When is it okay to use the P word?

When referring to the author of the book I’m reading. Packie Bonner, the former Celtic and Republic of Ireland goalkeeper, has written a great autobiography called The Last Line. I grew up with Patricks aplenty, including my own father, and if they abbreviated their names, it was always either Pat or Paddy. Mr. Bonner is the only Packie I’ve ever heard of. His book recalls Ireland’s World Cup adventures in the 1990s. When they played Italy in New York in the 1994 tournament, I remember Danny Baker saying that he and the Dutch referee must have been the only Protestants in the stadium. Ireland famously won 1-0 and the whole of Kilburn, where I lived at the time, went wild. Kilburn and Cricklewood are no longer the Irish enclaves filled with the Patricks of my childhood. I miss that madness. And I’m clearly not the only one.