Slainte: Being Green at 10,200 Feet

Irish Celebrated in Leadville Today

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! If you’re wondering where to get your Irish on in @Leadville Today, here’s what is happening in America’s highest city where everyone is a little Irish on March 17!

Unfortunately, some of the Leadville traditional Irish merriment will once again be subdued due to COVID-19 public health restrictions. According to City Administrator Sarah Dallas, regular parade organizers did not pull a permit from the city and instead relayed, “there will not be a parade this year,” and “no Lions (corned beef and cabbage) this year.”

But Begorrah, not all Irish folks will be silenced nor subdued on the feast day of the beloved Saint Patrick! So if you’re looking for a delicious – and affordable – plate of Corned Beef and Cabbage swing on down to the Pastime Bar & Café (120 W. 2nd Street) where Nate will be serving up platefuls of the Irish traditions, along with all the libations to wash it down. They will be opening the doors at noon today for some good Irish food and music. – Slainte! The Pastime stands ready to serve guests on a day where “Everybody’s Irish!”

St Patrick’s Day Celebration 2015

Irish Memorial to Miners Underway in Leadville

By Kathleen Bedell, © Leadville Today

It’s been almost two years since Irish Ambassador Daniel Mulhall’s visit to Leadville back in May 2019. Accompanied by his wife and representatives from the Irish Network of Colorado (INCO) the diplomat’s visit to the Evergreen Cemetery was the long-awaited result of a project started 15 years earlier. It was UCD Political Science Professor James Walsh who along with a group of dedicated students researching the history of 19th-century Irish migratory miners in the Rocky Mountains came across something they didn’t expect in the historic resting place: “rows and rows and rows – acres, really – of unmarked graves.”

The plots turned out to be the graves of Irish miners, their wives, and their children, buried here between 1878 and 1890 and representing a mind-spinning mortality rate. The finding leads to years of communications with the endpoint being the new Leadville Irish Miners’ Memorial.

“In recent years,” said Ireland Ambassador Daniel Mulhall during his May 2019 visit to the site, “we’ve been trying to reach out to the diaspora (people from their original homeland) to kind of connect in a more meaningful way.  I think it’s great to bring back to memory the fact that you know this was once an Irish metropolis.” And while Leadville’s Irish history tends to focus on certain legends like the “Unsinkable” Molly Brown, Mulhall’s perspective pulls the lens back a bit further.

“I’m very keen on collective stories being told rather than just telling the story of great men and women you know it’s important to have an understanding that most Irish people who came to America in the 19th century will never be known to history individually so we have to we have to know them collectively that’s why something like this is important.”

The fundraising efforts for the Memorial have been met with great enthusiasm as well. Last August, guests attended the second annual Irish Night at the Castle at Dunafon Castle in Kittredge, Colo. which by local news accounts is “fast becoming the premier Irish event of the year.”  The event raised $30,0000 in support of INCO’s Evergreen Cemetery. While there has been no word on when the rest of the work and fundraising will continue, it’s comforting to know that the immigrants who lie in an unmarked grave at the Evergreen Cemetery will soon be honored and remember on this Saint Patrick Day and for many years to come. Slainte!

About Irish Network of Colorado

The Irish Network of Colorado (INCO) harnesses the creativity, industry, and success of Ireland’s diaspora and offers members one-stop access to pooled information about social and cultural events, business opportunities, and much more. The network is open to anyone who wishes to participate more actively in the Irish community, to connect professionally or just to expand their social scene in the Denver Metro area.

Colorado Journalist Kathy Bedell owns TheGreat Pumpkin, a media company in Leadville, Colorado which publishes Leadville Today and Saguache Today. She may be reached at info@leadvilletoday.com.

Feast of St. Patrick: March 17

While the Leadville Irish and their merriment write their own narratives filled with civil leadership and good whiskey, the genesis of the holiday can be found across the seas, back to the motherland. For the story of Saint Patrick, Leadville Today turns to the local experts at Holy Family Parish. The following is an excerpt from the March 14 Catholic Church Bulletin.

Although he is the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick was actually born in Roman Britain in the fifth century. When he was a teenager, he was captured by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. It was during this time, that he discovered his own faith, finding strength through his relationship with God.

Saint Patrick’s enslavement lasted for six years until he had a dream in which he was told to escape by going by way of the coast. He successfully made it back to Britain, but after a few years, he had a vision in which a man came to him from Ireland and gave him a letter with the heading ‘”The Voice of the Irish.” In his spiritual autobiography, the Confession, Saint Patrick said that, at that moment, he heard the Irish people crying out, “We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.”

It led Patrick to further his education and study for the priesthood. He would later be ordained a bishop and was appointed as successor to Saint Palladius, the first bishop of Ireland. Saint Patrick spent the rest of his life bringing the Good News of the Gospel to the people of Ireland, which was a pagan country at the time.

He is believed to have used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity, and the shamrock remains associated with the saint and the Trinity to this day. The prayer “Breastplate” is attributed to Saint Patrick. It reads in part: “Christ be within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ inquired, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.”

Saint Patrick died on March 17, 461. He is now the patron saint of Ireland and is known as the Apostle of Ireland. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

VIDEO: St. Patrick’s Day – Leadville 2017