User:Jnestorius/Sheelah's Day

"Saint Shelah" redirects here. Not to be confused with holy Shelah.

<Sheelah's Day

Sheelah's Day
Type	Ethnic, cultural
Date	18 March
Next time	18 March 2025 (2025-03-18)
Frequency	Annual
Related to	St. Patrick's Day

Sheelah's Day (also spelt Sheelagh, Sheila, or Síle) is 18 March, the day after St. Patrick's Day (17 March) and formerly the final day of a three-day period of revelry observed by Irish Catholics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and by Irish Newfoundlanders into the twentieth century. The mythical Sheelah was most commonly understood as the wife of Saint Patrick; alternatively his mother, other relative, or housekeeper.

History

The folk piety of Irish Catholicism in Penal times evolved with less regulation by the hierarchy which was illegal. Local patterns, at holy wells or other traditional sites, often lasted three days, for arriving, feasting, and returning respectively. Saint Patrick's Day always falls during Lent and its feast provided a break in the period of 40 days' fasting. Accounts by English or Anglo-Irish travellers and antiquarians often present a patronising picture of these as excuses for drunkenness, "apparently written by individuals who took a supercilious, middle-class view of the quaint beliefs and drinking practices of the Irish rabble". Erskine Nicol's 1856 genre painting The 16th, 17th (St Patrick’s Day), and 18th March depicts bucolic rural merrymaking. Halpert suggests the character and name of Sheelah may have originated in outsider's mockery or a Lord of Misrule style travesty.

Cyril Byrne, Saint Mary's University: "There's St. Patrick's Day and Sheila's Day and some even say there's Sheila's Mother's Day for those who need an extra one to recover ... I once came across a 1750 economic treatise where this economist was using all this to say the Irish lack industry."

Some accounts say men got drunk on Patrick's Day and women on Sheelah's Day. Others say the phrase "drowning the shamrock" referred to the final drink of the festivities on Sheelah's morning. Another female annex to a major Irish feast is Women's Christmas still observed on 6 January.

Australia mentions "Shelah's Day" from 1832 to 1900s.

Lehane suggests Patrick's feast is based on a pre-Christian equinoctial fertility festival, with Patrick the analogue of Lugh representing the masculine half and Sheelah the analogue of the sacred feminine half, a goddess also remembered in Sheela na Gig carvings.

1740 Clare Market Paddy

Penn 1824 claims "In 1740, London was thrown into an uproar, on St. Patrick's day, by a collision between two rival processions, one bearing a Paddy, and the other a Shelah; the result of which was that Newgate was temporarily crowded." This differs from contemporary reports:

1. The Gentleman's Magazine:

   Being St Patrick's Day, the Butchers in Clare Market hung up a grotesque Figure, to represent an Irishman; and a great Number of Irishmen coming to pull it down, a fierce Battle ensu'd, when much Mischief was done, and some very dangerously wounded; but a File of Musqueteers being fetch’d from St James's several of the Rioters were carry’d before Col. De-Veil, who sent three of them to Newgate.

2. Political State of Great-Britain:

   A great Body of Men, amongst which above Twenty were armed with Cutlasses, accompanied by Thirty or Forty more armed with Sticks and Bludgeons, caused a prodigious Riot in Clare-Market and about it, falling upon the Butchers there, and several Persons unconcerned, as well Women as Men, some of which they beat, bruised, and wounded in so cruel a manner, that their Lives are despaired of.

   Three of the Ringleaders, to wit, Jack Cassody, Patrick Cassody, and Daniel Scully, who were all taken hewing and cutting down his Majesty's Subjects with Cutlasses in their Hands in a most furious Manner, by the High Constable of Westminster, with the Assistance of several Petty-Constables, were brought before Col. De Veil, who after an Examination of about five Hours committed them to Newgate, and bound over Nine Persons to prosecute, some of which were desperately wounded: And Col. De Veil hearing (that besides a prodigious Mob which filled the Street he lives in, and those adjacent to it) there was a great Body of armed Persons with Pistols and Cutlasses assembled in Covent-Garden, he sent for Two several Guards, which, consisting each of 12 Men and a Serjeant, who conducted them safe to Newgate.

   "This unfortunate Affair happened on the Day distinguished in the Kalendar by the Name of St. Patrick; who should he be esteemed the Patron of Ireland, was, notwithstanding a Briton by Birth, and spent many Years in a religious House in the Neighbourhood of Battersea. One cannot help wishing, that if a Spirit of Charity may not be restored, sufficient to make all Christians kind and beneficent towards each other, we might at least see revived a Spirit of Decency and good Breeding. Such Rencounters as these would be a Disgrace to Tartary, and cannot therefore be an Honour to England. In the Examination of this Matter, let the Guilty be punished but, let the bitter Root be taken away that we may not have annual Confusions, and annual Executions."

3. Daily Post has:

   Yesterday there happened an extraordinary Riot in Clare-Market, occasion'd by some Butchers Boys hanging up an Irishman in Effigie, being St. Patrick, their Tutelar Saint's Day; which the Sons of Hibernia justly taking to be done in Derision of their Country, were so provok'd at, that a bloody Battle ensued, and one or two Lives were lost; nor could the Mob be suppress'd till some Files of Musketeers were sent for from Whitehall, who had the Trouble of conducting one of the Rioters (an Irishman) to Newgate. This, no doubt, was done in Sport by the Rabble, in imitation of a most contemptible Custom, long practised by even the Refuse of the Populace, of hanging up a Phantom on St. David's Day, call'd a Taffy, to provoke our brave, and always rever'd Countrymen, the Antient Britons. 'Tis to be hoped this may be the Occasion of finding out a Method to suppress the like enormous Practices for the future.

4. The Ipswich Journal combines #2 and #3, the latter sourced rather from the London Evening Post than the Daily Post.

Mary Dorothy George's account is a subset of #2 and #3, source cited as "Press cutting in B.M. Collection called Alsatian Curiosities". That is not in BM catalogue or BL catalogue. I suspect "Alsatian Curiosities" is the wrong reference.

