Sounds like you're in for some fun there, essexjan. I know how you feel about the social anxiety thing but at least you're not letting it keep you from going. My friends have to almost kidnap me to get me to attend parties, etc.. Anyway, I'll be heading over to my girlfriends for a small gathering this St. Paddy's to get soused to the gills. Anxiety? What an.."hic" xiety. ;)

I'm staying indoors. There's only so many Guiness hats a man can take. I'd usually spend it with my mate from Monahan, but he's on the continent.

Plus, I'm so tired of people telling me how Irish they are (1/16th BeJeezus) I'll probably just get myself into a bad mood and start shouting at people on the internet.

Them: "I've got Irish Blood in me. I'm proud to be Irish and I hate the English."
Me: "Fuck you. You have no idea about what it is to be Irish. You've some half baked romantic ideal of the country and your Irishness and you've no idea. NEVAR FORGET 15/06.

Staying in, me.

Fucking frat-boy amateur night. All white baseball caps and green beer. I'll pass.

Of course, that should be Monaghan.

B.t.w. I've no problem with Ireland itself. Or even the Irish. I've no problem with people feeling strongly about the bad things the British did. But if a distant relative left the country generations ago, it doesn't count. You're not Irish. Stop pretending.

Plus - It gives you no excuse for your alcoholism. You're just fuelling stereotypes. The Irish are no more heavy drinkers than anyone else.

My parents are Irish so I feel I can carry off the Irish thing pretty well - having said that, I'm about as English as they come.

But yeah, the plastic paddies can feck off.

Anyway, I tend to avoid paddy's night since it's another bloody amateur drinkers night just like NYE. No, instead I shall be going to a goth club tonight and thus nursing a hangover tomorrow.

The county shelter is having an adoption event at my local pet supply store so I'm going to go see if I can find a small dog friend for Lulu (also dog).

Oooh, fbk! What a great way to spend the day. We need pictures, I hope you realise.

I'm going up to see my Mom in her old folks place. Not because it's St. Patty's Day, or because she's Irish or anything, but because it's Saturday and I have to take her a chair. Long drive, broken up by lunch in a cafeteria that I imagine will serve green mashed potatoes and put green plastic hats on the residents, dignity be damned.

Gah.

When I get back, I'll commence the heavy drinking. Again, not because of the day, but because I'll have gone to see my Mom.

It could be worse, it's a nice place and Mom still very much has her wits. We've just never gotten along particularly well.

As for the rainbaby bloodlines, er, heritage lines (Mom was adopted) - I'm a typical Catholic Mutt. Irish Grandmothers, German Grandfathers, married an Italian. I don't really self-identify with any heritage. Living in the American South is sort of a bigger deal on a day to day basis, actually.

oh shit, tomorrow's my dad's birthday... thanks for the reminder, folks! i need to run to hallmark and get a card.

too much to do this weekend to celebrate america's fourth favorite excuse to drink. i might chug a room-temp guinness and eat a potato.

Your weekend sounds like a lot more fun than mine, ej!

I've got to work tomorrow, then no special plans for the evening. It'll involve a quantity of Guinness, but that's every weekend at my house. I've been itching to watch some zombie movies, so I may spend the evening doing that. (And my partner will spend the evening averting his eyes every time he passes by, saying things like "AGH! How can you watch that stuff??")

I was considering going to the Rochester parade and taking pictures but the weather says snow and cold, so I'm not sure if I'm going to go. Other than that, we're not Irish, so an otherwise normal Saturday.

I'll probably be staying home with the family unless my friends have anything better to do, which I doubt they do. I hope my mom's making corn beef and cabbage. I love that stuff and this is the only night she'll make it. :(

plastic paddies
Oh god, thank you, I now have a term for them. I'm thrilled.

But if a distant relative left the country generations ago, it doesn't count. You're not Irish. Stop pretending.
Well I think for the most part you're correct, but in some small cases you might have someone who does cherish their Irish heritage, and more than on just one day of the year. But they'd probably be an exception to the rule.

I'm 100% Irish, with most of my father's relatives coming off the boat sometime around 1840, and... well I don't know the year but all of my mother's relatives except for her mother (the youngest) were born in Ireland, so they're somewhat more recent. I take pride in the fact that I've got Irish heritage. We keep in touch with our cousins and second cousins over there, my sister has been doing step dancing for years now (I can't very well remember just how many, though), and so on. I don't bring up how Irish I am unless asked directly, and even then, does it even mean anything? Being Irish is not a percentage. I'm so sick of people happily exclaiming that they're Irish, "Five percent!" The fuck? Do you even know your relatives in Ireland? Do you know what counties your ancestors came from? Has anyone in your family even been back there? No. But at the same time, it's not a contest. All of this is not to say that I am truly Irish. I'm American (ew :( ), and my family has Irish heritage, and I'm proud of that.

