Our Paddys Day (or St Patrick’s Day) celebrations went off last weekend without a hitch. Everyone’s flights arrived on time, nobody lost their luggage, we had a front row view of the parade, found a space to rest our pints and it didn’t rain!
We took our friends around the village we live in in Friday night, stopping in a local pub that used to be an old house. They loved the cosy atmosphere and friendly banter from the bar staff.
On Saturday we headed into Temple Bar to watch Ireland v France in the Six Nations Rugby Championship. I don’t think they’ve ever been around Irish sports fans before – they couldn’t get over the floor shaking beneath us when Ireland scored a try and the amount of roaring that goes on during a match. I guess I am now used to it?
They were also astounded by the number of people drinking on the street all weekend and the lack of Garda police present. Again, I must have expected it from last year because it didn’t surprise me! The last photo is our view from Gogarty’s pub on Saturday night.
We danced to trad music, joked with locals, drank with foreigners and everyone had a sample of curry chips. I think they also may have fell in love with Ireland, or at least one of the guys did as he kept coming up with reasons to skip his flight!
We took a stroll along the canal on Sunday and fed everyone roast dinner, chocolate Guinness and Bailey’s cream cheese cupcakes, with a side of mojitos in preparation for the big day ahead.
We arrived early enough on Monday morning to buy a few extra green accessories and queued along O’Connell Street for an hour before the parade started. We kept our spot at the front of the barriers and had two families on either side of us, one came from halfway across the country in Athlone to join in the festivities!
The costumes were brilliant and the theme ‘Let’s make history’ took spectators through moments in Ireland’s past, it even touched on the Celtic Tiger with people shouting, “show me the money”, alongside a green tiger float spewing smoke into the crowd. Controversial maybe, but timely.
We had a great anniversary spent with friends and are now heading back to Salthill for the weekend in Galway to continue celebrating. Next big holiday weekend? We will be spending Easter in Edinburgh!
Notes From Another Land 