3/17/25 Report - Happy St Patrick's Day: Shamrocks, Slavery, St. Patrick and The Luck of the Irish in the California Gold Rush.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Florida Shamrock.
or Wood Sorrel.

I

Copilot says,  "A shamrock is a three-leafed clover. It is used as a symbol of Ireland and is associated with Saint Patrick, one of Ireland's patron saints, who used it as a metaphor for the Christian Holy Trinity. The name shamrock comes from Irish seamróg ([ˈʃamˠɾˠoːɡ]), which is the diminutive of the Irish word seamair and simply means "young clover". Shamrocks could be medic, wood sorrels, and true clovers since they all have leaves of three leaflets."

The one shown above came off wood sorrel that was growing in my yard It has the prettiest leaves and nice little flowers that have been opening daily.

The Smithsonian Magazine says...

The catch, however, is that shamrocks, at least as a term of scientific nomenclature, don’t really exist.

The “shamrock” is a mythical plant, a symbol, something that exists as an idea, shape and color rather than a scientific species. Its relationship to the plant world is a bit like the association between cartoon hearts we draw and the anatomical ones inside our bodies. The word "shamrock" first appears in plays and poetry in the 1500s, but the first person to link it to a recognizable plant was the English herbalist John Gerard, who in 1596 wrote that common meadow trefoil, also known as clover, was "called in Irish Shamrockes." Botanists have been trying to match the idea of the shamrock with a particular species for centuries, so far without unanimous success...See https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/no-one-really-knows-what-shamrock-180954578/

Patrick was born in Britain of a Romanized family. When he was 16 years old, Irish raiders tore him from the villa of his father, Calpurnius, a deacon and minor local official, and carried Patrick into slavery in Ireland. He spent six bleak years there as a herdsman, during which time he turned with fervor to his faith...

Source: Saint Patrick | Biography, Facts, Feast Day, Miracles, & Death | Britannica

Did you know St. Patrick was a slave?  I didn't.  You can read the rest of his story by using the above link.

Here is another one.

Books That Rocked My World: St. Patrick's “Confessio” - Word on Fire

It seems the Irish actually earned the term during the California gold rush.

Irish immigrants and first-generation Irish-American prospectors earned a reputation for striking gold during the 19th-century rush, leading to the phrase “the luck of the Irish.”

Rather than recognizing their skill and determination, the term often suggested their success was purely down to chance.

Skill and determination has a lot to do with success, but it is often not recognized.

John Mackay was one Irishman in the mine fields and became very rich in the California gold fields.  

Mackay was born in 1831 to working-class parents in Dublin. In 1840, they emigrated to New York, settling in the infamous Five Points slum in Manhattan. His father passed away soon after, forcing the young man to quit school at age 11 and get a job to support his mother and sister...

On New Year’s Day 1866, MacKay and his crew hit their big break. They hit a ten-foot wide mass of gold-and-silver-infused quartz at the bottom of the Kentuck’s mineshaft, 250 feet below the surface. Over the two years that followed, MacKay mined more than $1.6million worth of gold and silver from Kentuck. The sum, in those days, had an impact equivalent to $375million dollars today.

Mackay and his crew struck gold again in 1874 and 1875, years that became known as the Big Bonanza. The ore they mined is still the most concentrated in history and it made MacKay one of the wealthiest men in the world, according to Smithsonian...

Here is the link for more about miner Mackay.

John William Mackay: The Irishman who struck gold and became the richest Irishman in history - Irish Star

And here is an excerpt from a site where you can learn more about the Irish in the gold rush.

This site regularly explores aspects of the 19th century Irish emigrant experience in America beyond the Civil War. One of the most popular themes is the subject of the Irish in the West. Among the many topics touched upon have been the Voices of California's Irish pioneers, St Patrick's Day in the "Wild West" and the experiences of an Irish Silver Miner in Nevada, 1864.  I recently came across a wonderful account of how a group of Irish participants in the California Gold Rush celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, 1853, at their remote mining encampment of Bullard’s Bar on the North Yuba River. The letter describes the day and night’s entertainment, as the all-male community sought to take a break from the hardships associated with prospecting for gold. The account offers an opportunity to explore what it was like to be a miner here during the Gold Rush, and also to ponder just how harmonious relations really were between the different groups– natives and newcomers– who flooded into early California...

Here is the link for that source and much more about the Irish in the gold rush.

‘Ireland at the Diggings’: The Irish of the California Gold Rush Celebrate Home, 1853 – Irish in the American Civil War

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Source: Surfguru.com

We just had a couple of days of south winds.  The tides were moderate.

This morning I'm seeing some nice brisk north winds.  You might want to check out a few spots today.

Looks like we'll have some nice surf in a few days. four-to-six feet, which isn't bad.  It is getting up there.  

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net