st. paddy’s day
St. Patrick’s Day is the national holiday of Ireland, so it’s a day off from work. Imagine the Fourth of July, only with things on a more modest scale. Since about the mid-’90s, the government has kicked up the celebrations (mostly in Dublin but also a bit in Limerick) to bring in the foreign tourists, and they seem to be doing a good job of that. I hear the parade in Dublin used to be a sad affair, but it’s fairly polished at this point. Still, my coworker’s husband mentioned that he overheard some American tourists at the parade say, “This is the lamest parade ever!”
I find it strange that they brought in the North Carolina State University marching band (whose banner read “North Carolina State Band”, which I found misleading) to march in the parade. They performed their fight song and everything, but unlike at a football game in Raleigh, there was nobody in the audience to sing along and cheer. Those kids looked a bit dispirited marching down Dame Street.
In small towns the local parade consist of taxi drivers driving their taxis and farmers driving the tractors down the parade route. We had none of that. However, there was also no final act to mark the end of the parade. The rear was brought up by a bicycle advocacy group (with people riding bikes), a few guards (Irish policeman) on motorcycles, and then an ambulance. The end!