I call my mom. It’s her birthday.
We’re having a get together at my place in Brighton(Boston) about noon. Maybe start out with some Irish Coffee ,then go bar hopping at all the Irish Pubs in and around Boston. Probably starting at the Irish Village since it’s couple hundred yards down the street from home. I’ll probably even see some of you dopers at some bar even if I have no idea who you are. Anyways, Happy St. Patricks Day.
This year I am going to see Hot Water music, Leatherface, and small brown bike and drink a whole lots of Guiness.
I’m going to Gunther Murphy’s for some Guinness, to see my Irish friends and hear some fantastic music…I just heard that Larry Nugent may be playing with Aidan O’Toole, Kevin Moran, and Brendan Bolger…it should be incredible!
So, lots of Irish music…just like always for me!
I always send a card to my oldest nephew, he’ll be 21 this year.
This year, I’m also cohosting a Dopefest Picnic!
Usually we go to a pub that has a live Irish folk band, but we celebrated my brother’s wedding last weekend, and it turned into a ceiligh. I’m not fully recovered yet. Did you know you can turn a pizza box into a decent bodrahn? (Apologies if I misspelled the Gaelic - I’m a Yank.)
Black Bush is better than Bushmill’s. And don’t EVER let anyone decorate your Irish coffee with creme de menthe! Ew.
I make corned beef & cabbage with potatoes, onions, carrots, and turnips; and beets on the side, with pumpernickel to soak up the juices. Yum. I learned to make it in self-defense, since my mother-in-law (Boston Irish) believes that the only good vegetable is one that’s been cooked into mush. Now I cook dinner and invite her.
I’m going to sneak in to the kid’s bathroom early tomorrow and put green food coloring in the toilet. Wish I’d heard about that years ago!
Being of Hispanic origion and being born and raised here in Central California in a community 70% Hispanic, St. Patrick’s Day isn’t something I celebrate. I do own a button that states “Do I look Irish to you?” My olive-complexion does not support my wearing green clothing and I would object strenuously to being pinched. Kisses, however…
I’m going to my cousin’s Bat Mitzvah.
Really.
I hope they have plenty of beer at the bar.
Me, I’m going to play hopscotch over the puddles of vomit and beerpiss that will litter the streets around my NYC apartment.
All the drunken Irish dipshits – and the wannabe non-Irish dipshits – who think that just because it’s some moronic holiday they have the right to turn my neighborhood into their pukebucket should be have their lips KrazyGlued to a beer tap while I hold the handle down until their kidneys burst inside their still-living bodies. Stupid fuckers.
(BTW, the same holds true for the slobs who participate in the Puerto Rican Day Parade too.)
Boiled Dinner and Irish Soda Bread but no alchohol here (sorry). Dyed the coffee green this morning though. 
We live on a hill. We have a lightening rod. I have placed a old copper leprechaun on top of the pole. Tonight the storm…tomorrow? Who knows.
Oh, yeah…loved the bit on TV about super heating water in microwaves. Really thought they’d supply a few more hints.
Mama Maroon is a McGregor
Also known as the Fool on the Hill
I do EXACTLY the same thing–orange and green ribbons! Here’s to an independent, united, peaceful Ireland in my lifetime. Raise your glasses to that salute, lads and lassies, and include all the other divided homelands while your at it. May they all find peace.
Well, the thunder and lightening is gone and so is my copper leprechaun. There was no loud boom or anything exciting so I suspect my husband is protecting the world and our neighborhood and removed the ugly little twist.
My reasoning was right wasnt it? a copper leprechaun should have been irrisitable to lightening.
Oh, well, back to the microwave.
Mama Maroon
Living in L.A., we don’t have a lot of Irish-themed pubs. The parade went for about two blocks downtown, on a Friday noon when nobody with a job could come except downtown employees. (Of course, they did have The Young Dubliners. Sure woulda liked to see 'em.)
So we make it a family occasion. I go over to see Da and Step-Ma, and we have a feast. Since I’m the only one of us three who has any Irish, and I’ve only been there once, we improvise. Corned beef and cabbage, of course. Mashed potatoes. This year we had roast chicken too. Soda bread and real Irish butter (doesn’t turn liquid when it’s hot, doesn’t go rock-solid when it’s cold). Since we are big believers in Irish unity, in the spirit of Wolfe Tone and Charles Parnell, we always add a little something orange. This year it was baby carrots in the salad. And top it all off with green cheesecake and shamrock-shaped chocolates from See’s. 
And then we sing, accompanied by guitar, flute and piano. My cousin, the Irish-American priest, is much better than me on guitar, so we tolerate his horrid faux Irish accent. All the good auld songs: pub favorites like “Molly Malone” and “Wild Rover.” Serious ones like “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye” and “The Praties.” Patriotic ones like “Foggy Dew” and “God Save Ireland” and “Bold Fenian Men.” Non-Irish favorites like “The Drunken Sailor” and “Scarborough Fair” and “Amazing Grace.” We try to save “Danny Boy” for the last, or until the first guest gets ready to leave. Since you can’t fully discuss Irish culture without mentioning American culture, this year we did American songs too: “Goodnight Irene” and a bunch of old union and hobo songs and all my favorites from “O Brother Where Art Thou?”
I try to provide a running socio-historical commentary to put the songs into context, which not everyone appreciates. (What is it with some people wanting to be cheerful all the time?) That’s the beauty of home celebrations, you can’t get tossed out for too much seriousness like you would be from a pub.
Lately we’ve been inviting more people every year, including neighbors and more distant relatives. For us, it’s never been about the alcohol and it’s always been about the music (and food). But we do stock Guinness, which remains mostly un-drunk by the end of the evening.