Irish I Were Subjunctive

Happy St. Patty's Day! Today the Irish can teach us a little lesson in the use of the subjunctive mood.

Which of these pins is right?
Irish I were drunk!
Irish I was drunk!

Thanks to the subjunctive, "were" is the winner.

The oft overlooked subjunctive mood is a verb mood used in dependent clauses to express wishes, commands, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or statements that are contrary to fact at present.

The past subjunctive is used after the verb to wish, as in "I wish he were Irish" or "I wished he were Irish." The past subjunctive also is used after the conjunction if in a contrary-to-fact statement, as in "If I were Irish, I would be drunk."

I happen to be mostly Polish, so, alas, I am sober.