Shamrock Vs Four Leaf Clover

MorningStar

Maybe I am the only person this annoys but I have to know. If you are in a foreign country or speaking to certain no-irish people they refer to the four leaf clover as an Irish thing. I was just in Edinburgh and a few pubs had 4 leaf clovers instead of shamrocks.
I see it as the same as showing a satanic star to represnet the Jewish religion instead of the star of David. :eek:
Does this just bug me????

Blisterman

The 4 leaf clover is Irish. The Luck of the Irish.

Only Human

The shamrock looksway better and even the name sounds way better!

or

MorningStar

Blisterman wrote:

The 4 leaf clover is Irish. The Luck of the Irish.

No it's not, it's just ignorance. If it's for luck then it could be a rabbit's foot.

tovalee

i thought the whole idea of the shamrock is that it has 3 leaves.and the 3 leaves were used to explain the trinity.

Blisterman

Whats the difference between a clover and a shamrock anyway?

WhiteWashMan

more to the point, who cares, apart from the OP.

The_B_Man

Four leaf clover were originally grown by leprachauns. they used to smoke it before the invention of alcohol. they made it by genetically altering the shamrock with their magical powers and cross pollinating it with numerous hallucinagenic plants that were commonplace in ireland back then. when the leprachauns were wiped out when ireland got invaded 2 centuries ago, the four leaf clover became more and more sparse. after that, people would say you were lucky to find a four leaf clover these days, which eventually grew to mean that four leaf clovers are a lucky charm! nobody really believed this until the invention of americans in 1854. word spread around america about a mystical flower and to this day americans still set out on quests to find the fabled four leaf clover in Ireland. The End.

_blank_

Wikipedia entry on Shamrock

The shamrock, a symbol of Ireland, is a three-leaved young white clover, sometimes (rarely nowadays) Trifolium repens (white clover, known in Irish as seamair bhán) but more usually today Trifolium dubium (lesser clover, Irish: seamair bhuí). The shamrock was traditionally used as for medical properties and was a popular motif in Victoria times.....

The English word comes from Irish seamróg, meaning young clover.

Wikipedia entry on Four Leaf Clover

The four-leaf clover is a rare mutation of the common three-leaf clover.

The good luck attribution to four-leafed clover may arise in part because they are so difficult to find and from the historic tale of Saint Patrick using the tripartite clover leaf as a symbol of the multifaceted nature of the trinity in bringing Christianity to Ireland.

So, essentially, they are the same thing anyway.

The_B_Man

spoil sport

englander

Are 'da brits' being blamed for the death of all the leprachauns as well ?
Sorry about them as well lads.

Growing up in the North of England - my mother used to have us out for hours looking for 4 leaf clover as it was supposed to be very lucky. Me thinks it was a crafty way of getting us out of her hair for a few hours..

MorningStar

seansouth wrote:

So, essentially, they are the same thing anyway.

Really I'd have never guessed. My point is the symbolism. A shamrock represents St. Patrick's story on the the holy trinity. Therefore a 4 leaf clover does not represent the story or St. Patrick the patron saint of Ireland. Therfore it is ignornace. My point was does it bother people not whether they are the same thing or not.

Maybe we should do the same to all national symbols.
Onion for Wales as they are the same family as the leek
Snake killed by George for England it's like a dragon
A rose for Holland instead of the tulip

woosaysdan

i found a four leaf clover but it wasnt very lucky!!!! i lost it the next day!!!

NotMe

Yeah a 4 leaf clover isn't a shamrock but who cares?

Tar.Aldarion

shamrock is the trinity a four leaf clover just includes me.