St Patrick's Day has changed profoundly as a symbol of Ireland over the last 15 years or so, reflecting historic shifts within Irish society, among the Irish abroad and in their collective relations with the rest of the world's peoples.
Ireland is now one of the planet's most globalised and open societies, economically, culturally and politically, in contrast to the poorer, peripheral State emerging from the 1980s recession. The 70 million or so people who loosely identify themselves with this country are far more varied than we realised before, sharing a long history of migration.
St Patrick's religious role is newly venerated by Catholic and Protestant churches and better appreciated for his ability to graft old and new religious traditions together in a gradualist transformation of identities.
All the great symbols of national identity share such cultural plasticity and are capable of similar innovation. That is the genius of their broad scope, which normally has deep wellsprings of historical experience to draw upon. So it is with St Patrick. He retains his appeal in a more secular age, following imaginative reformulations of his religious role and an explosion of creative energy among the public events and parades. This reflects Ireland's successful rebranding of itself in a smaller world, drawing on symbolism and popular appeal that are the envy of other small states.
Nowhere is this more evident than with the United States. Ireland's recent prosperity is intimately bound up with US investment, migration both ways, mutual ideological attraction, major shifts in the social structure of Irish-Americans - and with Washington's centrality in the Northern Ireland peace process. The annual Irish political pilgrimage there has come to be taken for granted as a glidepath towards its full implementation.
That has been sharply, and rightly, interrupted this year by the crisis in the peace process arising from the failure to reach agreement last December, the Northern Bank robbery and the strikingly courageous refusal of Robert McCartney's family to accept his murder by IRA activists. The time has come for Sinn Féin to part company from the IRA. The paramilitary organisation must disarm and disband if Sinn Féin is to continue its political role in alliance with other democratic parties. This is the blunt and memorable message being delivered at the highest levels in Washington on this St Patrick's Day.
Ireland's national saint was an immigrant to these shores, coming here first as a slave from Britain and returning later as a missionary who successfully converted the Irish to Christianity. A notable theme in the reconfiguration of his legacy has been Ireland's diasporic identity as a migratory nation. This makes it all the more reprehensible that 35 Nigerian nationals should have been deported, apparently summarily, on the eve of the national holiday. Such an unworthy betrayal of St Patrick's legacy should prompt a fight back against this callous policy.