Possibly the 1824 source confused Taffy with Sheelah.

Contemporary quotes

Caleb Stark Jnr's 1860 biography of his grandfather John Stark says, in relation to the garrison of Fort William Henry in March 1757:

The Irish troops received an extra supply of rum on the night of the 16th, and commenced their carousal, which they carried on with unabated vigor through the night and during the ensuing day, in honor of St. Patrick, and his wife Shelah. ["Sheelagh" in 1865 quotation]

1780, U.S. Army:

The following order was also issued at the same time, though it does not clearly appear by whom. Some accounts attribute it to Col. Francis Johnson, a Pennsylvania officer :

"The commanding officer desires that the celebration of the day should not pass by without having a little rum issued to the troops, and has thought proper to direct the commissary to send for the hogshead which the colonel has purchased already in the vicinity of the camp. While the troops are celebrating* the bravery of St. Patrick in innocent mirth and pastime, he hopes they will not forget their worthy friends in the kingdom of Ireland, who, with the greatest unanimity, have stepped forward in opposition to the tyrant Great Britain, and who, like us, are determined to die or be free. The troops will conduct themselves with the greatest sobriety and good order."

The camp parole on this occasion was "Saint," and the countersign, " Patrick " and " Shelah." It is stated that "The day was ushered in with music and hoisting of colors, exhibiting the thirteen stripes, the favorite harp and an inscription, ' The Independence of Ireland.' "

Letter from Captain William McKennan of the Delaware Regiment dated 18 March 1780 "a Shelah's Day".

The Freeman's Journal referenced Sheelah's Day in 1785, 1811, and 1841.

1795:

Since a Reverend and learned Author has attempted to disprove the existence of our Patron Saint, doubts have even invaded the most illiterate, insomuch that on last Saint Patrick’s Day I can testify, however incredible it may appear, that no less than two police aldermen and three of our nightly guards, if not perfectly sober, were positively no more than half seas over; when, in my memory, three solemn and successive festivals were kept to his honour, his wife Sheela, and his dog Dermus by the inebriety of every male throughout the island above the age of twelve; but does it follow because we are robbed of the comfort and protection of our Patron Saint, and that his works are ranked with the decads of Slawkinbergius and the grants of Charlemain to the Popes, that this city should be deprived of the honour of having given birth to the prudent and worthy citizen whose wisdom and discretion are so admirably pourtrayed in these ample stanzas already published by you, which, as it is well remarked, excel some of the best specimens of ancient poetry.

In the 1829 collection Legends of Connaught, a story about George Robert FitzGerald (died 1786) describes inflammatory behaviour in Castlebar by soldiers of the 13th Dragoons "towards the close of" the 18th century on Saint Patrick's Day:

Two of them representing Patrick and Sheelah, were escorted through the town by some of their comrades. The male was tricked out with caubeen, brogues and treheens [footless stockings], and tied with suggawns (straw ropes,) in derision of the saint. The female was mantled in a barrack blanket; and the worthy pair were preceded by a third dragoon provided with a mop and bucket of impure water, which he scattered indiscriminately on all he met, male and female.

In 1803, an ordinance was promulgated in New York city imposing a ten-dollar fine for public display of "an effigy of St. Patrick, or any other titular saint, or of any person or persons whomsoever" on "St. Patrick's Day, or any other day". A facetious petition from Saint Patrick was published in response, stating that it was "a custom also established, since time immemorial" to carry through the streets on March 18 "the effigy of your petitioner's beloved wife Shelah" and that the prohibition did not apply to her because of "Shelah (dear jewel) not having the good fortune to be either saint or person at all, at all"; and requesting that Shelah "shall not be allowed to appear in public on the day aforesaid, but shall stay at home and console her confined husband".

John Carr's 1805 The Stranger in Ireland.

A Sunday with the peasantry in Ireland is not unlike the same day in France. After the hours of devotion, a spirit of gaiety shines upon every hour, the bagpipe is heard, and every foot is in motion. The cabin on this day is deserted; and families, in order to meet together, and enjoy the luxury of a social chit-chat, even in rain and snow, will walk three or four miles to a given spot. The same social disposition attaches them to a festive meeting, which owes its origin to the following circumstance: in the provinces of Munstcr and Connaught, and other counties, there were several fountains and wells, which, in the early ages of christianity, were dedicated to some favourite saint, whose patronage was supposed to give such sanctity to the waters, that the invalids who were immersed in them lost all their maladies. On the anniversary of each saint, numbers flocked round these wells for the united purpose of devotion and amusement; tents and booths were pitched in the adjoining fields; erratic musicians, hawkers, and showmen assembled from the neighbouring towns, and priests came to hear confessions: the devotees, after going round the holy wells several times on their bare knees, the laceration of which had a marvellous effect in expiating offences, closed the evening by dancing, and at their departure fastened a small piece of cloth round the branch of the trees or bushes growing near these consecrated waters, as a memorial of their having performed their penitential exercises.

In the year 1780 the priests discontinued their attendance, but the patrons, as these meetings were called, still continued the same, and to this day attract all the country for ten or twenty miles round. At these assemblies many droll things are said, many engagements of friendship are made, and many heads are broken as the power of whiskey develops itself: but revenge rises not with the morning. Pat awakes, finds a hole in his head, which nature, without confining the energies of the mind, seems to have formed in contemplation of the consequences of these festive associations; he no- longer remembers the hand that gave the blow, and vigorous health, and a purity of 'blood, very speedily fill up the fissure. ...

Some of their customs are singular and characteristic. On the anniversary of St. Patrick, the country people assemble in their nearest towns or villages, get very tipsy (but not bled by surgeons as some author has asserted), and walk through the streets with the trifolium pratense, or, as they call it, shamrock, in their hats, when whiskey is drank in copious libations; and, from a spirit of gallantry, these merry devotees continue drunk the greater part of the next day, viz., the 18th of March, all in honour of Sheelagh, St. Patrick's wife. I cannot give a better description of this sort of revel, allowing for some little changes of time, than in the following poem, which was composed by Hugh M'Gauran, called Pleraca na Ruarcach, or O'Rourke's Feast.

