Lá ’le Pádraig

Hello all, and happy belated St. Patrick's Day! The day in Northern Ireland was by far the best March 17th I have yet experienced. It’s an official holiday in the Republic and a bank holiday up here, so all of team Belfast (minus Jordan, poor guy) were graciously given the day off work. What did we do with our day of freedom and celebration, you ask?

While 6 of our flatmates opted to stay close to home for the parade and festival in Belfast, Brie and I decided head down to Downpatrick in Cty. Down to watch the parade and visit the gravesite of St. Patrick himself (“How very Irish of you,”said our friend Martin). At noon, we caught a cab from Stranmillis to the Days Hotel to pick up Brie’s dad and aunt who are in town for a few days. Unfortunately, there was a minor delay on the way.

As we were cruising down Malone Road, our cab driver was in the middle of making a joke about growing up in Belfast when suddenly I felt like I just got punched in my left arm. Startled, I looked out the window and realized I was staring into the face of another driver. Yes, our cab had gotten T-boned and I am THANKING MY LUCKY STARS the other driver was probably only going about 10 mph. I am quite ashamed to say that I didn’t bother to put my seatbelt on for the 5 minute ride, and I probably would have spent my St. Patrick’s day in a hospital bed had the other driver been going any faster. Our cab driver was absolutely fuming, as many of the taxis here are the driver’s own cars (this was the case in this situation). He made Brie and I scribble down our information, called another cab for us, and within five minutes we were back on our journey. Sort of surreal. But anyway. My first car accident (I’m not surprised it happened in Belfast), and we can luckily walk away with no apparent injuries. THANK GOODNESS.

After picking up Brie’s family, all of us took the hour-long trip on the Ulsterbus together. We knew we had arrived in Downpatrick within seconds, as the streets were flooded with people and music was blaring out of every car and shop. Despite the fact this is the burial site of St. Patrick, I was still quite surprised to find that any tri-colours present were few and far between. There were a lot of folks sporting green and wearing shamrocks, but I guess the Irish flag is just too big of a political statement even on St. Patty’s day. Sigh. Jordan (our flatmate who had to work) actually was given the job to walk in the parade in Belfast and take away tri-colours he saw. So sad. Despite, there was still a sense of Irish pride among everyone. The day was great-fabulous parade, tasty lunch in town, visiting the grave, witnessing a fight on the bus home, etc. Just the usual.

After returning home and a brief nap, the group went back out around 9:00 to a local pub. The streets were absolutely packed, and I have to say I’m surprised no one got seriously injured with things like this going on:

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/12-arrests-after-south-belfast-rioting-14231214.html

Calm yourself, Belfast. It’s all good craic-there’s no need to throw bottles at police officers.

All in all: Good parade, good food, good friends, good spirit in the air, not-so-good car accident. I’d rate the day a 9.
I’ll add some pictures later.

Slán
-k.g.