The Lorica of Saint Patrick!

Hard to go past Sr. Agnes' "Hail, Glorious St. Patrick", surely.

Andrew - Somewhat inclined to agree with you there.

I also need to consider what the congregation is capable of picking up. "By All Your Saints Still Striving" will probably have to be the hymn for St Patrick's Day this year.

posting from ireland: We will be celebrating st Patrick day on the Sunday, replacing some but not all the elements of the lenten sundays liturgy. we keep the lent readings but use the prayers for st patricks day.
No idea what to do about vespers as our bishops have helpfully not included any reference to the liturgical hours in their instruction, nor for that matter do i know what propers to use. (aargh)

we'll be singing 'hail glorious saint patrick' and 'dochas linn naomh padraig', (you are our hope, st patrick) the two standard hymns in ireland for the feast.
BTW in dublin we now have st patricks festival instead of the traditional st patricks day parade, which has turned what started out as a religious celebration into a weekend long bacchanlia celebrating the other noted aspects of our culture, namely boozing and civil disorder. One of my six year old friends summed it up by saying st patricks festival is for people who don't know saint patrick, but we have saint patricks day so we can go to mass and talk to him. Nicely put, I thought.

The bishops have message for the day here http://www.catholicbishops.ie/2011/03/16/solemnity-saint-patrick/

which includes the breastplate prayer, we often use it as a prayer of protection - if you read down you will see that he prays for protection against witches, wizards etc etc,

Christ be beside me is also based on st patricks breastplate.
http://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/c/c7/IMSLP196691-PMLP336457-Christ_be_beside_me.pdf

Like many other places around the world, St Patrick's day has become something of an Irish cultural celebration (ie. an excuse to pretend that you've got Irish heritage and then go get drunk).

That hymn, the Australian Salute to St Patrick is virtually unknown these days. Well, if it isn't known in Sydney Archdiocese or Parramatta Diocese then it probably isn't known anywhere else.

Hi Xav,
The Australia's Salute to St. Patrick looks great, which hymn(al) book did that come from?
Donna

Donna, “Australia’s Salute to St. Patrick” is in the Hymnal of St. Pius X, P. Jones (ed.) (Melb.: Allans, 1952) which is available at http://nla.gov.au/nla.mus-vn2152603.

if it isn't known in Sydney

A cruel jest has it that when Australians abroad are asked whence they hail, Sydneysiders will say, “Sydney;” Queenslanders will say, “Queensland;” and only the rest will actually answer, “Australia.”

But a good hymn neglected might be worth resurrecting, on any side of the Blue Mountains.

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okay heres a challenge - seing as we are totallyu ignoring the election of the pope liturgically, anyone know of a hymn that makes reference to st Patricks well known allegiance to the pope. or being sent by the poep or anything like that?

only half joking.

Hartleymartin,
Have you considered singing a hymn to St. Patrick as a prelude or a postlude to the Mass? That way you wouldn't have to worry about the congregation knowing it or worry about eclipsing the Lenten Sunday, but you can still do homage to the feastday.
My schola often does this when there is an important feastday, which is not a solemnity, either on the Sunday or the following Monday; such as one or the many feastdays for Our Lady, St. Joseph or any feastday that perhaps isn't getting the attention is deserves. Just a thought! God bless.

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In Australia it is a solemnity being celebrated on the monday.

Not having much time to practice anything, I am putting on "Christ be with me" to the same tune as "morning has broken" and set almost everything else to psalm tones. I did manage to write a communion chant using the text from the missal, psalm 34 (33) from the revised grail psalter and basing it around tone V from the SEP.