"Sheelah's Wedding on Saint Patrick's Day", a song written by Upton performed by Johannot on 21–26 February 1803 at Peter Street Amphitheatre, Dublin. ("Sheelah's Wedding or A Trip to Dunleary" earlier in same month, same writer performer and venue.)

Hibernian Provident Society, 1807 Patrick's Day toasts; 17th was "Shelah".

On March 17, 1807, the Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrant from Ireland dined at the "Mansion House Hotel" and there "partook of an excellent dinner prepared by Mr. Renshaw, and served up in excellent style. Benevolent and patriotic toasts, interspersed with wit, sentiment and song, kept them together until they hailed the morning of Shelah's day."

1808:

Thursday being the Anniversary of the Festival of St. Patrick, the same was celebrated according to custom by the Juvenile Sons of Erin, at a private house in Liberty street — Partaking of a plenteous feast, which consisted of every delicacy which the varied art of cookery could produce; drinking the following Toasts interspersed with original songs, bag-pipe and other music, kept the company together until they hailed the morning of Shelah's day.

"Shelah" was toasted with the song "Loony M'Toulter."

1809 Juvenile Sons:

On Shelah's morning Bacchus, attended by Wit and Humour, paid us a visit, & after the necessary salutations and hearing Carolan's receipt for drinking Irish wine, from our piper ; he gave us a short lecture on sobriety

1811, St. Patrick's Benevolent Society of Philadelphia "The society after partaking in a very joyous festivity parted with the close of the anniversary of Saint Sheelah."

16 March 1811 Sheelah's Day; or, Erin go Braugh "pastoral ballet" composed by Mr Lyon and produced at the Royal Hibernian Theatre, Dublin.

In Sydney, Lady Morgan's 1814 novel O'Donnel; a National Tale, Lady Singleton is sceptical of the tale of "Shelagh Dubh-na-Valone" (Julia McQuillan, the "Black Nun" of Bonamargy Friary) because "she knew the Calender of Saints pretty well, and no such name as Saint Shelagh was among them".

Newfoundland 1819:

Both Protestants and Catholics generally unite in compliment to each other in observing the days of their respective Saints, namely, Saint George and Saint Patrick. But the devotion with which the latter is honoured by the sons of Erin is by far the greater of the two. It is hardly in the power of any priest in the world to hinder an Irishman from getting gloriously drunk, if he is so inclined, on the Whole of the 17th of March, as well as the next day in honour of Sheelagh, Saint Patrick's wife. This festival is always looked for in Newfoundland with some apprehension, and requires the most attentive exertions of the magistrates to prevent the recurrence of those disturbances, frequently accompanied with bloodshed, of which it was the occasion not many years ago.

An 1820 Quaker temperance tale of two Catholic men recounting their drinking of the previous day, begins with Syl's greeting, "Morrow Pat. a merry saint Sheelah's day to you".

In 1824 Supreme Court of Pennsylvania case before John Bannister Gibson:

some time between dusk and 11 o'clock, on the 16th of March, 1824, a stuffed Paddy ["a certain figure, resembling a man, commonly called a Paddy, as and for the effigy of St. Patrick"], with the accompaniment of a rum bottle and a string of potatoes, was suspended to a tree near the junction of Second street and the Germantown road, in the district of Kensington, a neighbourhood inhabited principally by emigrants from Ireland ... meant and well calculated to excite the angry feelings of the immediate population ...the defendant was concerned in the exhibition on the 18th of March, of a female figure, commonly called a Shelah, but with several features, besides that of sex, distinguishing it from a Paddy. Some evidence was offered to show, also, that while the exhibition of a Paddy was resented as an insult upon the Catholic portion of the Irish, a Shelah was often displayed as a retaliatory emblem, and may have been so meant in the present case. ... The defendant, it was conceded, was clearly connected with the Shelah, though his instrumentality in the Paddy was controverted. ... if the characteristics and object of the Shelah were different from those of the Paddy, the variance was fatal ... A verdict of acquittal was subsequently rendered.

Note: ... We feel bound to state, however, that correct as is the distinction taken in the text, in point of law, the precedent which we have just cited [1740], is the only one that sustains it in point of fact. Indeed Shelahs and Paddies have usually been considered as devices rather of a similar than of an antagonistic character.

Thomas Moore on 15 March 1826 wrote that the 16th, not the 18th, was "Sheelah's Day" and his daughter Anastasia Mary (born 16 March 1813) was nearly named "Sheelah" for that reason.

Louis Gugy's letter to his son Bartholomew on 18 March 1827: "Therefore be easy, and trust to the bonhomme's small share of native sense, which (being Sheelah's day) I will say I must have inherited from you." I suppose he means that the idea of inheriting a trait from one's son is "Irish" = ridiculous, upside-down logic.

1830:

The day after St. Patrick's Day is "Sheelah's Day," or the festival in honour of Sheelah. Its observers are not so anxious to determine who "Sheelah" was as they are earnest in her celebration. Some say she was "Patrick's wife," others that she was "Patrick's mother," while all agree that her "immortal memory" is to be maintained by potations of whisky. The shamrock worn on St. Patrick's Day should be worn also on Sheelah's Day, and on the latter night be drowned in the last glass. Yet it frequently happens that the shamrock is flooded in the last glass of St. Patrick's Day, and another last glass or two, or more, on the same night deluges the over-soddened trefoil. This is not "quite correct," but it is endeavoured to be remedied the next morning by the display of a fresh shamrock, which is steeped at night in honour of "Sheelah" with equal devotedness.

