We had made our travel plans specifically so we would be home in time for St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. It seemed sacrilegious not to be. Dublin had a five day festival for St. Patrick's Day oriented mostly at children and families. We had plans to go to the "Irish Ceili" which was like a music festival on Tuesday and then the St. Patrick's Day Parade on Wednesday. We also had plans to go to the GAA Championship Hurling and Gaelic Football Games. This had been recommended to me by Patrick Sweeney, owner of Doonagore Farmhouse B&B in Doolin. When we told Hughey (the boyfriend (and Dublin resident) of another Deltasig's roommate--weird connection I know) that was what we were doing, he was impressed. He said that's what the locals do. Right on. Thanks for the suggestion Patrick.
So before I give the scoop on the days of St. Patrick's festivities, here's a little history behind the tradition in Ireland and maybe why it was more touristy than traditional. St. Patrick was a saint (go figure) who baptized the first people in Ireland and was said to chase away all the snakes from Ireland. No more snakes in Ireland. Given his position as a religious figure, St. Patrick's Day is a religious holiday. Somehow it became a drinking holiday in other parts of the world to celebrate all things Irish...just like Cinco de Drinko is a bigger celebration in America than Mexico. Ireland's celebration of this holiday only began to evolve after it was sick of cities like Chicago having bigger and better celebrations than the Irish. In fact, pubs were closed on St. Patrick's Day in Ireland until 1995. And they don't die the River Liffey green, I asked. The kid I asked thought I was nuts.
So Tuesday after resting for the beginning of the day and blogging about spring break (I think I spend more time blogging than doing homework), Claire, Laura and I headed into town. We found the music festival outside of St. Stephen's. It was a good time but nothing too crazy. I think my favorite line was when the MC had the crowd do a competition for the best Michael Flatley, lord of the dance, impression. (It's like his feet move independently from his body). Other than that, there were a lot of leprechaun hats (mostly tourists) and two guys dressed up in horse costumes. Me and Claire learned somewhat of a traditional dance, very basic, so we danced along in the streets, probably looking like idiots.
We decided to walk around a bit, hit up the tourist shops, and just soak it in. I love live music and it's definitely one of the things I like most about Ireland. Laura had to go meet her friend from Trinity so me and Claire went to Dunnes to get some food to make for dinner. Chicken Caesar Salad and Red Wicked.
We got on the bus headed home and made dinner. Well Claire made dinner while I mastered DJed and played some Irish music. After dinner and relaxing, I headed back to my apartment.
St. Patrick's Day
Now I don't think I've ever really celebrating St. Patrick's Day. No Irish in me. Until now. I had received two carepackages full of St Patrick's gear from Home. One from Charlene (and Mike) with beads, earrings, a light up mug, stuffed animals, candy, everything and anything she could find that was St. Patrick's themed. I also received a package from the lovely Ladies of Delta Zeta and wonderful Ali with U of I Unofficial St Patrick's Gear...a sweatband that said "Get Lucked Up" and a lime green fanny pack. (Side note, fanny is somewhat of a bad word in Ireland so Laura advised me to call it my bum bag). So I dressed in my green and decked myself out trying to be a mixture of spirited and not so tourist. I do LIVE in Ireland afterall.
Claire and I met up at 10 to hit the bus and meet up with Laura. The bus was packed with tourists dressed in green. Even green lipstick, kind of weird and over the top. The bus route was diverted due to the parade so found Laura and headed to claim a place in the parade route. We decided that there was one thing that we needed to commemorate the occasion: a Shamrock Shake. Luckily McDonald's didn't let us down. (We had looked yesterday but I guess they only do them on the actual day here). It was also Laura's first Shamrock Shake.
Luckily St. Patrick didn't chase all the "shakes" out of Ireland. Clever slogan Mickey D's, clever slogan. Claire and I recorded a video to send home to our business fraternity, but I'll share it with you. Who is surprised that I'm more interested in my Shamrock Shake than anything else?
The parade was on definite Dublin time. It didn't start until 15 minutes late. And it was kind of disappointing. I was thinking more jigging less modern art and creepy Alice in Wonderland type floats. My favorite was probably the people dressed up in eggs being chased by bakers with spoons. So weird. People were pretty desperate to see the parade, climbing in trees to get a good view. It definitely wasn't anything traditional. Maybe that's Ireland's way of playing a joke on all the tourists.
The Scottish
St. Patrick
Eggs chased by Bakers
Anything for a better view
Croke Park
After a while, we decided we were getting bored of the parade so we headed in the direction of Croke Park. We followed the crowds towards the stadium. We got to our seats and quickly made friends with the men around us. Older gentlemen, they took to us after they found out we were from Chicago. The guy behind us overhead this and took it upon himself to explain the games to us. Hurling and Gaelic Football are traditional Gaelic sports. Mix of soccer and other sports, hurling uses a hurling stick and small ball that is dense and hard like a baseball. Gaelic Footballs are like soccer balls. It was supposed to be a good match and I did enjoy the game. However it wasn't much of a tight game and the Ballyhale Shamrocks were victorious. We got some ballpark food, I had a hamburger and chips (fries) and Claire and Laura hotdogs. I was tired, but I was enjoying the Dublin Day. After the first half of the Gaelic Football game, we moved seats near Hughey and Sarah right next to the field. Hughey explained more of the game to us. I have it pretty much down, the scoring at least. I even helped some tourists behind me understand the point system.
Hurling
Referees wear lab coats
Crying in defeat
We ended up sitting next to Laura's friends Margaret and Tim by chance so they walked back into town with us. We separated from them and headed to Temple Bar to meet Jen and her friend from home Jennifer. Temple Bar was so packed you couldn't move and they were charging ridiculous prices. Like 18 euro for a Jagerbomb. That's like $25. Laura had a symbolic shot of Apple Schnops from a flask and her shotglass necklace. We decided that we'd seen enough. The streets were packed with tourists dressed in ridiculous costumes. Everyone was pretty tame but it wouldn't take long for things to get rowdy. We passed some guy sitting outside a bar with a bloody nose. We agreed we'd have more traditional pub fun on a day when it wasn't crowded by tourists. We were still exhausted from the days before, so we decided to head to pick up Laura's things and head home. By the time we got on the bus, I was about to collapse. Exhaustion.
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