Happy St. Patrick's Day

Did you know that Corned Beef and Cabbage is an American dish?

The Corned Beef and Cabbage meal that most Americans eat to
celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

In Ireland, beef was way too expensive for the average family. So they ate a lot of pork and particularly liked "rashers" of bacon. When the Irish immigrants arrived in the U.S., they found that even bacon was beyond their budget. But they could afford the cheap cut of beef brisket, along with the root vegetables and cabbages which would be available at the markets in March. And that is how Corned Beef and Cabbage became a uniquely Irish-American dish.


Medina has a long but sketchy history of Irish immigrants coming into the county. Medina never had a large influx of Irish immigrants at any one time.

Chart showing number of Medina County residents who were born in Ireland. 

As the chart shows there was a higher number of Irish born residents in 1850, shortly after the Irish Potato Famine that starved a million of their countrymen and sent a million more to the shores of America. Medina County history books often contain the phrase, "born in Ireland" and "descended from Ireland". Miss Ella Canavan was a daughter of immigrants from County Mayo, Ireland.

And today, we are all a "liitle bit Irish" on St. Patrick's Day. 

And me?  I am at least 1/64th Irish from my 4X Great Grandmother, Fair Sabra Connolly.

Growing up in north central Ohio, we had a tradition of pinching anyone who didn't wear green on St. Patrick's Day. Did any of you have that tradition or another one that you would like to share?