It's good for you.
March 16, 2007 9:04 PM   Subscribe

 
By the emerald hills 'o Ireland and the great Irish potato famine, they be after me Lucky Charms, they're magically delicious! Guiness beer!

There, everything possibly Irish squeezed into two sentences.
posted by champthom at 9:21 PM on March 16, 2007


Also: this.

I kid, I kid. Seriously though, I have a love/hate relationship with this holiday. On the one hand, it's my traditional Huge Blowout Party that I throw, and it's always a good time. On the other hand, every time I meet up with my girlfriend's family around March 17, they try and feed me corned beef. I hate that stuff! Meat in Jello form? Beef is fine like it is, grill it up and let's have some fun.

Have fun everyone. Pretend to be Irish all you want, (or if you are Irish, just be Irish) but pretend to be an Irish(wo)man before they invented cars.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 9:28 PM on March 16, 2007


If case anyone's curious, here's a bunch of golden plovers I came across earlier this year.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all :)
posted by chime at 9:28 PM on March 16, 2007


Hurling, anyone?
posted by owhydididoit at 9:40 PM on March 16, 2007


Éirinn go Brách! Happy St. Paddy's Day.

Feet of flames Irish dancing. wow. More traditional Irish dance and music, Páidí­ Bán Ó Broin performs some step dancing. Recorded in 1984.

Wikipedia on Guiness. A little sweet Celtic tin whistle. Happy claymation blobs do an Irish jig.
posted by nickyskye at 10:00 PM on March 16, 2007


Hurling, anyone?

Oh, they will be....
posted by eriko at 10:12 PM on March 16, 2007


Does this mean I can have Guinness for breakfast and not feel guilty about it?

Or how about a Velvet Hammer (Guinness and Champagne)?
posted by fenriq at 10:58 PM on March 16, 2007


Fenriq: Unless my father is mistaken, I'm pretty sure a velvet hammer is guiness and vodka.

And happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 11:30 PM on March 16, 2007


Happy birthday to me.
posted by scalefree at 1:07 AM on March 17, 2007


Duff or Fudd? You decide!
posted by furtive at 1:56 AM on March 17, 2007


Flogging Molly with love from a Southern-born Scots-American.

That which rocks, rocks for all. Drink up and be careful today.
posted by erskelyne at 2:32 AM on March 17, 2007


In 2hrs time I will be going to the pub to drink Guinness & watch the rugby all day - Happy St Paddy's!!!!!!
posted by kenchie at 3:21 AM on March 17, 2007


dear old guiness and its good pal , norris mcwhirter.
posted by sgt.serenity at 3:47 AM on March 17, 2007


Ah, my favorite alcohol related holiday of the year. I love Guinness with all my heart. A few more hours and I'll be out getting wankered on the stuff. Good times, good times...
posted by slimepuppy at 4:47 AM on March 17, 2007


Self-linking: The Bottle Gang has quite a bit about St. Pat's, including a list of Minneapolis/St. Paul events.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:23 AM on March 17, 2007


It actually really gets to me that the holiday on which we commemorate Irish-American heritage in the U.S. is so strongly associated with getting massively drunk. But Guinness is not about getting massively drunk. It's a two-hundred-some product of Ireland's, well-loved around the world, and deeply intertwined with Irish history and culture.

I fell in love with the Guinness mystique when I worked as a waitress in a classic Irish-American pub in New Jersey. It was treated with such respect, so differently from all the other beverages, and it wasn't very hip then. It was an old man's and a pub-denizen's beverage. It wasn't until a few years later that a strong marketing effort, including a TV ad campaign ("Pure Genius"), a series of Perfect Pint awards (one in each state) and the Great Guinness Toast (which began in 1992) revived the brand for the young U.S. market.

It was amazing how much lore and appreciation there was surrounding this beverage. The keg looked different and was hooked up different than every other type of beer. The pint glasses were different, as well. The method of pouring (outlined in the links) was necessarily different; a bad pour was looked upon with shame and derision, and it took new bartenders a fair amount of time and many wasted pints to learn how to do it properly. It could be blended with a spoon pour into the beautiful half-and-half (black-and-tan was not a welcome order in this pub, Bass being an English ale). Finishing a pour with a signature shamrock was a lovely fillip. The Irish-born owner and his wife made sure I knew all the Guinness saws - that it was served to new mothers in Irish hospitals and given to patients after surgeries, that it was 'a meal in a pint,' containing plenty of B vitamins and iron. Having been one of those who thought of Guinness as a 'heavy' beverage, I was surprised to learn that it was one of the lowest-alcohol and lowest-calorie beers on the tap line. John Gilroy's posters, of which my pub had a fine collection, are an art form of their own and a landmark in advertising history.

And I'm sorry I missed this and the story of the last river trip during which Guinness was transported via rbarge down the river Liffey.

So, if it helps you to elevate the day beyond green beer and corned beef (which is unknown in Ireland!), sip slowly and appreciate the rich history of this beverage, impossible to think of without thinking of the old sod. It's as tenacious and unique as its people.

Slainte! Bás en Éireann!

posted by Miko at 5:23 AM on March 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


It's one of my favorite days of the year as it's also my conception day... obviously, I could only be conceived in drunkenness.
posted by moonbird at 6:03 AM on March 17, 2007


Could be worse moonbird. I think I was conceived on an acid trip. But that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, have I ever mentioned my Horribly True Theory of Immigration? America will accept any ethnic group, if if brings a drinking holiday with it.

The Irish? St. Patrick's Day! Germans? Oktoberfest! Mexicans? Cinco de Mayo! The Chinese? Chinese New Year! Canadians? Saturday!

(Hah. But I kid the Canadians. Canada's my second favorite country, really.)

Getting drunk is how we celebrate diversity here. Any immigrant groups out there who aren't feeling the love just need to hurry up and invent a drinking holiday. Then they'll fit right in with the rest of us drunken Americans.
posted by faster than a speeding bulette at 6:14 AM on March 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


March 17th: "Get Out of Philly ASAP Day"
posted by wfc123 at 7:16 AM on March 17, 2007


Ah, my favorite alcohol related holiday of the year.

That would be Christmas for me, but I love St. Paddy's none the less. In addition to drinking massive quantities of Bushmills, I'll be having an all day Irish film fest.
posted by Roman Graves at 8:16 AM on March 17, 2007




I will be going to the pub to drink Guinness & watch the rugby all day

I just talked to my sister (currently in Kinsale, but lives in Dublin) and that's what she's up to today.
posted by nekton at 11:06 AM on March 17, 2007




America will accept any ethnic group, if if brings a drinking holiday with it.

I think it's just that America will take any holiday and re-structure it around drinking. St. Pat's is a good example - in Ireland, it was a rather boring churchgoing holiday until Americans got hold of it.

Americans will drink given any excuse. We can't be far away from drunken Eid-al-Fitr.
posted by Miko at 6:21 PM on March 17, 2007


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