And I think having artificial hatred towards another group of people for reasons you don't even know is complete bull. As an "Irish person," I'm supposed to hate the Italians and the British. Right. My last girlfriend was 50/50 British and Italian. :P

::gets off soapbox::

I don't drink beer so St. Paddy's Day has never been a big deal for me.

I've invited the boy over for dinner - lobster risotto is on the menu and I've a hankering for some pan-seared scallops. He's promised me key-lime pie from scratch for dessert so does that count for something green?

I used to organise a Father Ted fancy dress every year but this year I simply couldn't.
The heritage and identity thing is strange to me. I find it difficult to keep a straight face when my cousin speaks to me in a broad Cork accent. She was born and grew up in London and her Gran left Ireland at the age of 20.
Ireland has changed so much just in the last 20 years that many of the stereotypes no longer hold. Citrus Freak where did you get the impression that as an Irish person you are supposed to hate the Italians??? I've never heard that one.
Is that true of the Irish immigrants in the USA? It certainly isn't the case in Ireland. And even the old hate the brits thing is now outdated and meaningless to the majority of Irish people, (which is a pity really as unquestioning assumptions are so comforting!)

Here's a joke that you can tell in your favorite bar on St. Patrick's Day:

A Polish man decides that he has a problem that he wants surgically corrected. He goes to see a brain surgeon and tells him that he'd like a quarter of his brain removed. The surgeon says, "But Mr. Opalewski, why would you want so much of your brain taken out?" He replies, "Because I'm too smart and I stand out from my Polish friends and family." The surgeon reluctantly agrees to perform the operation and schedules an afternoon slot.
On the morning of the surgery, the doctor plays a round of golf and scores a new club record, including a hole-in-one. As a result, he celebrated a little too vigorously in the clubhouse and ends up botching the surgery. When Opalewski comes to, the surgeon is there and apologizes profusely, "Mr. Opalewski, I'm so sorry - I didn't take out 1/4 of your brain, I left you with 1/4 of your brain. I hope you can forgive me." Opalewski looks up at him and says, "Top o' the morning to you!"

FYI, I learned this joke from a Welsh Computer Science professor who told me that while he told this joke to his father-in-law, he was constantly interrupted with, "You're a Limey--you should be telling Irish jokes not Polish jokes." The last time I told it was in a local VA club which has a fairly strong Polish clientele. One of the guys kept looking around nervously, saying, "Quiet! Don't you know where we are?" Heh.

As an "Irish person," I'm supposed to hate the Italians

Someone better tell my Irish father and Italian mother. (the stereotype comes from the old days in New York when Irish and Italian immigrants were rivals, I'd imagine)

Plinth: I know a similar one.

An Italian gondola driver with all of his brain intact sings "Oooo Sole Mio..."

with 3/4 of his brain he sings "Ooo Sole..."
with 1/2 his brain he sings "Ooo So..."

what does he sing with no brain at all?
"Oh, Danny Boy, the pipes the pipes are calling..."

I'm going down to Queensbridge Houses to reenact the Troubles.

I'm going to celebrate the 24th anniversary of my engagement to my husband.

Woot, bunnyfire, you have the same anniversary as my parents (which is also my Mom's birthday). You can guess what I'll be doing.

I'll probably torch some green in the evening, of course.

St. Patrick's day is my wedding anniversary. My sister in law and her husband are coming into town for the weekend to celebrate with us. We will hit a fancy-pants restaurant for dinner, and if it's not raining, we will go to a pub where a band will be playing Irish music on the patio. Funny though, we aren't Irish in the slightest. I'm Italian-Croatian, and my husband is Italian-Serb-Croatian.

Wilder, yes it's an American thing. An immigrant thing, as jonmc pointed out, and--in more modern times--a bit of a mob thing as well. This stereotype was/is especially strong in my state, as we have the highest percentage of Italian-Americans in the country, mostly based around The Hill. Irish-Americans are a close second in the population, mostly around Newport.

