By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer

ATLANTA--The kinship of Irish roots, felt in the heart, and visible splashes of green, worn proudly on the sleeve, knit together a church full of people on St. Patrick’s Day.

From a cantor wearing an emerald green blazer to an Irish tenor in the choir loft, the Mass celebrated by Archbishop John F. Donoghue evoked the richness of the legacy that Irish-Americans have inherited.

Children dressed in dance costumes, preparing to march in the Peachtree Street parade afterward, solemnly carried the offertory gifts to the archbishop at Sacred Heart Church altar, while soloist James Flannery sang a setting of an Irish poems for peace. Many voiced hope that a new day is dawning for Northern Ireland.

Archbishop Donoghue, whose parents were first generation Irish-Americans focused not upon the cultural contributions of the Irish, but upon the struggle of Ireland’s patron saint who lived from 389 to 461 A.D.

Like the biblical Joseph, Patrick was kidnapped, enslaved and exiled, but from this harsh beginning emerged a saint who preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ and converted the pagan people of Ireland.

“I was like a stone lying in the deep mire,” St. Patrick wrote, ‘and He that is mighty came, and in His mercy lifted me up, and verily raised me aloft and placed me on the top of the wall.”

Tradition states that in 441 Patrick climbed a mountain in Ireland now known as Croagh Patrick and that he fasted there for 40 days and nights for the conversion of Ireland. From his preaching and faith came forth a people converted to Christianity.

Seated in an Atlanta Catholic church 1550 years later were some of those descendants, down to barefooted babies, who received the gift of faith from earlier generations.

Even in the potato famine which forced starving Irish to flee to American soil, a movement of faith took place, Archbishop Donoghue asserted. “From their desperation and unhappiness, God brought forth an immigrant Catholic Church in the United States, a Church that began in poverty and subservience, but that eventually rose to the heights of institutional wealth, and powerful public leadership. We who today carry in our veins the blood of these Irish pioneers, are justifiably of our own responsibility to build upon their legacy.”

Late in his life Patrick was granted a vision of all the saints of Ireland, past, present and future, the archbishop said, so that he might see the fruit of his labor.

“It is not too much to believe, that in that vision, St. Patrick also saw our saintly grandmothers and grandfathers, spilling across the Atlantic, and planting deep in the American landscape, by their sweat and blood, the faith and fidelity which is our heritage to proclaim on this most special day,” the archbishop concluded.

Sponsored by the Hibernian Benevolent Society and coordinated by Peggy Sinanian, the Mass attracted hundreds of people, most marching in the Peachtree Street parade that followed. Musicians in addition to the soloist included the cantor, Sara Lorusso, trumpeter Greg Holland and organist Alan Brown.

At the close of the Mass, Father John Walsh, one of a number of concelebrating priests, read a message from Mary Robinson, the president of Ireland.

Following a reception at Sacred Heart church, the Irish dancers, the families, the Hibernians, the green-outfitted marchers and parade-watchers made their way to Peachtree Street for the noontime march.