Geraldine McCloatSome say Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but I say St. Patrick’s Day is!
I love St. Patrick’s Day!
And so I thought it was as good a day as any to launch my new website for my travel business, Travents Ireland, and it was the perfect subject for my first “story”.
St. Patrick’s Day in America
I don’t really know where my love for it started, but my earliest memories of Paddy’s Day was when I was in school. There was always a “dress down day” for St. Patrick’s Day, where we were able to dress in green instead of our school uniform. My Granny, who lived in Ireland, always sent us cards for St. Patrick’s Day and in those cards there were always Irish ribbons, shamrocks or rosettes. And I had quite a collection of these built up over the years. I was so proud going to school with my Irish ribbons on me, because I knew no one else had them. And of course there would be the talking point of how I was Irish, my dad was Irish, his family still lived there and we would visit every year – if “influencers” were a thing back then, I’d have been an Irish Influencer!
When I got older and went to high school, there wasn’t any more dress down days, or Irish ribbons… there was more important things like the South Side Irish parade! I also worked in Chicago Gaelic Park, and there was a whole week long celebration in the lead up to St. Patrick’s Day called “Ireland on Parade”. I loved that week, and I tried my best to work every night (even though I was in school) just to be in the middle of all the excitement and celebrations. There was live Irish music, traditional music, lots of Irish dancing and plenty of craic! Of coarse there was Guinness and green beer (which the Irish would never drink in Ireland), and plenty of Irish food – like Irish sausages and chips, shepherds pie, Irish beef stew and corned beef and cabbage.
Corned beef and cabbage – now that was something I wasn’t a fan of – I liked the cabbage, not the corned beef. And in actual fact, corned beef and cabbage is not a traditional Irish meal, well you’d never hear of someone in Ireland eating corned beef and cabbage on good day, never mind on St. Patrick’s Day! But in America it was what Irish Immigrants ate, and hence how that tradition was born. So in my book the only real Irish thing to eat on St. Patrick’s Day is cabbage and potatoes, no one can argue with that!
St. Patrick’s Day was huge in America, and no one did it like Chicago. Where else do they dye their river green (although St. Patrick’s Day wasn’t the real reason the river first turned green in Chicago)? We had two parades… there was a downtown Chicago Parade on the Magnificent Mile, and then there was the South Side Irish Parade – this was the “Windy City Irish” parade.
Our cousins lived a few blocks from Western Avenue, so we would all meet at their house and head off to watch the parade, as was the norm with most people in the South Side. The last parade I went to, and the last time I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago, was in 2001 when I was the runner up in the Gaelic Park Queen Competition! And I was delighted to be on one of the most prominent floats in the South Side Parade.
First an Irish “influencer”, then a “celebrity” – #winning as they’d say!
Paddy’s Day in Ireland
So with my last American celebration of Paddy’s Day behind me, I got to experience St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, and you know what, sadly it didn’t feel all that “Irish” to me. It felt like the Americans made a bigger deal about it then we did in Ireland. Don’t get me wrong, there was the big parade in Dublin City, which would have been like attending New Year’s Eve in Times Square, but in rural Ireland there wasn’t much happening. Everyone just went to the pub and “drown the Shamrock” as they say and listened to some music.
But then, IT HAPPENED!!! Dromore West was having its very first St. Patrick’s Day Parade! Now this was something I could get behind! There was finally something to look forward to that wasn’t just about spending the day in the pub. The sports clubs got involved, the local businesses took part, and everyone in Dromore West and the surrounding areas came out to watch this parade for the novelty, and because you didn’t have to drive 40 mins, find parking and then stand for hours waiting! But it was a mighty parade!
The St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Dromore West, and across rural Ireland have grown so much over the last number of years. In West Sligo, Dromore West is one of three villages that host a parade – and this little happening has now become known as the West Sligo Parades, where by each parade runs consecutively, so entrants can take part in all three parades and spectators can watch each parade as well!
The celebrations in Dromore West went from drowning the Shamrock in a pub to a parade. And from a parade to some traditional Irish music, to awards for float entries to the parade, to a full on Céilí in the local community centre.
This has turned from a day that primarily revolved around drinking and being in the pub all day, to a day where the Irish people, the locals – families, young and old – come out and celebrate their National Holiday. Of coarse there is plenty of time for Guinness and craic in the pub after – after all the Dromore West Parade only lasts 20 minutes (and it goes up the street and turns around and comes back). But it is a day for the community to come together, and that is what the Irish are great at – coming together.
Sadly, in 2020 all the St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations across Ireland and the world were cancelled due to COVID19. It was a bit of whirlwind that week, and if I’m honest I welcomed a break from the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Over the course of a few years I went from being a spectator with a pint in my hand to the Chief Organiser – the Grand Marshall as some might say – of Dromore West St. Patrick’s Day parade. It was a lot of work and I felt that our little celebrations might have lost their luster. As the saying goes “absence makes the heart grow fonder”, so maybe a year’s break, where the decision to cancel the parade was taken out of our hands, was exactly what we all needed in order to appreciate what we had.
But we are another year on, and in 2021 we are facing into the same reality of no St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations here in Ireland. We won’t let this stop us; there are virtual celebrations of music, song and dance taking place all over the country. There are even families dressing up in green, wearing the shamrock and putting on their own little parades – I know I will be.
It will actually be the best time for anyone not living in Ireland to be able to sit back and get a little taster of St. Patrick’s Day here.
My recommendation for anyone who wishes to travel to Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day (in the future). Take a look at the villages that put the flags up, those virtual experiences, the Trad groups who put on concerts, the Irish dancers who perform and take note of them. Because that is where you want to go and those are who you want to see when you do come for a real Irish St. Patrick’s Day. The big cities are great, but anyone can be in a big city for a parade. Its in those little Irish towns and villages where the really magic happens!
After all, its the most wonderful time of the year!
