"There is no green beer in Ireland," says Brother Greg O'Donnell, who grew up in the largely Irish South Side of Chicago and has visited his grandparent's homeland several times. "No green beer — not on your life."

O'Donnell, president of Damien Memorial School, is no teetotaler, but he does think that the American emphasis on drinking in particular detracts from the humbler traditions of the holiday.

It doesn't help that the stereotype of Irish drunkenness is deeply ingrained in popular culture.

"I'm not offended but I am disappointed that St. Patrick's Day has become so associated with drinking," O'Donnell says. "The stereotype of the Irish drunk has been around from the beginning with no real basis in fact."

"It was a fairly miserable life and some people took to drink as a palliative," Nolan said. "But drinking like that is a sign of poverty, not affluence, and Ireland is now a successful, affluent country."

Which, again, is not to say that the Irish don't enjoy a festive drink on their day of national pride.

A carefully poured pint of Guinness — "always from the tap, never from a bottle,"

O'Donnell says — is the default choice for men. For women, it's the traditional shandy.

"The way it's done is you go to a pub, meet up with your friends and nurse your beer as long as you can."

Considering that most pubs in Ireland close at 11 p.m., that isn't long.

Nolan says a typical St. Patrick's Day in Ireland includes a morning church service, visits with friends, a large community parade, perhaps a soccer game and certainly a family dinner at home.

That's just how Kieran Sullivan remembers spending the day in his native Dublin.

"At home, it's about family and friends and community," says Sullivan, who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years. "But in New York, Boston and some of the other larger American cities, it's become just an excuse for getting on a good drunk.

"People just want to have fun and I don't think anyone means any harm," Sullivan says. "But it does seem as though people think 'Irish holiday' and do a sort of free association with it. You know: leprechauns, green, copious alcohol."

John Ferguson, owner of Ferguson's Irish Pub, says the St. Patrick's celebration in his native Donegal has taken on a more American feel, with splashier parades and bigger parties.

"I think it's all for the better," Ferguson says. "It's as it should be. People like to party and enjoy themselves. It brings people together."

So what do Americans really know about celebrating

St. Patrick's Day?

Painting the town green?

An Irish-American tradition, Nolan says.

Corned beef and cabbage?

Ditto, says O'Donnell. Irish bacon, a bit like high-quality ham or pork, is preferred in Ireland. A nice lamb stew is just as common on the holiday table.

Black-and-tans?

"Guinness is the norm, but some Irish will drink a black-and-tan," Sullivan says. "Just be sure the pale on the bottom is Harps."

Shamrocks?

Now we're getting somewhere. St. Patrick was said to have used a three-leaf clover to illustrate the Holy Trinity, and his followers took to wearing shamrocks on their shirt collars.

"In Ireland, the main focus of St. Patrick's Day is going to church, where everyone wears a boutonniere made out of shamrocks," says Noel Trainor, general manager of the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort and Spa and a native of Belfast.

"It's a compliment when one person or family gives the shamrock to another, but the purpose is to wear the shamrock while you go to church and then continue to wear it throughout the whole day," Trainor says. "This has transcended all over the world to the wearing of something green because (people) can't find actual shamrocks."

Speaking of St. Patrick, the English-born missionary who as a teen was enslaved by the Irish might not have literally driven the snakes from Ireland, but the legend is metaphorically accurate.

The snakes represented paganism, which St. Patrick helped to end during the 30 or so years in which he helped to spread Catholicism in the country.