Patty's Day

The rain returned today with a vengeance––my trek to Blackpool left me soaked. Thankfully the weather had the decency to hold off until the day after St. Patrick's Day, a much-awaited milestone for our time in Ireland.

March 17 is indeed an important holiday for Ireland, but the nature of the celebration can be a little surprising to American expectations. My sweeping generalization would be that for Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is a day to have a little fun, take a day off of work (very important), and to celebrate the present. It's different than the American version, which tends to be an orgy of Irish traditionalism and stereotypes––St. Patrick's Day in the USA is the holiday of a diaspora remembering the "old country."

Sure, there were green wigs and Irish flags in Cork, but not much green beer or green rivers, trad music, or even traditional food. Believe it or not, Katherine and I had trouble finding corned beef; instead we made Irish soda bread as our paean to the country's cuisine.


(For some reason Katherine's gluten-free loaf––on the left––turned out looking more attractive and loaf-like). Embarrassing confession: until yesterday, I had never had Irish soda bread. I highly suggest it. As far as breads go it is very easy to make, and ours turned out quite well.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that on St. Patty's Day Ireland celebrates Ireland, and in this day and age that means more than fiddles, red beards, Guinness, and potatoes.

That said, parades are obligatory. We went to Cork's, which had some predictable elements:

Like martial displays, including the Irish Army and Navy (seen above). Don't bother making jokes about this being the Irish Navy's only vessel––I'm way ahead of you. I have a feeling it's trailered most of the time.

There were also some surprises, such as:

Transformers.

But surprisingly, most of the celebration was devoted to the many non-Irish cultures that now call Cork home.

There were the Filipino-Irish (seen here), as well as Latvians, Africans, Hungarians, and––of course––Poles.

After the parade the crowd moved to a part of the City Centre called the Grand Parade, where there was an outdoor market and concert. Some Irish trad music, maybe? No, just a jazz band fronted by an Englishman sporting a mohawk. They played Sinatra and the Stray Cats.

After the mid-day festivities, Katherine and I went to some pubs. This also seemed obligatory. Our first stop––the famous Franciscan Well––greeted me with the sought-after trad music and some stout. In another establishment we sat next to a warm coal fire, a comfortable spot to sip some Jameson. This satisfied the need for some good old Irish nostalgia.

***

When I got to work today, my boss asked if I went to the Patty's Day parade. "Yes, it was nice," I said.

"You must have gone to a different parade than me," he shot back. "Be honest, you weren't a little disappointed? That naval display was hilarious!"

So I guess it's a fortunate coincidence that Cork's was the first St. Patrick's Day parade I've ever seen.