That Saint Patrick was not married is clear from the rules of the Roman catholic church, which impose celibacy on its clergy. A correspondent suggests that the idea of his matrimonial connection, arose out of a burlesque, or, perhaps, ironical remark, by females of the poorer class in Ireland, to retaliate on their husbands for their excesses on the 17th of March; or, perhaps, from the opportunity the effects of such indulgence afforded them, these fair helpmates are as convivial on the following morning, as their "worser halves" were the preceding day."Sheelah" is an Irish term, generally applied to a slovenly or muddling women, more particularly if she be elderly. In this way, probably, the day after St. Patrick’s obtained the name of "Sheelah's Day," speciale gratia, without any reference to the calendar of saints.The saint himself, if we determine from the sacrifice to his memory, is deemed a kind of christian Bacchus; and, on like home-made authority, "Sheelagh" is regarded as his consort.

Concluding a report on a Saint Patrick's Day dinner in 1830 in Sydney: "The remainder of the evening passed off as it should do, harmoniously, and Sheelah's morning dawned before the company had parted."

In the Dublin Literary Gazette of 20 March 1830, the editors noted that the poem "Fair Eyes" submitted by "Rosenkranz" had "first met our soiled vision on Sheelah's day": presumably 18 March 1830. (The poem was published two weeks later.

In 1831, a thoroughbred stallion named St Patrick sired a filly named Shelah on a dam named Mulebird.

As the drunken Judy Hackett noted when she was arrested for singing with her husband at 530am on St Patrick’s Day in 1838, “blow the new polis, the magistrates and Perrin's Act to smithereens – she would maintain her rights, keep up Sheelah’s day, and make Lough Erne ring".

1839: "the 17th that of St. Patrick; the 18th that of St. Shelah, the wife, mother, or sister, nobody knows which, of St. Patrick".

"The King of the Emerald Island", a lampoon of Daniel O'Connell, begins thus:

Because his mother had a dhrame,
Saint Patrick's wife, Saint Shela, came
And said, hould up, my sturdy dame!
You shall produce a man of fame

Shela is spelt Shula in an 1840 printing.

Sydney 1840:

We were highly amused on Thursday morning by observing a regular son of St. Patrick, with a crownless hat and a mop in his hand (we do not mean to insinuate that he was moppy), staggering along in the height of human contentment, when he was accosted by a beautiful daughter of the abovementioned Saint, about 50 years old. "Arrah! Paddy my jewel, is it Shaint Pathrick's day ye've been kaping that has kept yez away from yer wife and disconsilate childer?" 'Oh, Judy dear, shure an is't not a pity that such a Shaint as Shaint Pathrick was, shouldn't have a day every day in the year; throth if I had the power of making a day eveiy day for his dacent wife Sheelah, dade and throth Judy my darlint but I'd make them, an' no mistake at all at all."

Diary entry for 18 March 1846 in Morgantown, Pennsylvania: "March 18. Sheely's day. Rain, is said, usually to fall on this day."

An 1850 biography of "the celebrated Leinster highwayman" Michael Collier (1780–1859) apparently refers to Collier's seeking shelter in a pub in Stamullen one "St. Sheelagh's Day".

1851:

On the 18th of March we have Shelah's day, a continuation in its observances of the preceding holiday. Shelah is in some way mysteriously connected with St. Patrick;—the exact degree of relationship is not accurately set down, and does not invite to investigation. She was something between a cousin twice removed and a grandmother. The shamrock should be worn till the last glass is drank on the second day, and then be drowned in a parting bumper.

Hadry also points out incongruous wife "widow Brady" in the rhyme:

St Patrick was a gentleman, and he came from decent people;
In Dublin town he built a church, and on it put a steeple.
His father was a 'Wollaghan,' his mother an 'O'Grady;'
His aunt she was a 'Kinaghan,' and his wife a 'widow Brady'

In the 1856 novel The Last of the Foresters by John Esten Cooke, set in Winchester, Virginia "when the last century was going rapidly downhill", a character says that, on St Patrick's Day, the local Dutch people, to rile their local Irish enemies, parade with a wooden statue of Patrick with a necklace of potatoes, and another of "Saint Patrick's wife, Sheeley", with an apron full of potatoes.

1860 German; most or all lifted from William Hone, e.g. "christian Bacchus".

1863:

At the Southwark Police-court, ten females and four men, all of Irish extraction, were brought before Mr. Combe. Some ofthem exhibited black eyes and cuts on different parts of the face and hands in honour of their patron saint, St. Patrick. All of them begged his worship's pardon for getting drunk, but they could not help it it was the whiskey and St Patrick (laughter). Mr. Combe, con­sidering tbe day, and that they bad not committed any violence, discharged them, and cautioned the women not to keep up Sheelah's day in the same manner, or he should be compelled to fine tbem or send them to prison.

22 December 1863 meeting of the New England Society of New York, the President made a toast to "Our Sister Societies", to which James T. Brady of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick responded jocularly:

What beautiful and feminine graces are attached to the names of the sister societies! Saint Jonathan [applause and laughter], St. Andrew, St. George and St. Patrick! Sister societies! [Renewed laughter and applause.] Why, it is the reproach of mankind, that while they sit round these festive tables, smoking segars, with women, decorating and bordering the assemblage, like flowers, there is no society in which men congregate festively to enjoy themselves, that is honored by the name of a woman. I see how mortified you feel, and I do not wonder at it. If it were Saint Sheelah, in honor of old Ireland, that would be something. If it were Saint Martha, mother of Washington, the sister societies would have a signification that would make us bow.

1866:

The day after St. Patrick's day is Shelah's day. As to who Shelah was, nobody knows. Some say she was St. Patrick's wife; others that she was St. Patrick's mother; while all agree that her "immortal memory" is to be celebrated by the "immortal hippocrene" whiskey. Then it is, when the whiskey is buoyant, that the "true" glory of old Ireland becomes manifest. The Shelahs are apt to get a little excited, and then there is a hubbub. Then the men get excited too, and then there is a flourish of cudgels called "Shelah-lellys;" and then there is a row, a bit of a fight, cracked crowns, and broken noses; in the midst of which the priest appears, and stills the tempest in an instant. The combatants fall on their knees at his bidding, and there is an end of the tumult. ... As to St. Patrick, the Welsh claim him; so do the Scotch; so he could not have been a bad fellow, but was, as I have no doubt, a holy man, deeply anxious to convert the "natives" of our common country from vice and idolatry. We have heathenism, idolatry, and worse than that, in our land at the present time; and would that an apostle equal in power and in the might and majesty of truth to St. Patrick, would come among us, to stay the blind impulses, the unruly vices, and maniac passions which so sorely disfigure this enlightened age and rising generation.

