Paddy's Day Festivities

As I mentioned yesterday, Dublin has been overrun with Americans this weekend and I’m happy to say that I contributed by hosting two of them. Helen arrived from London early on Thursday the morning, so she and I started the day at Er Buchetto, my favorite neighborhood café, before putting on our (metaphorical) tourist hats and hitting the sites. We started first at Trinity College, walking around campus and touring the Book of Kells, before continuing on via tour bus making our way to the museum at Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) where Julie met up with us, fresh off the plane from Spain. After a bit of an Irish history lesson at the jail, we began the cultural side of our touring at Jameson Distillery. Helen was selected to taste compare various Irish, American, and Scottish whiskeys and, loyal to her heritage if not her homeland, confirmed along with the rest of the crowd that Jameson was her brand of choice. We went out with my ultimate Frisbee team that night to celebrate the women’s 1st place finish in the Outdoor Intervarsity (All-Ireland) Tournament the weekend before (Go Trinity!!) where the gals confirmed their newfound affinity for Irish whiskey.

On Friday we continued our city tourism by bus at decided that our favorite stop was probably the Guinness Storehouse experience. I say ‘experience’ rather than tour, because it took up the better part of our day. We started off with lunch at the café where Helen tried the beef & Guinness stew, Julie a traditional Irish baked potato, and I had seafood chowder with Guinness brown bread, and we split a slice of Guinness chocolate cake for dessert (sense a pattern here?). Then there was the museum/tour portion where we learned about the brewing process and the 9,000 year lease that Arthur Guiness signed in 1759 for just £45 a year while the Mizzou Marching Band played in the background, brought in especially for the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Another special addition for the day were face-painters, which of course we couldn’t pass up, followed by the interactive portion of the tour, where we all learned how to pour our own “perfect pints” (a perfect pint of Guinness takes 119.5 seconds to pour and the head will peak if touched), and ending with the beautiful view from the top.

While Guinness is certainly a staple in Irish pubs, it’s not the only local brew, so we headed to the Beerfest to try some lighter local options, and found one or two that I’d like to try again. There was a pretty good Irish duo on stage too – you could tell that this event was more geared toward locals than tourists since the music selection was songs by Irish artists, but more contemporary than traditional selection. Still, when in Ireland, the traditional music is worth enjoying, so I took the girls to hear some “trad” nearby (left) and they noted that unlike American bars that tend to attract the 20 – 30 year old crowd, Irish pubs are frequented by people of all ages. Also, people here are so friendly! This was a recurring theme throughout the weekend. That pub was less touristy than in Temple Bar and the locals were all singing along, which added to the atmosphere. Still, the Temple Bar area is worth seeing so we stopped by Oliver St. John Gogarty’s on our way to meet up with my friend Siobhán, but decided to take a pass since it was just too crowded for conversation. Julie did find herself a leprechaun, though!

As avid sports fans, Helen and Julie were missing March Madness, the NCAA college basketball tournament in the States, so I figured if anywhere would be showing it, O’Neill’s was a good bet. We didn’t find the basketball there, but we did get a seat next to the big screen showing the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells where Rafa Nadal was playing, so Helen was a happy camper. We were also able to stream some of the games on my computer throughout the weekend, so the girls didn’t miss all of the basketball and we were able to cheer on my Iowa State Cyclones v. Kentucky – a close game for a while, but heartbreaker in the end.

St. Patrick’s Day took us to the parade where we saw some good costumes and were relieved not to be pelted with candy the way we had been at Carnival. We got there early enough for a good view, too – an important factor in enjoying parades for those of us who aren’t the tallest in the crowd. Naturally, we were surrounded by primarily American accents, and the girls kept seeing friends of theirs left and right – it seems every American study abroad student in Europe found his/her way to Dublin for the weekend! We also met up with Kate and Woody, two other Rotary Scholars, and later managed to introduce my friend Siobhán to the American tradition of a Shamrock Shake, which we were able to find at McDonalds on Grafton Street. As much fun as Temple Bar looked, we opted for a less crowded scene and visited two of my local public houses for Saturday night, where the girls again noted how friendly the Irish are! We stuck out like sore thumbs in our green shirts and facepaint, so got a few curious questions about our nationalities (Ranelagh isn’t as big with tourists), but all were followed by warm welcomes, despite what the bathroom signs might have indicated (see right), and it was fun to have more of the local experience.

Sunday was Mother’s Day in Ireland, but we were able to find a nice brunch place where I ordered green eggs and thought of my uncle Joe’s bakery – he always used to dye his English muffin bread green in honor of the weekend. We spent most of the day wandering around through the gardens at St. Stephen’s Green and taking in the carnival and cherry blossoms at Merrion Square, and then made our way over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the evensong service. The choir really did sound heavenly and the sun streaming through the stained glass lived up to every rave review I’ve read.

