The Luck of the Irish
Author: Melissa Lahti
March 14, 2012
This time of year we see the phrase “luck of the Irish” everywhere. I never gave much thought to this phrase before but in all reality the Irish never had very much luck. These are a people that survived famine, war, starvation and prejudice. Therefore this luck must be referring to an inherent luck of a people that always land on their feet when bad things happen. The Irish are strong people with a high sense of family values. They rely on each other and survive together. This some would say is what luck is all about.
The phrase luck of the Irish actually originated in the United States and is not an Irish saying. When the Irish first migrated to America they were hated and discriminated against because of their accents and hair color. They were looked at as different and not accepted. It was started because many Irish immigrants were so “lucky” to find gold and silver during the gold rush. This phrase was never meant to be nice since they were referring to being lucky as opposed to having the brains to come across such success.
This sarcastic term is actually to say that if the Irish didn’t have bad luck they would have no luck at all. Next time I see this phrase I will think twice about what it really means and just stick to using the saying “good luck”.