April 1868, Thomas Eakins in Paris writing to his sister Fanny in Philadelphia:

Your last letter told me about Paddy's & Sheely's day. You ought to have known better than to go out on either of them. I am glad you treated [Earl] Shinn well, but be sure you don[']t admire him for anything but his good heart & want of vices for he is very silly.

1870: "Uneda" (William Duane, Jr) wrote from Philadelphia to Notes and Queries:

Saint Sheelah, or Saint Sheeley, is said in this country to be the wife of St. Patrick. The 18th of March, the day after St. Patrick’s day, is said to be her day. If it rains on this day, the expression is frequently used that St. Patrick is beating his wife.

In 1875 an English magazine said "the Irish people" say that.

March 1873:

A convivial female from the Emerald Isle was brought before one of the London police magistrates for being drunk and disorderly the day after St. Patrick's Day, in last March, and pleaded as an excuse that it was St. Patrick's Day. The magistrate pointing out that Monday was St. Patrick's Day whereas she was found drunk on the Tuesday, the old lady explained that St. Patrick's Day was for the men, and the day after it, "St. Shelah's Day," was the Patrick's Day of the women. Was this a piece of ready wit to hoodwink the magistrate, or is there any foundation for it?

May 1873 response:

The poor old woman of the Emerald Isle was correct in her statement of her country's ancient practice—superstition if you will—she did not draw upon her mother wit to hoodwink the magistrate she was brought; before for having been "drunk and disorderly." I regret to say I find myself now an authority in reminiscences of former days, and well remember the inebriety of the poor wives on each 18th of March (some sixty-five years ago) which was an occurrence looked upon as expected as that of their husbands' on the 17th. The poor women being fatigued, watching their husbands' safety on Saint Patrick's Day, thought themselves bound to fake a little drain; as Mrs. Brown would say, to refresh themselves on the day following. And as every Pat must have his Sheelagh, the lady was raised to the same rank as her husband, and sainted accordingly. I have now, at the evening of my days, a vivid recollection of the staggering, pummelling, hair-pulling, fisty-cuffing, clothes-tearing, nose-bleeding, etc, &c, of the very lowest order, in my childhood. I am an observer of life from constitution, habit, and profession, and am happy to say I cannot call to mind such encounters for fifty years past on the 18th March as were usual nearly seventy years ago, and I presume for many previous generations.

1875 Maryland:

St. Patrick’s and Sheelah's Day, the 17th and 18th, although bright and clear, gave us a renewed taste of winter. St. Patrick is a much maligned personage, altogether: for observation has shown that for a number of years past, the 17th of March has been fair notwithstanding the general belief in the storm-brewing propensity of Ireland’s patron saint.

Brisbane Telegraph 1876:

It is in small towns, villages, or hamlets, in the bush, on the outside of civilisation, where drunkenness reigns on St. Patrick's day, and worse on Shelah's day; for Mrs. Patrick claims the day after hor lord, and then the sisterhood treat the brotherhood, and the proceedings are not always such as will bear relating.

1877 US: Mr. Editor:—ln reply to the above question, asked by “X.,” in your issue of April 7th, I respectfully submit the following:

First, the name “Sheeley " is purely an Irish one, the Latin synonym of which is “Cecilia," and the English “Cecily ” the name of a saint honored by the Catholic Church.

Second, by some way or other, it was once a custom, (altogether local, indeed,) in Ireland, to celebrate the feast of St. Cecily, or Sheeley, on the day following that of St. Patrick; and hence it is that, to this time, we call the day after St. Patrick’s, “Sheeley’s Day.” While it is not now a general custom in Ireland, yet in many of the religious orders it still prevails. In the Roman calendar, however, which is almost universally observed, the feast of St. Cecily falls on the 22nd of November.

Third. St. Cecily lived in the early part of the third century, “was a native of Rome, of a good family,” greatly devoted to singing the divine praises, (for which she is regarded as the patroness of church music and suffered martyrdom about the year 210. Her place of suffering was in her own house, which has ever since been kept sacred as a church. See Cardinal X. Wiseman’s “Fabiola.”

Fourth, the supposition, therefore, that Sheeley was St. Patrick’s wife, or had any acquaintance with him, is wholly without foundation, since they both lived in different ages and different countries. St. Patrick being a Frenchman, born in the year 372 (according to Archbishop Usher and Tillemont) as it seems, in Armoric Gaul, and spent the principal part of his life in Apostolic labors in Ireland, to which place he was sent by Pope Celestine, who died in the year 432.

1878 Maryland:

A jolly son of the Emerald Isle was not far wrong the other day in saying, according to his belief, St. Patrick would not be far off. He located him somewhere in Canada or roaming about the Northern lakes, predicting he would soon be in this latitude kicking up a dust. From the appearance of things coming in range of “old probability’s” province, I think his saintship must already have come among us slightly ahead of time. We have had numerous heavy showers accompanied with vivid lightning and loud peals of thunder. These were particularly noticeable yesterday afternoon and last night. Frogs were resurrected from their dormant slumbers and snakes waked up. Next Sunday (17th inst.) will be, if history is correct, the natal anniversary of Ireland’s patron saint. We may, therefore, look out for squalls, unless the palm is gallantly yielded to Shela, or Mrs. St. Patrick, who claims Monday following her birthday. I recollect a St. Patrick’s day here many years ago when there was snow three or four inches deep, fair sleighing and intensely cold weather.