Providence was a big area of mob activity, thanks to Ray Patriarca, up until the 80's. It's still around, but it's as good as dead. If you saw The Departed, you probably heard them talk about "the guineas from Providence." That's what they're referring to. As a Rhode Islander, though, I consider myself an honorary Italian :). You can't have Rhode Island cuisine without Italian cuisine. Now I'm hungry.
/historylesson

So yeah, I should have put quotes around "supposed to." I'm saying it's a stereotype, not that I'm actually supposed to hate them. My bad. At the very most, it's something me and my 50/50 Irish/Italian cousin joke about with eachother. :P

And I'm loving these Irish jokes! If anyone has anymore, please, post them!

I'm going to McK's for corned beef and cabbage lunch with the in-laws, kids, hubby, and Uncle Lenny and his girlfriend from New Hampshire. I probably won't do anything Saturday night because I'm lame. I have invites, but I don't feel like it.

Q: What's six miles long and has an IQ of 35?
A: The St. Patrick's Day Parade.

I don't do St. Patrick's Day. I'm going up the mountain to Bat Cave to celebrate my friend's daughter's 11th birthday with a bunch of other friends from Baltimore and New York. It will be nice. If it doesn't snow, which it might, and I don't drink too much to drive back down the mountain that night, which I might, because if either or both of those things happen I'll end up sleeping on their floor in a big heap with kids and dogs and that crazy parrot screeching from the other side of the room.

But I am going to do corned beef & potatos & cabbage for dinner tonight because my son loves it.

in some small cases you might have someone who does cherish their Irish heritage

The difficulty arises because Irish-from-Ireland-people and my-great-great-grandfather-was-called-O'Toole-people both use the term "Irish culture" and mean different things. For Paddies like myself Premiership football, obsession with property prices, Indian food, sarcastic sense of humour, and Lithuanian construction workers are major part of the Irish culture that I know. The frozen-in-1840 Irish culture that you often see in NY etc would be completely alien to me, a 30 year old Dubliner. Different horses, different courses.

The snarky defensiveness on the part of real Paddies has a couple of roots in my mind - for one, Irish-Americans are known for being a little, eh, off-puttingly enthusiastic about Ireland when they meet real Irish people, which is a running joke in student exchange trips to the US, Dublin hotels catering to American tourists, etc. And specifically online, a few years ago it would be maddening to look for Irish content and find nothing but US-based shamrockery and plastic paddy nonsense. Irish web presence is pretty vibrant these days, thus hopefully helping to keep the blood pressure of grouchy people like myself down.

(As for the boozy stereotypes, from a real Irish POV some may be interested to know that pub sales have decreased so much in recent years that rural pubs are folding/selling at what has been called "crisis" rate and Guinness sales in Ireland have dropped every year for 7 years)

I'm going out tonight and will be watching Italy & France crumble thus handing the Six Nations trophy to BOD and co this weekend, bwahaha.

Avoiding all mob scenes. I'll save my celebration for the MeFi meetup the next day.

Irish-Americans are known for being a little, eh, off-puttingly enthusiastic about Ireland when they meet real Irish people, which is a running joke in student exchange trips to the US, Dublin hotels catering to American tourists, etc

Well, a lot of Irish-born people in the US do play directly into that stuff. I've had many a Dublin-born bartender in Manhattan tell me that I look 'as Irish as Paddy's pig' and then give me one on the house when I told him my last name (screamingly Irish Catholic). That may be something of a New York thing, since ethnic heritage has always been a big deal there, determining what neighborhood you lived in, oftentimes even what jobs were open to you, so people cling to it tenaciously and pop culture at large catered to it. (a quick glance at Pop charts from the early decades of this century are loaded with stuff like "Danny Boy" and "Does Your Mother Come From Ireland?."

(and for the record. my Dad's grandfather was from Ireland on his father's side, came over during the Potato Famine, so I'm told. On his mother's side there's something of a mystery since her father died very young(in Panama of yellow fever, they say, he was a sailor) and she was raised by neighbors, so there may be other stuff mixed in, even though her name was Kathleen Dunn. On my Mom's side I', first generation American, Mom came over from Italy at age 7. And since my Irish-American grandparents passed when I was little, I was raised much more Italian)

The frozen-in-1840 Irish culture that you often see in NY

It would actually probably be closer to the 1930's Jimmy Cagney stereotype.

