St Patricks Day - an Irish National Holiday - barely blipped the radar while living in London. A couple of years before we left I suppose it had become a bit more 'celebrated', i.e. 'oh it's St Patricks day let's go to an Irish pub and drink loads of Guinness' but really, no big deal.
London = Not very far from Ireland
In Canada - bizarrely slightly more OTT with green cakes being sold at the supermarkets and green beer being sold in pubs.
Toronto = Very far from Ireland
In Seattle - really bloody bizarre with 'Happy St Patricks Day' cards filling all the Hallmark stores, balloons for sale and god knows what else.
Seattles = Very Very Far from Ireland
WTF is it all about?
Posted by katie at March 14, 2006 10:46 PMPotato Famine in the 19th Century = lots of paddies hot-fotting it out of Oire-land to the east coast of the US & Canada.
Gold Rush in the mid/late 19th Century = lots of paddies thinking "Here's me chance to be a leprechaun" and moving to the West Coast.
Oh, and Guinness waking up to that market and putting a lot fo money into advertising it ;-)
Posted by: Aka at March 17, 2006 05:44 AMWho cares? It's a good excuse to have a pint! :-)
So this Irishman walks into a pub in (insert name of any place other than Ireland) and orders three pints of Guinness. He proceeds to drink each one slowly, savouring it. When he's finished the last one, he orders three more pints, and the bartender suggests "If you like, I could pour each one when you're near the end of the last, and then they won't get warm."
The Irishman says "No, you see, when I left home, I promised my two brothers that I'd have a pint for each of them and one for me."
The bartender says "Oh, I see. That's a nice tradition." And he serves the fellow his next three pints.
The Irishman comes back every week and does the same ritual. Months pass, and then one time he comes in and orders two pints. The bartender says "Hey, I know your ritual, and I'm sorry about your brother passing away."
The Irishman says "Oh, no, they're both fine. I've just given up drinking."
Posted by: Steve at March 17, 2006 12:14 PM