St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

So many people back in the U.S. expressed curiosity about how the Irish celebrate St. Patrick's Day we decided it was our duty to provide a first-hand account. A number of people, for example, told us they had heard the Irish don't celebrate it at all, or at least don't make as big a deal of it as Americans do. We also heard the parades here were made up mainly of American high school marching bands, and attended mainly by American tourists. With all that in mind, we headed out around noon on March 17th, and made the two mile walk from our apartment to St. Patrick's Cathedral, the end point of the parade. Here's our report:

First, let's be clear. St. Patrick's Day is a major national holiday in Ireland. It was made a national holiday in 1903, and it was placed on the liturgical calendar in the 1600s. So there's a long tradition, and it's an important day in the country. However, what seems to be more recent is the advent of festivals and parades associated with the day. These date to the 1990s, with the first official St. Patrick's Day festival occurring in 1996 - part of a government campaign to showcase and celebrate Irish culture. This year in Dublin the festival was three days long, possibly because St. Pat's was on a Monday. But starting Saturday, there were various events around the city, including an amusement park, music, tours, and, of course, an Irish Craft Beer and Food Market.

The big event was the parade on Monday. There was lots of talk about it on TV and in the newspapers. But I have to say that not a single Irish person we talked to said they would be attending. Still, when the day came we set out across the city to see what there was to see. 

Arriving at St. Patrick's Cathedral, I figured we needed one selfie with the cathedral in the background. 

The crowd seemed plenty big. The streets were lined many people deep on both sides. The papers next day estimated the crowd at half a million. That seemed plausible based on what we saw.

As we waited for the parade to begin passing by, we enjoyed the people-watching. The crowd was decked out in St. Pat's garb, with a particular focus on hats. We also noticed the number of children in the crowd. There was a clear sense of this being a family event, as opposed to an excuse for drunkenness (though we heard there was quite a crowd in the Temple Bar area later in the evening). Here are my favorite people shots.

The one additional observation we made was that a large percentage of the people we encountered did seem to be tourists. As we walked around we became conscious that almost every group of people we passed seemed to be speaking a language other than English. We saw only a few who seemed to be Americans.

So we'll end with one pair who we are quite certain are Americans. And I want to add that I'm including this photo under protest. Slan go foill! (Bye for now)