We had a great three-day weekend and it was much more laid back than I had planned, which was kinda nice. On Saturday, I went to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Galway with Erin and Aidan. It rained the entire day. Actually it rained the entire weekend, but that wasn’t enough to dampen our spirits.

Though rainy, the parade was about the best I’d ever been to, period. There were school marching bands, traditional dancers, fun-costumed dancers, Gaelic football clubs, hurling clubs, pipers, ethnic groups of Galway and of course St. Patrick himself and a few fun variations as well. There were only a handful of corporate sponsored floats which is how it should be. The only other St. Patrick’s Day Parade I have attended was in St. Louis and although it was large, it was mostly company sponsored groups dressed up in kitschy garb. I could definitely spot the American tourists a mile away since they were the only ones dressed in green leprechaun hats wearing t-shirts emblazoned with Kiss me, I’m Irish and shamrocks.

The crowd was quite large and estimated to be about 50,000, although it didn’t seem like that many. Maybe the rain forced all but the hard-core parade goers to the pubs to watch Ireland give Italy a pounding in rugby, only to see their hopes of winning the 6 Nations Rugby title dashed after Scotland allowed France to score at the end of the following game. I digress… It was a great parade and I highly recommend attending it next year if you can.

Since it rained all weekend, we were forced inside for most of it. We cooked great meals, drank plenty of Guinness and watched loads of movies. It was a great break before the last two weeks of classes. Off to finish my paper…

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I walked outside this morning and was inspired by the crisp and cloudy Spring St. Paddy’s Day eve (click on the photo to open the photoset in a new window). I decided that I was going to take some photos of the things that I walk by and take for granted. Galway is truly a beautiful city with so much to offer. I felt like a tourist in my own town (it’s still a little weird to think that I live here) and there are certainly plenty of tourists around this weekend. Erin’s parents are coming in a few weeks so I decided to brush up on some scenes of Galway. This post is dedicated to those who have visited us, those who plan to visit us, and those who won’t be able to visit.

I started off by taking a few shots of our flower boxes and pots. We also have a patio garden but not much is happening there right now, though I did plant some wildflower seeds last weekend so my son and I are keeping an eye out for little sprouts. Meanwhile back in the Midwestern US where we’re from, they are still recovering from a boatload of snow. Sorry guys!

I grabbed my bike and headed for Eyre Square, originally a jousting area outside the city walls of Medieval Galway, now the center of town with Kennedy Park in the center, named for JFK’s visit to Galway in 1963, flags of the crests of the original Galway tribes, and a cool metal sculpture representing the famous Galway Hooker fishing boat. I also grabbed a shot of the Skeffington Arms Hotel and Pub because the two flags of Ireland surrounding the flag of Galway were begging to be photographed as they flapped in the breeze on this Paddy’s Day eve. I hopped back on my bike and flew through the narrow streets passing the congestion with ease, thankful that I wasn’t bogged down by an internal combustion engine.

I made it to NUI Galway campus and had never noticed the color scheme of the flowers at the main entrance. Had these always been white and maroon, the school colors? As I said, it’s easy to take everyday things for granted. I some nice shots of the long row of daffodils with the Quad in the background before heading over there to get some artistic shots of the inside of the Quad as viewed from one of the sets of arches. Next, I headed to the other side of campus and rode along a path the follows the River Corrib upstream, past some castle ruins and then to the pitches where some footballers were practicing. I turned around since it was almost time for class and got some great shots of a massive field of daffodils on the back side of the Cairnes Graduate School of Business.

After class, I headed back into town to find the streets buzzing with tourists. I decided to take a few snaps of St. Nicolas Collegiate Church, supposedly the oldest building still in use in Galway dating from the 14th century. I also took a few shots of the street where the weekly farmers’ market is held next to the famous Sheridan’s Cheesemongers. One of the the best scenes I captured today was at The King’s Head pub, one of the oldest in Galway and my favorite place to grab a pint and catch some music. The back of the King’s Head is also about 50 metres from my apartment, nice eh? They were so stocked full of beer kegs for the big day tomorrow that they had no room to store them so the kegs were strewn about outside the front and the back of the pub. It was brilliant!

I proceeded down Buttermilk Lane and caught a few shots of An Taibhdearc, the national Gaelic theatre of Ireland. It’s just behind The King’s Head Pub and shows plays, musicals, and each fall, Music at the Crossroads, a fusion of modern and traditional Irish music. We saw this last September and it was amazing. Read more about An Taibhdearc on Wikipedia. Finally, I just had to get a shot of the Galway Head Store before heading home, just around the corner.

I plan to continue this series of taking snaps of scenes from Galway. So stay tuned!

This is what March is all about: spring, flowers, St. Patrick’s Day, and March Madness NCAA Basketball! One of the greatest college basketball programs, Duke, was knocked off in the first round of the tournament by little ‘ol Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). With 1.8 seconds left, Eric Maynor of 11th-seeded VCU sunk a jumper to beat the 6th-seeded Duke, 79-77. It’s so great to see these underdog stories that throw everybody’s bracket off. The people that usually win bracket pools are the ones that haven’t a clue about basketball.

Go Virginia Commonwealth and go Boilers (my team)! Finally, go Jackson St. so Purdue doesn’t have to play (as long as we get through Arizona first) 1st-seeded Florida. Here’s the 2007 NCAA Tournament Bracket so you can make some sense of all this and if you still need tickets, check out the auction below.

