Not sure if this is GQ, IMHO, or CS…
I realized the other day that St. Patrick’s Day lands on a Friday this year. What are Irish Catholics doing about dining/drinking, since it lands on a Friday in Lent? Is it Fish instead of Corned Beef? Is the green beer being kept in the fridge until Midnight? Just curious what happens when the cultural and the religious collide.
Do you mean “Irish” as in Ireland, or “Irish” as in American Irish?
If the former, speaking from experience, the meat/fish thing is rarely observed, and the green beer thing never. People will eat what they normally do, except a lot will get really, really drunk. And they say “Paddy’s Day”, not “Pat’s”. Sorry to rain on your parade, so to speak. 
I gave up alcohol and french fries for Lent. Being Irish (as in, I was born and raised in Ireland by Irish parents) I don’t go much into the whole St. Patrick’s day nonsense.
That said, this Friday I have an event at a bar hosted by a bank followed by a nice meal at Fogo De Chao which is basically a brazillian steak-house with all the meat you can eat.
Erin Go Bragh or somesuch.
If by “Irish” you mean in Ireland - the feast of Saint Patrick on 17 March is celebrated as a solemnity in Ireland. Solemnities are the highest grade of feast in the liturgical calendar. The Lenten rules of fasting and abstinence are automatically waived on a solemnity.
It’s the same position in Australia as I noted in this earlier thread.
Cunctator, I remember your St. Patrick’s Day thread from last year! It’s too bad you and swampbear, here in the US, live so far apart. He’s not Catholic, but Episcopalian, but his congregation is named for St. Patrick. In fact, they are in the process of building a new church building, and will celebrate the saint’s day this year by holding a groundbreaking ceremony.
As an Epiccopalian myself I gave up meat for Lent, but I find it easier not to take advantage of feast days. For me it’s hard to “get back on the wagon” if I chow down on meat on a holiday. You should see me on Easter with the ham though! 
Sorry, I meant “Irish-American.”
Depends on the diocese. There’s a dispensation in mine whenever St Patrick’s ( and a couple of years ago , St Joseph’s) falls on a Friday in Lent.
It was announced at Mass today that Card. Egan had given dispensation to eat meat this Friday due to St. Patrick’s feast day.
Special dispensation to eat meat this Friday here in Chicago, too. You don’t even have to be Irish to qualify, I believe.
It’s fairly amusing given that corned beef a cabbage isn’t an Irish dish per se.
My hometown diocese (Altoona-Johnstown) has a dispensation in place for the 17th as well. I can’t find anything definite for my current diocese (Harrisburg), but there are a few notices of corned beef and cabbage dinners sponsored by the Knights of Hibernia and other religious fraternals on the diocesan website, so I’m guessing there’s one in effect.
We’re all really busy making sure out Jewish and Muslim neighbors aren’t eating any pork, and we’re making sure our Protestant neighbors put too much salt and mayo on everything.
Since this is less about cooking and more about a question of religious observance, I’m going to move this to GQ.
When I was a kid in New York, whenever St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Friday, the bishop would always give an exemption for Irish families like mine to have corned beef and cabbage.
Personally, I’ve always HATED corned beef and cabbage. On any other Friday during Lent, we used to get a cheese pizza, which I liked much better! So, I never appreciated the bishop bending the rules!
Bishop Wurhl wouldn’t give one here in Pittsburgh-he said it wasn’t a good enough reason. Greensburg got one, though, as long as they make it up on another day.
Oh well, even when I was a practicing Catholic, I’ve never liked corned beef.
When I was very small (the Kennedy administration), meat was banned on every Friday in the year. I remember the dispensation for St. Joseph’s Day, but never knew why. So “fish on Friday” was the rule in our house all the year round. My three-year-old intellect deduced the obvious causality when my Mom would fry fish every Fryday, which explained the name of the day.
I’m Irish. “Rugadh mé agus aran mé” in Ireland. I have never, ever, ever had cornbeef and cabbage. Bacon and cabbage yes, cornbeef and cabbage no. I’m a vegetarian now so it hardly matters much.
As for no meat on a Friday, I’m sure that some people still observe that here, but not many people.
The Diocese of Lexington, Ky., has also been given the bishop’s OK to eat meat. This is the first time I’ve ever noticed a bishop doing such a thing. Not that I would eat corned beef and cabbage anyway.
It can depend where in New York you live – even within the “five boros” of NYC. A few years back I remember there was a mini-brouhaha the last time St. Patrick’s fell on a Lenten Friday, the Archbishop of New York (out of St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Ave.) issued the “usual” dispensation, but the one in charge of Brooklyn refused (which is apparently a separate diocese – I’m not Catholic so forgive me if my terminology is off). I think the reason cited was because most of the Catholics in Brooklyn are Italian or Hispanic.
The Bishop of Arlington (Virginia), Paul S. Loverde, has issued a dispensation: