As my Grandfather Jimmy O’Neil might say, “Shite! Wha’ a manky lot o’ wasters, stealin’ ah 150 year aul’ shillelagh?! Ah, feck it.”

f5aa/1236797076-missing.jpg

SEATTLE, March 10, 2009 — Seattle’s century-and-a-half old Irish shillelagh, which is part of a six-decade Irish heritage tradition in the Emerald City, is missing. The traditional Irish walking stick, brought to Seattle by Irish immigrants in 1859 from County Wicklow, south of Dublin, Ireland, has been an ongoing symbol of Seattle’s Irish heritage for 69 years. It is believed to be the oldest shillelagh in the Pacific Northwest. The three-foot stick, made of blackthorn wood, a type of oak, with its usually large knot at the base, is annually passed from one president to the next of Seattle’s Society of the Friends of St. Patrick, a national benevolent organization founded in 1771 in Philadelphia. It is also traditionally carried by the local group’s president in Seattle’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

The shillelagh was last seen following its presentation at the 2008 Friendly Sons of St. Patrick Dinner in Seattle. Anyone with knowledge of the whereabouts is asked to contact the Irish Heritage Club at 206-223-3608 or return the shillelagh to the Washington Athletic Club front desk in care of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick before Saturday. No questions asked.

Kelly O—formerly a Stranger staff photographer, music writer, Drunk of the Week columnist, and more!—finished art school and a soul-crushing internship at a corporate advertising agency in Detroit,...

17 replies on “Alright, Who Took the Feckin’ Shillelagh?”

  1. What was the shillelagh doing for the first 81 years it was in Seattle, before it became the symbol of Oirishness? Perhaps the same thing that the rest of Irish-America’s bogus traditions were doing?

Comments are closed.