I have a couple of friends coming into the city and we will probably watch the Ireland-Pakistan cricket game. Also the Maryland-Butler game. I imagine we will drop into our local bar for a few. It happens to be an Irish bar, owned by and employing all Irish people, and the main reason I love it (aside from the fact that they know and love their regulars and buy back for everyone) is that it has exactly zero green/shamrock/fake irish atmosphere. It's wooden and polished and dark red. And they have good baked beans.

eh, what CitrusFreak said. with the added bonus that i have baggage stemming from a dysfunctional x-relationship with an o'-something surnamed individual who's one of those damaged-catholic types hellbent on proving every negative irish-american 'plastic paddy' (indeed thanks for that) stereotype.

mgl, that's one of the better St. Pat's jokes i've heard recently, thanks.

as for me, ima shoot photos, ride my bike and snuggle with the dude. we're both typical american heinz 57 mutts of roughly the same anglo-teutonic descent but he loves him some jameson and guinness on special occasions, so no doubt there will be an irish carbomb or 2 figuring into the weekend's equation.

Well, a lot of Irish-born people in the US do play directly into that stuff

Oh absolutely. As does the enture tourist industry! People know what side their bread is buttered ....

I'm not suggesting Irish culture is better or worse vs Irish-American culture, btw, just that in my experience they're extremely different and I've found both Americans/Canucks and Irish people who are surprised or annoyed by this. I lived as an expat in NYC for 7 yrs - found also that the expats are a much more conservative, more nationalist and more interested in tradition bunch than peers at home, despite generally not aspiring to move back, which I always thought interesting.

despite generally not aspiring to move back, which I always thought interesting.

Well, Irish-Americans, though they were hated at first began to move up when the WASP's decided, 'hey, at least they're not Italian.'

And every bar in the outer boroughs has a 'resident Paddy' some guy from Ireland who loves to lay his brogue on thick and tell tales. One day I was in some dive sitting between the bar's resident Paddy, a construction worker named Fergus, and some extremely drunk guy the barmaid* called Paul, with what I thought was an Eminem-style blonde dye job. Paul was mumbling and stumbling like a maniac but he kept buying rounds.

At one point Paul got up to take a leak, and Fergus said "Paul's a good lad, but 'e's got a touch of the Albanian about him.."

I thought for a minute and said "Oh, wait, you mean 'albino.'"

"That's the stuff.."

*the barmaid was from Armagh. One night her parents were there, this pair looked like they walked off the pages of a Roddy Doyle novel.

I did Irish step dancing in high school/first year of college. (Note: I'm not Irish, although the Polish/German/Lithuanian skin and cheekbones means I get mistaken for it pretty often.) Nothing drove me battier than the people in my dance class who bitched about how the English did horrible things to "them". Dude, your family's been in the US for a century. The English didn't freaking oppress you.

I was also really upset by people criticising the few African- and Asian-American girls at dance competitions, for stealing the Irish culture or whatever. Like they shouldn't be dancing because they're not obviously Irish (despite that they might well have more roots there than some of the white people, and quite plausibly more than I did.) It was a really ugly part of the culture.

Despite this, I'm always a little sad on St. Patrick's Day. I had a great time in March when I was dancing; all of my weekends were booked with various performances, I got to wear my shiny gorgeous dress a lot, people gave us chocolates....etc. Good times, good times.

This year...um...I've no plans. Probably I'll play some WoW :) Oh, and I'm baking cinnamon bread. This has nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day. I just like cinnamon bread.

I have my daughter this weekend but I likely wouldn't go out even if I didn't - I too think it's kind of a ridiculous holiday. Or, rather, that the celebration of it is ridiculous.

Is it hypocritical of me, then, that I'm going to the store to get some green food coloring so my gf and I can enjoy some green beer in the comfort of home (after the child is off to bed)??? Nah.

I don't know; I'm kind of divided on the whole who is Irish/what is Irish thing. On the one hand I do wonder why Americans so often tend to be so rabidly devoted to their roots but then, as someone who was brought up by a fairly rabid Irish-American family (whose last Irish born ancestor got here in I think about 1880) I'm used to it. And I'm guilty of it as well; it's just so much a part of my identity. Not the horrible plastic kitsch and shamrocks everywhere but a real cultural identity. My father took me to Ireland the first time when I was 8 years old and sat me down in the pub and had me memorize the dumb Cuchulainn legend off the coaster and recite it back to the men at the bar. I read books of Irish fairytales and folklore and so on. We drove all over County Clare looking for family; my father and his sister eerily found the house where their grandmother was born, just through some kind of weird dead reckoning and an old photo.

And when I went back to Ireland as an adult,I lost my daughter briefly on a playground: she looked so much like all the other screaming little kids on a Nenagh market day. Coming from blonde Charleston, SC, that was such a shock, my black Irish child turning out not to be a freak at all. It's an odd feeling for a lot of Americans, I think, to suddenly be somewhere where everyone looks like you.