1883 recipe for "shelah, or quick loaf cake" says, "Shelah,—which in English means Julia,—was the Irish name of their renowned Saint Patrick's wife;"

Leitrim-born priest James Keegan in 1887 excoriating anti-Irish content of British publications in Ireland:

I have seen picture books more vile in their cartoons and stories against "St. Patrick and his mother or wife St. Sheela," and the hapless Irish in general, than ever Puck was with its low humour.

Philadelphia native Hiram Corson MD (1804–1896; cousin of professor Hiram Corson) diary entry for 21 March 1880 : "The weather has been very disagreeable since Thursday, Sheelah's Day". His editor, one Louis A. Meier, notes:

Sheelah's Day is March 18, the day after St. Patrick's Day. It is the day dedicated to Sheelah-Na-Gig, the goddess of fertility and sexuality. Naked sheela-na-gig figures may still be seen in Irish churches constructed before the 16th century. The "drowning of the shamrock" has become associated with Sheelah's Day.

1901:

Now that I am writing of national saints' days' celebrations, I notice that Mr. Plowden, one of the London stipendiary magistrates, takes a very good-humoured view of the cases of those who become excessively jubilant on such days. "Keeping up St. Shelah's Day," was Alice M'Carthy's excuse on being brought before him en Tuesday. "What is that?" asked the magistrate. "It's something to do with St. Patrick. Yesterday was the ladies' day." Mr. Plowden: "Oh, I did not know he was married. I see now. You had I better change your saint, I think. Go away!" Another Irishwoman, at the same court, pleaded that she had "only been keepin' up the 17th for Ould Ireland." Mr. Plowden: "But the 17th was Sunday. How long does this festival last? It begins on Sunday and goes on well into Tuesday morning, apparently. Is it all over now for the year ?" The Prisoner: "Yessir!" Mr. Plowden: "Well, there is some relief about that. Go away with a caution!"

A letter to The Outlook of New York City in 1902:

I have often been asked the origin of "Sheely's Day" and the personality of Sheely herself. One representative of the "ould sod" tells me that "Sheely" is the Irish name for Bridget. But St. Bridget's natal day is February 1, while all who speak familiarly of Sheely's Day refer to the date succeeding March 17, known as St. Patrick's Day among English-speaking races.

Melbourne, 18 March 1902 newspaper advertisement for a furniture sale "THIS DAY (Sheelah's Day). At 3 o'Clock."

Fry, Smith D. (16 March 1910). "Saint Patrick and Sheila". The Denison Review. Denison, Iowa: Literary Magazine p.8. ISSN 2375-3153. Retrieved 18 February 2020 – via Chronicling America.

It is strange that so little is generally known concerning Sheila, or Sheila's Day. Do you know anything about her? Or, did you ever hear about her, or her special day of celebration? Did you know that Sheila's Day follows St. Patrick's Day? Did you ever read or hear that Sheila was the wife of the Sainted Patrick? Well, the folk-lore of the Emerald Isle contains the story. The great library of congress contains many stories and books and tomes about St. Patrick and Sheila. They have been analyzed and compiled by Louis Megaree [?recte Megargee], in a little brochure and to that analysis the writer is much indebted for the statements herein set forth. One of the stories explains the customary downpouring of rain on or following St. Patrick's Day. It is alleged that Sheila wept all day long on the day following St. Patrick's Day, because the Patron Saint of Ireland gave himself up to the too hearty enjoyment of fervent liquor and this accounts for the spittings of snow and the weeping of the rain on March 18th and sometimes on the 17th, because Sheila then began her vigils and say-eyed mournings. It is not certain who Sheila was. Some assert that she was the wife, and others that she was the mother of St. Patrick. Home says: "The Irish celebrate the 18th day of March under the name of 'Sheila's Day.' All agree that her immortal memory is to be maintained by potations. The shamrock worn on St. Patrick's Day should also be worn on Sheila's Day and the shamrock is to be drowned the last glass of liquor at night." Learned and literary Irishmen who celebrate Sheila's Day admit that they cannot learn anything concerning this mysterious woman yet all believe that she was a substantial entity a glorious woman in some way associated with the life and work of the great patron saint. Malone writes "In Ireland, the part from which I came, Sheila is the name applied to Irish women in general. It is simply a feminine 'Pat,' as almost every Irishman is called. For instance we would say 'Hello Pat or 'there goes a Patty,' whether his name is Pat or not so we would say: 'There goes a Sheila,' or 'Hello Sheila,' it being immaterial what her real name is, so long as she is Irish." But that is only one view or opinion and there seem to be as many views or opinions as there are Irishmen but nobody definitely tells us facts concerning the mysterious Sheila who has a substantial calendar day which is observed by many thousands of good people as faithfully as they remember the authorized saints' days of the mother church. But all of us know that St. Patrick's Day and Sheila's Day usher in the spring time of the world.

1907 Maryland:

But before this month goes off to meet the April showers there will be Maryland Day, with gorgeous programs. St. Patrick and St. Sheela will have their birth days, and the vernal equinox will tell that spring has come

1911 J. R. C. McAllister (apparently unrelated to James A. MacAlister, who spoke at the same meeting): "I did not intend to say a word, but my Irish is up on Sheelah's day."

Philadelphia 1922: "The supply of flowers for the week ending with Sheelah's day was large."

