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With St. Patrick’s Day having just passed us by, it was only fitting to spotlight our very own lucky shamrock in this week’s Contributor Corner. Meet Paul The Irishman! Although he grew up in and near Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales, Australia, Paul now resides near Youghal in County Cork in Ireland - ”quite near the sea on the southern coast.” He goes on to say, ”We have lived in this area about 8 years since the self-build of our house. The area is quiet countryside, yet only a few minutes to civilisation.” Well, it’s certainly the luck of the Irish that Answers.com is now Paul The Irishman’s home away from home.

Here’s more:

What is your Answers.com user name and the history behind it?

Paul The Irishman – which represents my first name and the fact that I am now an Irishman, although I was born and raised in Australia.

Would you care to tell us about your family?

I have a wife of 18 years and 3 teenage daughters.

Do you have any pets?

We have hamsters, guinea pigs and goldfish thanks to my daughters.

What educational information would you like to share?

I started a civil engineering degree, but after some work placement in the 3rd year decided that surveying was more my style. So I qualified as a Land and Engineering Surveyor in Sydney.

What are some of your past and/or present occupations?

In the past I have also worked as a furniture maker, carpenter, factory production line worker and even delivered newspapers every morning for years whilst putting myself through college.

What are your key area(s) of knowledge, interests or expertise?

Land and engineering surveying is my key area of expertise. I have served as both VP and President of The Irish Institution of Surveyors, and I also appear in court as an Expert Witness in Surveying on a regular basis. Since 1995 I have been a partner in one of Ireland’s oldest surveying firms. Land surveying is a mix of indoor and outdoor work, complicated by the need to be part bushman, archaeologist, historian, lawyer and general jack of all trades and I have been doing it ever since and really enjoy the challenge.

Do you have any collections or hobbies?

There is my coin collection, a collection of classic and vintage cars, carpentry, building, learning and speaking French and playing traditional Irish music with a tenor banjo and mandolin.

What do you like to do for recreation?

I am a ferocious reader of anything and everything fiction and non-fiction. Gardening, the old cars and music also come into play.

What are a few random facts about yourself?

I’m left handed and proud! Worked in 4 countries and visited almost 30 more.

Do you have any special talents you’d like to share?

Math and word puzzles intrigue me, and I find few that get the best of me.

What accomplishments are you proud of?

Apart from my wife and children, self-building our current house and being President of the Irish Institution of Surveyors.

What are your special goals or dreams?

Dreams? To win the lottery of course…

How would you describe yourself or personality?

Probably tenacious, loyal and a stickler for the truth.

What brought you to Answers.com?

Annoyance and such bad grammar and foolish questions.

What keeps you coming back to Answers.com?

I enjoy fixing things and I like to learn new things each day. Even correcting questions, you learn things every day.

What is your favorite Answers.com activity?

Looking at the “New Questions” category and getting in early…. lol!

Think you have the academic know-how to answer 50 questions on Answers.com and win money for school next year?

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day… Sure, you might think it’s a day of four leaf clovers, the color green, Guinness beer and leprechauns but take a minute to learn a few core ideas behind this day of merriment.

To start, here’s how Answers.com introduces the holiday:

Had it not been for a band of Irish marauders in the fifth century, March 17 might’ve been plain old Maewyn’s Day — because Maewyn wouldn’t have changed his name to Patrick, and he likely wouldn’t have become a saint. In fact, it wouldn’t have been a Day at all.

But as it happened, a certain 16-year-old Welsh lad was kidnapped by those Irish marauders, and during the six years young Maewyn spent in servitude as a shepherd in Ireland he experienced a religious awakening, then spent years studying in a monastery. He took on a new name, Patrick, and a new calling — converting his countrymen to Christianity.

Ok, history lesson over… Here are some tips from the Answers.com folks on how to celebrate the day:

How to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day:

• Wear green
• Pin a shamrock to your hat
• Speak with a brogue
• Wear brogues
• Drink Irish beer and spirits
• Wish your friends and family “Top o’ the morning to ye” and every so often cry out “Erin go bragh!” (Ireland forever)
• If you’re a mayor, dye your town’s rivers green and paint your lane markers green.

What a week for WikiAnswers in the blogosphere! I’m loving the asking and answering happening on all kinds of blogs. Diversity rules and as I’ve said, WikiAnswers has got plenty of that.

With Saint Patrick’s Day on Monday, everybody – including Beer on the Brain, Pieces, Too… and Heather and Jed – gave a happy exclamation of Erin go braugh (still don’t know what it means? Get the translation here).

Some, like World Passenger 2.0, needed first to know what the true meaning of St. Patrick’s Day is… but that’s ok. On the Tenure Track needed to know what all the pinching is about. I actually learned something new from Letters from the Moon -the game of hockey actually has its roots in Ireland!

But then Monday ended and so did the holiday of green beer. But bloggers moved on to other meaningful topics:

• Soul searching was the rage over at Evil Woobie, who seems to be in a quarter life crisis… it’ll get better! I hope.
• But if it doesn’t, well, you can ponder the life expectancy of Germans over at Scattered Snapshots.
• And while you’re making it to the life expectancy, The Smirking Cat! wants you to watch out for pathological liars.
• Of course, if you do not look forward to reaching the life expectancy, you can study the reversal of entropy with Potent Potables.

I used to hate St. Patrick’s Day as a child. I was always so scared of the boys on the school playground who didn’t really care whether or not the girls were wearing green… we all got pinched. All day long. We could have dressed as asparagus stalks and they’d still have tormented us with pinches.

I’m not bitter.

It did get better though. Once I got to university, the holiday turned into an excuse to drink and dance and try to speak with an Irish accent. No one really pinched anymore. And now I’m a few years out of university and we still drink and dance and try to speak with Irish accents…responsibly, of course.

Doesn’t it seem funny that people outside Ireland celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with such vigor? Where did the holiday originate and why/how has it become such an international affair!? Thanks to WikiAnswers, I wonder no more!

Check out WikiAnswers now to ask and answer questions about leprechauns, green beer and St. Pat himself – the man, the myth and the legend.