St. Paddy's Festivities

If you ever have the chance to visit Ireland for St. Patrick's Day, you'll be visiting a very different Dublin from the one I have gotten to know and love.

This year St. Patrick's Day fell on a Tuesday, but there was a festival starting the Saturday beforehand, i.e. from March 14-March 17. Neither I nor any of my friends really knew what to expect going into the weekend, to be honest. Friday late morning I noticed lots of people pulling wheely suitcases behind them, and knew it had begun.

Saturday a small group of us went to a pub to watch the Ireland vs Wales rugby game--shoutout to Ireland for winning the 6 nations title the next week!--and decided not to explore the St. Patrick's festivities just yet. On Sunday, we went to the 2015 Beer and Whiskey Festival, which was a ton of fun. There were stalls upon stalls of all different local beer, whiskey, and cider companies, and live music playing all day. I sampled a lot of the different ciders, and don't think I can ever go back to drinking it out of a can!

Tuesday morning, I woke up early and donned my St. Paddy's Day outfit: a green and white Ireland Rugby, thick green Irish wool socks, and an "Irish Drinking Team" baseball hat that would not have been complete without its can opener on the brim. Finishing it off with a shamrock on my cheek, I definitely looked ridiculous but was ready to go. I headed over to Markie, Maggie, Kelsey, and Jamie's apartment around 9 to meet up with some of our guy friends and cook a gourmet breakfast including pancakes, sausage, bacon, toast, and hash browns. While having 9 people in a small kitchen was a little crazy, it was a blast!

Around 11 we walked downtown to get spots for the parade, which started at noon. That was our one mistake, because it was already packed with people! The only spot we could get was about 8 people deep, so I couldn't actually see any of the parade. After a few minutes we decided to give up and head to a local student pub, which began our day of pub hopping through Dublin.

(Side note: my one goal of the day was for someone to use my hat to open a beer. This dream came true in the bathroom of a pub when two girls asked around for a can opener as they pulled two bottles out of their bag. Mission accomplished :) )

Overall, it was a really fun day! I want to reflect on my very first comment of this post, that visiting Dublin for St. Patrick's Day is visiting a very different place than the city I have gotten to know, because it not only explains why I found the holiday to be a little over-hyped but also reveals something I find pretty cool.

Streets packed with people celebrating all day was crazy and fun, and I would definitely recommend coming to Dublin for the holiday if you ever have the chance. Had I only been here for the weekend, I think I would have loved every second of it! The thing is, I have lived here long enough that I feel like I know Dublin on a slightly deeper level, and I missed it that weekend. Almost every Irish person I know fled the city for the duration of the holiday, most of them using the exact phrase "I avoid it like the plague," which was interesting. People from all over the world travel here and take over the city pretty much to drink; they are energetic and excited to be in Ireland, which is awesome, but when Dublin is your home that would be exhausting.

What I found to be really cool was that I was in the grey area between tourist and local--more towards tourist since I am only here for 5 months, but still. I definitely enjoyed St. Patrick's Day, but I was also missing Dublin and was ready for it to be over.

Maybe I really am becoming a Dubliner?


Thanks for reading :)



Shortly into the semester my iPhone camera broke, so a few credits are due to Markie and Julia for photos here and there!