Other Sheelaghs

• Sheila NaGeira
  • "There is a castle upon the top of a hill about two miles and a-half north of Borrisoleigh, in the territory of Ileigh; it is named "Cullahill," and is said to have been the residence of "Sheela-na-Guira"; that her name was Gillian Dwyer; that she was a great tyrant and oppressor of her neighbours, and had killed her sister. I climbed up to the castle lately. It is oblong and only two stories high, and part of it seems to have been blown up with gunpowder."
  • "Sheela-na-Guira is a corruption of Sheela Ny Gara; the lady in question was daughter of the head of the Connaught O'Garas, and a celebrated beauty in whose honour the fine Irish air called after her was composed"
  • Newfoundland legend of early colonist
  • Fiddle tune
    • "Sighile Ni Ghadharadh"/"Sighile Ni Gara", an aisling by Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin; translated 1849 by James Clarence Mangan
    • aka "Chiling O guiry" (Burk Thumoth c.1745) "She La Ne Gary", "Síle Ní Ghadhra"/unnamed, "Shilling o' Gairey", "Sheeling O Guira", "Shillinaguira" (Edward Riley p.14) "Sheela na Guira", "Shee Lin a Quira Jig" (William Bradbury Ryan p.122) "Shilley O Guire"
  • Síl Ní Ghadhra — Sheila Guiry or Maguire
  • Síle Ní Gadhra poem from Kilbrittain NS in Irish Folklore Commission
• Sheela na gig
  • See also "The many names of Sheela na gig; Sheela na gig Variants" The Sheela Na Gig Project
• Metonym/Personification of Ireland
  • "Sighle Ni Ghadharadh (Celia O'Gara), in the language of allegory, means Ireland."
  • Plunket, William Conyngham, Baron Plunket (1805). Multum in parvo : a letter from Sheelagh to John Bull, on Irish affairs. London: J. Hatchard.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Anti-Union poem in the American Citizen (New York) of 17 March 1801 includes, "Poor Shelah kept tugging / Whilst John Bull kept hugging":
  • State of Sheelah's Pulse; being a concise view of the present state of public feeling 1813 Irish pamphlet
• "Sheila"; generic name
  • Spelling "Sheelah" is now rare.
  • Check origin:
    • Celia
    • Cecilia (Saint Cecilia's Day is 22 November)
    • Later Julia (Julia of Corsica's feast is 22 May)
    • cailín "girl"?
  • Sheelah a "decidedly Catholic" name (William Maginn, in Blackwood's, 1825)
  • Character name
    • Insulting 1682 broadsheet about peasants afraid of a large whale off shore: "Sheela at her Prayers, and Nabla [?recte Nuala] at her Sneezing, Dermot at his Beads, and Rory at his Bolcane [poteen] and Usquebah".
    • Swift "On An Ill-Managed House":

      In vain we make poor Sheelah toil,

      Fire will not roast, nor water boil.

    • 1757 "Sheelah O'Shanahan", sweetheart of "Oclabber, an Irish lieutenant in the French service" in Tobias Smollett's comic play The Reprisal: Or, The Tars of Old England.
    • 1777 "The Shamrock, or The Anniversary of St Patrick" by John O'Keeffe; human characters are Pat, Dermot, Phelim, Darby, Father Luke, Norah, Kathlane, and Shelah.
    • Insulting 1799 account of generic Irish peasants' dancing class uses names Paddy, Theady, Shela, and Dermot.
    • 1880: "St. Patrick's Penance" by "E. Owens Blackburne": A "purty girl" named Sheelah plays prevaricates to Saint Patrick to get him to ferry her across the River Boyne at Slane in his corracle to her sweetheart Barney.
    • 1881 poem, "my darling, dark-eyed Sheelah" sends shamrock to poet in America for Saint Patrick's Day.
  • Australian slang for a woman;
    • "There have, however, been some reservations expressed about the assumption that Australian sheila is from the Irish personal name. The Australian National Dictionary says ‘probably’, and the Oxford English Dictionary says ‘origin uncertain’. Dymphna Lonergan in her book Sounds Irish (2004) has questioned the origin of sheila in the personal name Sheila. She argues that, contrary to popular opinion, Sheila was not an especially common Irish name in Australia in the first half of the nineteenth century, and suggests that the Australian sheila comes from an Irish word Síle meaning ‘effeminate man; homosexual’."
      • But Síle "sissy" is from the name, (cf. en. "Nancy boy").
    • Lexicographer Bruce Moore suggests the Australian slang sense derives from Shelah's Day.
  • "generic name for young Irish women, the counterpart of Paddy", attested in The Monitor in 1828.
  • Irish slang for a low woman
  • A Lorelei figure in the River Foyle was called Sheelah.
  • Drunk revellers leaving pubs on Patrick's Day: "Here and there a Sheelah takes her part in the group; and, although it is naturally debasing to see a female under the influence of liquor — yet on Patrick's day and in Paddy's land — and a Paddy's wife too, sure should have some share of allowance made for her. "
  • 1911: 'A man who interests himself in his young children, or, indeed, in any branch of domestic affairs, is called by the contemptuous name of a "Sheelah."'
  • "Pat/Paddy and Sheelah" a stereotypical Irish couple.
    • Lehane suggests this is a result rather than a cause of the name "Sheelah's Day"
    • In Thomas J. Dibdin's 1794 The Rival Loyalists; or Sheelah's Choice
    • Anti-Catholic proselytisation 1827

      Pat.—Hey! your honour, you don't find Pat working to day. He is drinking a good glass of poteen to his Sheelah, who was brought to bed last night of a fine bouncing lad.

    • "Every Paddy/Pat/Patrick has/must have his Sheelagh/Sheila"
    • "Song of Lucifer, in his prospect of her downfall, to his best beloved," by "H. N. J." (Hugo Nicholas Jones) in The Parson's Horn-Book (1831):

      Long, long in green Erin, on each sunny highland,

      Shall Pat and his Sheelah remember the doom

      Of the tyrant who preyed on the Emerald Island,

      With none but myself to mourn over thy tomb.

    • "every country visited by Pat and his sheelah are familiarised with Ireland's saint and Ireland's sacred trifoil."
    • 1816 "In no country are the poor in a more wretched condition than in Ireland.... Yet Paddy and Shelah have their hours of relaxation".
    • 1888 Irish wolfhounds bred by R. B. Townshend named "Leprechaun"/"Lep.", "Patrick"/"Paddy" and "Sheelah".
    • "IRELAND expects that every man, and woman too, will do their duty by St. Patrick to-morrow. Of course they'll try, for the honour of the "Emerald Gem," but really the programme is very full, and so much is expected of Pat and Sheelah that to accomplish even a part of it they would need to have the gift of Sir Boyle Roche's bird, and be in two places at once"
    • "Sheelagh's Wedding" by William Upton [married Pat/Paddy Shannon on St Patrick's Day]
    • "The Sprig of Shillelagh" (Roud 13379); comic verse probably written 1790s adapted from a 1720 song; some versions conflate "Shelah" (Pat's love) and "Shillelagh" (his staff)

      He meets with his Sheelah, who, blushing a smile,

      Cries, Get ye gone, Pat, yet consents all the while.

