QToghludha Debunks the Blarney
How Irish Is St Patrick’s
Monday is St. Patrick’s Day, and
whether or not you’ve got any Irish
blood in you, you may be wondering
what all the hubbub is about.
Don’t feel lonely. The Irish wonder the
same thing all the time.
The annual St. Patrick’s Day
celebration is largely an American
invention, according to Dr. Ferghus
O'Foghludha, professor of radiation
physics at the medical center, a native
Irishman and without doubt one of
Duke's expert’s on the 'Emerald Isle. ”
Oh, it’s true that the Irish celebrate
the holiday all right, but contrary to
popular opinion, they don’t make a big
deal of it. And they find the American’s
craving for shamrocks and green
clothing inexplicable.
Traditionally, O’Foghludha
explained, St. Patrick’s Day exempted
Catholics from the rigors of their Lenten
fast in the weeks between Ash
Wednesday and Easter.
"It has always been a kind of station
break' during the period of self-denial, ”
the physicist said with a chuckle, "a
time when people could get plastered
without feeling guilty. "
The strange thing is that there are
only two days during the year in Ireland
when one cannot legally buy a beverage
with more punch than hot
cocoa—Christmas and St. Patrick’s
Day.
The Irish, with their legendary thirst
for “a little something to keep the blood
circulating properly,” have gotten
around the annual prohibition nicely,
however. O’Foghludha said that on St.
Patrick’s Day, everyone suddenly
develops a great love for dogs.
Conveniently, the Dublin Dog Show is
held on that day, and it has been
allowed to maintain a good bar—the
only one in town which remains open.
"Almost everyone goes to the Dublin
Dog Show, ” he said.
Getting back to St. Patrick himself,
O’Foghludha admitted that the man
who is reported to have introduced
Christianity to Ireland and driven out
the snakes and toads was actually an
Englishman or a Welshman captured as
a slave around 432 A.D.
“In Ireland, we don't stress that fact
very much,” he said.
Irishmen wear shamrocks on N/larch
17 to honor their saint, but one never
sees a shamrock for the rest of the year
except in shops catering to American
tourists who seem to want shamrocks.
Ireland’s symbol is not the shamrock,
but rather the harp.
St. Patrick, who may be a composite
figure of two men who lived at the time,
eventually became bishop of Armagh in
what is now Northern Ireland and
displaced the Druids, followers of an
ancient Celtic religion.
It's unlikely that the holy man had
much time for herpetology since he was
so busy making converts to Christ.
Furthermore, O’Foghludha said it s
unlikely that there ever were any snakes
in Ireland—outside of zoos—because
the climate isn't the best for them and
because the island has been separated
from Europe by the Irish Sea and the
English Channel since before snakes
evolved in prehistoric times.
About other “Irish" customs and
traditions, scientist said:
— "No self-respecting Irishman would
be caught dead kissing the Blarney
stone (reputed to give one the ‘gift of
the gab’). That’s left for foreigners.
—“No one in Ireland says blarney’
(meaning flattery or nonsense). They
(Continued on page 4)
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VOLUME 22, NUMBER 11
MARCH 14,1975
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
“A Little Kindness Goes a Long Way,”
Stress Cancer Center Citizen Advisors
By William Erwin
When you have cancer, little acts of
kindness mean a lot.
That’s what several patients and
doctors stressed here last week — each
in his own way — at a. meeting of the
Comprehensive Cancer Center s
Citizens Advisory Committee.
One member of the committee, Mrs.
Edith Yellig of Tryon, N.C.. said a singIS
visit from a Duke doctor helped her rally
against bone cancer.
She was a patient here in 1971 when a
friend she called “Doctor X " dropped
by her room.
“I had not expected it; he was not my
doctor, ” she said. "Knowing that he, as
chairman of his department, carried a
terrific workload, I didn't believe he
would bother.’
The visit couldn't have come at a
better time, Mrs. Yellig said. "I had
completely lost my identity as a cancer
patient,” she said.
" This man with his sense of leisure
and caring rekindled a spark within me
that had been gradually fading over
these difficult months...He did not give
me the impression that I would be
cured, but somehow he made me feel I
was worth curing,' she said.
""I think that was what made the
difference.”
For another committee member,
William Linkhaw of Lumberton, N.C., it
was his doctors sense of humor that
helped him over the rough spots.
One Duke doctor was escorting him
to the Radiology Department for
therapy when the doctor told Linkhaw
he had multiple myeloma. " That’s
cancer of the bone, isn’t it?” Linkhaw
asked.
The doctor said, "That's right. ”
" What do you do about that?”
Linkhaw wanted to know.
"Well, you’re a farmer. We try to spray
the tree and kill the bugs, " said the
physician.
Being kind to a cancer patient may
LOOKING OVER A.L.I.F.—Dr. Dareil Signer, associate professor of pathology, shows lay advisors to the Comprehensive
Cancer Center how he and other researchers will handle cancer virus cultures in Duke's new Animal Laboratory and Isolation
Facility. (Photo by Bill Envin)
mean telling him the truth, but not the
whole truth, about his disease,
according to Dr. James H. Semans,
professor of urology and a member of
the Advisory Committee.
A man with advanced prostate cancer
might have 10 more years of active life
ahead.
If such a patient is elderly, Semans
said, " I would like to see how he's going
to respond to diethylstilbestrol...and if
he has a dramatic response, feels
better, turns up for breakfast at 7 a.m.
every morning and takes a new lease on
life, am I going to depress him by
saying, "Sorry, old boy — you have an
incurable cancer ? No!”
Semans said doctors should think
carefully about how to tailor bad news
for each cancer patient without
excluding death as something ahead
for all of us.
“I'm a little bothered by the fact that,
in a busy clinic, it’s pretty often (the
case) that the doctor feels an obligation
to tell the patient — quote — the truth, ”
he said.
“The doctor gets a fine night’s sleep
and the patient has to wrestle with all
the inner strivings that will result from
that piece of authenticated news." he
said.
Semans added, "What the patient
really wants to know more than
anything else, no matter what he says, is
'How am I going to feel every day? ”
Washington journalist Mrs. Archibald
Roosevelt, another Advisory Committee
member, indicated she’d rather have
the whole truth, should she ever
develop cancer.
" I really do believe that doctors make
a mistake in making cancer mysterious,
(in acting as though) there's some great
mystique about cancer,” she said.
" Cancer is just something we all are
going to have to come to grips with
some way or other — either through
(Continued on page 2)