Confused Irish Luck

Today is St. Patrick's Day. I am wearing green, but it's olive. The Mister and I cooked corn beef and cabbage over the weekend. Traditional or not, I deem it lucky because we like it (and the cabbage, at least, is good for us).

I set out this morning to write about clover vs. shamrocks. As I knew it this morning, clover is a big genus (Trifolium sp.) of legumes whose leaves are only lucky when found with four leaves. Shamrocks, on the other hand, were a three-leaf symbol of Irish Catholicism to be found in genus Oxalis in the Oxalidaceae (sometimes known as wood sorrel). I knew this is part because I sold shamrocks at garden centers for years.

Alas, I may have sold incorrectly.

Several Irish blogger make fun of Americans with their "shamrock" houseplants, and the hot debate among Irish botanist bloggers is which species of Trifolium is the "true shamrock". "Shamrock" appears to be a derivative of the Irish for "little clover." So shamrocks probably aren't oxalis. As a symbol of Ireland, shamrock's must have three leaves to represent the trinity that dear Patrick introduced to the pagans of that isle. If shamrocks are just clovers, there may be more to the idea that a four leaf clover is related (luck tradition-wise) to Irish culture and shamrocks. I had always been indignant that the Lucky Charms leprechaun was clearly Irish but was advertising four-leaf clovers instead of three-leaf** shamrocks

If clovers weren't confusing enough, then there's the luck o' the Irish. The Mister thinks that having the luck o' the Irish is to be lucky. I had always learned that having the luck o' the Irish was to have misfortune, perhaps always to come out okay (or at least drunk). If things were looking truly up, the luck o' the Irish would ensure something bad would happen to keep the good from getting out of hand. A quick internet search reveals that as to descriptive meaning, we are clearly both correct as there are Irish-Americans who use it to mean good luck, bad luck, mixed luck, and the good fortune to get drunk whatever one's luck. As to what luck of the Irish "should" mean, I didn't read anything authoritative enough to find out.

Oh, by the way, I'm part Irish. I think that's lucky. That my Irish great-grandmother was an Ulster Protestant I think may diffuse the luck a bit, but I ignore it on St. Patrick's Day.

All images on the left are labeled as trifolium and those on the right as oxalis.

**Would a gentle reader instruct me on a point of grammar and let me know if I should be writing about "lucky four-leaf clovers", "four-leafed clovers", "four leafed clovers" or "four leaf clovers"?