. St Patrick enjoys the title of Apostle of Ireland and incredible popularity. The others are St. Brigid (died 525) whose feast day February 1 marks the start of Spring, and St Columba (521AD-597AD) on June 9. **There is a story that St. Brigid (right) proposed marriage to St. Patrick on February 29, which is the origins of the idea that women can propose to a man on the Leap Year. According to lore he turned her down but gave her a kiss on the cheek and a silk garment.