The girls are heading home tomorrow to continue their study abroad ventures, but have a look at Julie’s and Helen's blogs too for their takes on the weekend. All in all, the weekend was all I’d hoped for and more, and I can’t think of a better place in the world to spend the feast day of Ireland’s patron saint. Sláinte!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, friends! I trust you're all celebrating in style.

So what is Paddy’s Day like in Ireland, you ask? Is it true that it was the Americans that shamed the Irish into celebrating the day properly? Well…yes and no.

I noticed a trend in chatting with people the last few weeks that many Dubliners told me they were heading to London for the weekend, though it’s hard to know if this was in an effort to avoid the incoming herds of American tourists or to go be nearer to the action for Saturday’s Six Nations rugby match between England and Ireland, or a bit of both. I can say that for the better part of the weekend, I’ve heard more American accents than Irish and it seems that the amount of Irish paraphernalia one wore (leprechaun hats, fake red beards, shamrock facepaint) was directly proportional to the distance they traveled to reach Dublin for the weekend. Many locals aren’t even wearing so much as a green top (ahem, Siobhán!), whereas the Americans in Ireland are decked out in full regalia (case and point: decked out tourists studying a map of Dublin).

Most of the expats also seem to be hosting American guests, and I’m no exception. My sister Helen, who is studying in London this term, and her college roommate Julie, who is spending a semester in Pamplona, both arrived to Dublin’s fair city on Thursday, ready to kick off the weekend of touring and celebrating our Irish heritage, and Helen brought along ‘lucky’ green shirts that my grandmother had sent along for us from the States to ensure that we were properly attired. In recent years, we’ve been able to spend the holiday with my grandparents in Florida over our college spring breaks, and even at 80+ years old, they never miss a chance to celebrate their Irish roots. As dutiful granddaughters, we promised to have a pint of the local brew for them.

Still, outside of city center and Temple Bar, my local pubs are packed and my accent is definitely the exception in this neighborhood – a much more local scene, and even if it's not quite the sea of green you'd find in city center, the locals are celebrating just as much as the tourists to be sure.

I’ll post more on our full weekend tomorrow, but for now, sláinte! Enjoy the day!

Eat, Drink, Be Merry, and Fight Polio

So after some fun travels around Ireland with my college roommate Elise over Reading Week, yesterday capped off the week with the Dublin Central Rotary Club’s President’s Gala Ball. I went to the reception hall early on Saturday morning to help put together the goody bags full of some pretty nice donated items, thinking that would be my contribution for the day, yet somehow before I left, the president had talked me into running the live auction that evening. He’s normally the one that runs it, but as president, had a speech to give already. Thank goodness for my years of training in public speaking from my mock trial coaches!

My dear friend Siobhán Brett accompanied me to the gala, and we had a grand time getting dolled up in advance (particularly when the cab driver rang the bell for us, sending the normally incredibly well-behaved dog I was caring for into hysterics as he tried his best to alert us of this visitor at the gate and we tried our best to keep the dog at bay while wearing stilettos and full-length dresses!), and nearly as much fun upon arrival attempting to explain to people how we knew each other: it makes complete sense that two girls who were born and (at least partially) raised in the US and now live in Dublin would have first met while living in the Netherlands, right?


Despite a lovely wine reception and dinner, I was still a bit nervous to take the podium for the auction during dessert – and not just because I was concerned about the fate of the delectable-looking Bailey’s cheesecake while I was away. Here I was at my first Ball, not even a Rotarian myself, speaking to a crowd of 150, many of whom had been regular attendees for years, trying to fill the shoes of a man with incredible stage presence at his own honorary event! Thankfully John, the emcee and one of the main organizers of the event, stayed up on stage to help me out and all in all I think we did pretty well together – plus the auction items were so great, they nearly sold themselves. And then the dancing began. It was definitely a fun and memorable night, but most importantly, the total amount raised on the night from ticket sales, raffle donations, and the live auction was about 6,000 euros – that’s nearly 20,000 polio vaccines for children worldwide.

In the words of Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.” Just imagine what a worldwide network of one million Rotarians can achieve!

The Rotary Foundation, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been a major contributor to the End Polio Now campaign to eradicate polio worldwide, and the vaccination efforts are producing real life-saving results. Just this week the World Health Organization officially removed India from the list of polio-endemic countries, leaving three countries left to tackle: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. But don’t be fooled, just three countries left is great, and worth celebrating, but that last 1% can be the hardest to eradicate as it just takes one case to re-infect a nation. To learn more about Rotary’s efforts and what you can do to help, click here: Polio Plus Campaign.