And don't underestimate the whole Kennedy thing and the fact that there really was a lot of discrimination for a long time against the Irish Catholics. I mean, for people of my parents' generation, JFK was awesome. They really never thought someone Catholic could be president and it meant so much to them; it was a Really Big Thing. Even in 1980s Charleston, you know, I couldn't be a debutante at the St. Cecilia ball, even though my family has been there since 1780 or so, but we're Irish Catholics and that's not for us. That kind of blew me away - first time I'd ever been discriminated against (and damn, unfortunately it was a) something I really didn't want to do anyway and b) I promptly disqualified myself far more seriously by turning up pregnant anyway.) So I guess what I'm saying is, yeah, it is kind of ridiculous, but, well, it's kind of cool too.

Plastic shamrocks?

Me and pips went on a quest to find the building my dad grew up in and walked down to the address abutting the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. i recognized it from visits in my childhood. How? The wooden shamrocks above every rowhouse door.

Hrm. cinnamon bread. Bread. Bread! IRISH SODA BREAD! EGADS! I must remind the folks so we can make some of "Nana Kelly's Irish Soda Bread"!! I love that stuff. Great when you toast it a little with butter. Mmmm. Thanks for inadvertantly reminding me.

What a nice dress, fuzzbean! My sister and her group wear darker dresses, with somewhat more scant patterns, but they still look good.
≡ Click to see image ≡
My sister, Molly, is the one on the far left.

It seems as though your days were spent much like my sister's, but due to a "snowstorm" (I see an inch at most) and apparently terrible weather yet to come, all of her performances for today have been canceled. So my mom's coming down to pick me up from college for spring break. Ta for now!

On preview, mygothlaundry, that was an awesome story. Thanks for sharing that.
This is probably stupid, but I wish that a book could be made, that was just a collection of shared experiences and stories from the members of the bunnies here. I would most certainly buy it.

Damn. The members of MeCha + the bunnies = what I ended up posting.

stories from the members of the bunnies here

I wouldn't have even noticed if you didn't correct yourself...now I can't stop snickering.

*makes bunny-fingers ears over his, tells stories in squeeky voice*

Thanks, dano. Now I'll be giggling all day about that. Teeheehee. snort, guffaw, chuckle.

There are three nights of the year on which I can guarantee you will not find me in a bar: Hallowe'en, New Year's Eve, and St. Patrick's Day. Amateur night, indeed. I'm helping some friends move, then either celebrating their new home or collapsing at mine--after three weeks of slack I worked my backside off this week, and have the aches and stiffness to show for it. There will be drinking, oh yes there will be drinking, but minus the green food colouring and stupid hats and other such nonsense.

I'm going to Vegas to see Spamalot! My friend and her husband had tickets to go, but he was just deployed to the Philippines (he's in the Navy), so I get to go in his place.

It'll be interesting; I haven't been to Vegas since I was a kid (waaaay before it transformed itself into its current "family friendly" incarnation), so I'm curious to see what it's like now.

...flashing eyes and flirtiness...

What you need, ej, are a nice pair of these:

≡ Click to see image ≡

What the hell are they, Pips, some kind of fancy merkins?

Blech! They're quite obviously false eyelashes, essexjan.

::washes brain with clorox bleach::

I'm going to be asking girls about their Irish heritage, and, absent any, if they'd like to supplement it temporarily.

Jan, when are you in the states again? We need to plan the meetup somewhere there's dancing.

Wait... am I only supposed to get drunk tomorrow if I'm Irish? I'm at least 5000 miles (or more generations than my family can remember) away from being Irish, and still I'm planning to go to an Irish pub and get shitfaced.

Picking up a fight is optional.

My birthmom was a big fan of false lashes. Had a devil of a time gluein' 'em on, though. I think the green-tipped ones would be quite festive for St. Patrick's Day. : )

I'm a quarter Irish meself. Mulligan's the name. Just like the stew. Pass the Jameson's, please.

Jan, when are you in the states again? We need to plan the meetup somewhere there's dancing.

5-12 June, although I'm going to be busy on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th. The run-up to the weekend should be the best time for me, before the 'family' arrives from Ohio, Indiana and upstate NY. I think Sunday 10th is designated the 'visit Queens' day for me and Diane so jon and Pips can take us somewhere serving food that's guaranteed to put us in the ER getting our stomachs pumped.

Eeee, I can't wait!