News Flash: Irishmen Prefer Chicago to Ireland on St. Patty’s Day

Friday night, in the spirit of St. Patty’s day or more importantly $3 Fat Tires, my visiting vbf (very best friend- thanks Judy Blume) and I headed to the Dark Horse. After a heaping plate of fish and chips and a cold pint or two, we noticed a group of young blue eyed men examining a black t-shirt they had just received. The shirt read “I just got proper head” and was oh so cleverly advertising an ale brand. Of course I was immediately jealous of the tacky shirt and tried to bribe it off of them. But they insisted on clinging to their prized American souveneir. After examining passports and confirming that they were indeed Irish and not just inflicted with a speech impediment, we began discussing the St. Patty’s day tradition and why these 4 young Irish men were gracing us with their presence instead of partying it up in Ireland.

Apparently the two best places to be on St. Patty’s day is Japan or more specifically Tokyo or the U.S. particularly Chicago. What little celebrating Ireland does was apparently imported from Irish American returning to their motherland and is a rather watered down version of an American St. Patty’s day. There are no green rivers, flashing beads or dyed beer. On the other hand, the copious amount of drinking Americans do on St. Patty’s day is “just another day at the Pub” for the alcohol resistant Irish.

So in the spirit of sharing cultures, the Irish men made us drink a Guinness, which was more filling that the fish and chips, and we made them “taint” their precious Guinness with an Irish car bomb. At the end of the night, although one party may have been slightly more tanked than the other, both had experienced a piece of life on the other side of the pond and I had the headache in the morning to prove it.