    • "The Harper" by Thomas Campbell (1799)

      On the green banks of Shannon, when Sheelah was nigh,

      No blithe Irish lad was so happy as I;

      ...

      "O, remember your Sheelah when far, far away;

      And be kind, my dear Pat, to our poor dog Tray."

    • Leitch Ritchie 1847

      From Clonmel I went on to Kilkenny, passing through several miserable villages situated in a picturesque country. In one of these, which I think was called Graan, a family tumult was at its height in one of the cottages as I passed by. ... The bargain had not been made that Patrick should marry Sheelah, but in the true "quality" form, that Patrick, possessing a pig and a hut, should marry Sheelah, possessing a table, a stool, an iron pot, and a counterpane.

    • The Deserted Village 1880 opera adaptation by Edmund Falconer has characters "PHADRIG [sic] AND SHEELAH—Peasants in the service of Mr. L. O'Brien, and who expect to be united in marriage."
  • OTOH also Dermot and Sheelah, ...
    • ...in "A Pastoral Dialogue, Dermot and Sheelah", a ribald verse by Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) set in Gosford Castle, near Markethill, County Armagh
    • William Cobbett: "They cry out against me for 'abusing' the cut-throats of Nantz and other places, and for accusing the demagogue-tyrants of robbery; while they themselves treat the whole nation as thieves. This is the democratic way of washing out stains; just as the sweet and cleanly Sheelah washes her gentle Dermot's face with a dishclout [sic]."
  • And No Union ! but Unite and Fall. By Paddy Whack, of Dyott-Street, London. A loving Letter to his dear Mother, Sheelah, of Dame-Street, Dublin 1799 pamphlet against the Union with Britain by John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare

Obsolesence

The observance in Ireland became extinct in the nineteenth century as the Irish Catholic hierarchy sought to abolish unorthodox popular customs, first in response to the Maynooth College Act 1795 and later the "devotional revolution" under archbishop Paul Cullen. By then the Sheelah's Day observance had been carried to Irish diaspora communities in Canada and Australia, and the name remained current in Newfoundland into the late twentieth century; Herbert Halpert's research there in the 1960s and 1970s found a "wide but thin distribution" of recognition of the tradition. In 1970, when Halpert inquired about "a woman named Sheila associated with Saint Patrick" to the Irish Folklore Commission, it responded that "Nothing whatever seems to be known in oral tradition about such a person; neither did March 18th, which followed St. Patrick’s Day, seem to have had any special significance in Ireland."

Pádraic Ó Beirn[e]/Patrick O'Byrne of Killybegs and New York (1857–1927):

I presume that primarily you wish to know if I could tell when the day after St Patrick's Day came to be designated Sheila's Day. When still a youngster, I once asked a learned Seanachie, who moreover, had an enthusiastic luminous twinkling in his eye, he replied. "I don't know for certain...".

On 9 March 2017, a press release from University College Cork reported its folklore studies lecturer Shane Lehane's findings on Sheelah's Day: "In the old Irish calendar the day after St Patrick's Day is Sheelah's Day but what is less known is that Sheelah was Patrick’s wife." In the lead-up to St Patrick's Day the following week, this attracted comment in the Irish media on the rediscovered event and figure. Lehane commented in 2019, "Two years ago my research into this disregarded deity resulted in somewhat misleading headlines that said Sheelah was St Patrick’s wife. That was not the case, but at least it brought Sheelah and her festival back to our attention."

"Sheila's Brush" (also "Blush" etc) is a Newfoundland name for snowfall after (or about) 17 March, although among sailors it means an equinoctial gale rather than snow. A folk rhyme from Portugal Cove South runs:

Patty walks the shores around
And Sheila follows in a long white gown.

Lehane suggests Fáilte Ireland could revive Sheelah's Day as part of the Saint Patrick's Day tourist experience.

References

Sources

• Crimmins, John D. (1902). St. Patrick's Day: Its Celebration In New York And Other American Places, 1737-1845. New York. Retrieved 27 March 2019.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Fleischman, Aloys (5 Dec 2016) [1998]. Sources of Irish Traditional Music c. 1600-1855. Routledge. ISBN 9781135810252. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
• Freitag, Barbara (2005). "3: The problem of the name; Sheila: Saint Patrick's stormy wife". Sheela-na-gigs: Unravelling an Enigma. Routledge. pp. 56–60. ISBN 9781134282494. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
• Halpert, Herbert (1977). "Ireland, Sheila and Newfoundland". In Feder, Alison; Schrank, Bernice (eds.). Literature and folk culture: Ireland and Newfoundland : papers from the Ninth Annual Seminar of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies. Folklore and Language. Vol. 2. St. John's, Nfld.: Memorial University of Newfoundland. pp. 147–172. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
• Lehane, Shane (15 March 2019). "Sheelah take a bow: This Irish icon was far more than just St Patrick's wife". The Irish Times.
• Lonergan, Dymphna (2019). "Sheila's day: Memory or Myth?". The Australasian Journal of Irish Studies. 19: 126–136. ISSN 1837-1094 – via Informit (Australia).
• Story, George Morley; Kirwin, W. J.; Widdowson, John David Allison (1990). "sheila". Dictionary of Newfoundland English. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780802068194. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
• Ó Corráin, Donnchadh; Maguire, Fidelma (1981). Gaelic personal names. Academy Press. pp. 165–166, 186. ISBN 9780906187395.

Citations

Category:Festivals in Newfoundland and Labrador Category:Irish-Australian culture Category:Irish-Canadian culture in Newfoundland and Labrador Category:Irish folklore Category:Saint Patrick's Day