For March Madness this year I have to live vicariously through Mark, my father-in-law, but at least I have St. Paddy’s Day to be excited about!

I saw this great leprechaun on a poster on NUIG campus today that caught my attention. So, I thought I would give you a taste of St. Paddy’s Day events coming up in and around Galway with some fun facts about the holiday in general.

The leprechaun was advertising the Voluntary Services Abroad Céilí which takes place tomorrow at Cuba on Eyre Square. What’s a céilí, you ask? Well, it’s a Gaelic social dance that is popular especially around St. Paddy’s Day. The céilí is usually accompanied by a fiddle, flute, tin whistle, accordion, and bodhrán. The VSA céilí is on at Cuba Thursday, 15 March in Cuba at 8 pm for €5 with free admission to the nightclub after. Proceeds to benefit VSA in their mission of medical students that bring supplies to developing countries around the world. I plan to go because it supports a wonderful cause and sounds like great craic!

St. Paddy’s Day is celebrated all over the the world with parades, céilís, festivals, and drink. Here’s a sampling of what’s going on this week. Dublin will host over 200,000 people for it’s parade on Saturday but that’s only the icing on the cake. The official St. Patrick’s Day Festival in Dublin actually starts Thursday and will continue until the bank holiday on Monday the 19th. So much for St. Paddy’s Day, now it’s basically a week! Meanwhile, New York City lays claim to the largest St. Paddy’s Day parade in the world, which boasts 2 million spectators. To put that into perspective, that’s about twice the population of Dublin! I guess it makes sense considering so many Irish emigrated to NYC in the 19th and 20th centuries.

As for St. Patrick’s Day in Galway, there’s plenty in store. Some of my German friends are planning a pre-drinking brunch Saturday morning that “should soak up some of the booze 2 come” as one of them said in a text to me earlier today. Then, we’ll head into town for the parade which starts on the west side of the River Corrib and makes its way up Dominic St to Bridge St, up Mainguard then Shop St before finishing around Eyre Square. This parade is pretty impressive for a small city such as Galway, as it will attract over 50,000 spectators. That’s about 3/4 of the population of the city. The route will pass within one block of my apartment so I won’t need to go very far to be part of the action. Finally, the Town Hall Theatre Galway Céilí is on at 9 pm which will feature Breton and Irish Dancing.

So while you other Americans are pretending to claim Irish heritage on Saturday and think celebrating St. Paddy’s means turning Budweiser piss water green, I’ll be having a proper pint (pints) of Guinness and listening to some authentic Irish tunes.

Cead mile failte! One hundred thousand welcomes… With St. Patrick’s Day (actually it’s 5 days of partying) right around the corner on 17 March, I have been thinking a good deal about Irish culture lately. It’s also been awhile sense my last Irish culture post, so I’m long overdue.

I must say I’ve really been noticing the different accents lately. I’ve been in Ireland long enough to pick up some of the regional slang and such. For example, a friend from Dublin says he’s “going to get a bit ‘a kip,” meaning he’s going to go take a rest or nap at home. The Irish from Cork certainly sound different than the Galway Irish or those in Sligo or Donegal. Not all Irish drop the ‘h’ (or hay-ch, as they say) from ‘th’ words, as in “Tirty Tree Catedrals” or “Tirty Tree and a Tird.” Then there’s the insistence, usually by older ladies, as in “ahh, go on now,” when offering up some tea or biscuits. The extreme exaggeration of this can be found on any episode of Father Ted:

Mrs Doyle: “Would ya like more tea, Faaather?”
Fr Ted: “No thank you, Mrs Doyle”
Mrs Doyle: “Ahhh go on now.”
Fr Ted: “I reeeally shouldn’t Mrs Doyle, I’ve had 5 cups already.”
Mrs Doyle: “Ahh ya will Faaather.”
Fr Ted (giving up): “Ah, now that you mention it, I will have a bit of tea.”

Swearing

The Irish have a few tricks up their sleeves when it comes to swearing but still saying the actual curse word. Here’s one: “Jaysus! did you see that three-legged dog?!” Notice, it’s not really blasphemy since technically the word “Jesus” was not used. One of my favorite’s is feck. This is a word they can use on TV, or the telly if you prefer. Can you believe that a word only one vowel away for the king mother of all words is used on prime time television? It even sounds like the actual word if you’re not paying close attention in a passing conversation. It certainly caused my head to turn when I was walking along one day and one sweet old lady turns to another and when referring to a third woman they had been gossiping about says, “aw…she can just feck off!”

A few more examples…

When getting change at the corner shop, the woman gives you the change, smiles and says, “Now…” I guess this one is an affectionate, almost motherly goodbye, as if to say, “now…run along and play and play and be back in time for dinner.”

When someone is telling a story and they can’t think of the subject’s name as in: “I was talkin’ to yer man yesterday…”

Then there’s will I… as in “Will I get you a coffee?” and “Will I meet you for tea at 2 then?”

One of my favorites is the use of like. Americans do this all the time but the Irish have a bit of a different take by using it only at the end of a sentence. We might say, “then she was like ‘you did what?’ and he was all like ’sure did!’ Here’s the Irish version: “I live across from the college, like.” Or, my ultimate favorite: “It was great craic last night. Ya knooow, like?” I’m not sure this is just a Galway thing or a West Ireland thing, does anyone know? Leave your comments below, I’m dyin’ to knooow, like.

I hope you’re ready for St. Paddy’s Day!