How did you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 11:15 am

Nothing different. Just a lovely evening at home. I made steak, garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli with parmesan.

And I played a Hammy flute and a little blackbird whistle all day.

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 1:16 pm

Bought camera equipment on eBay!

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 1:23 pm

Well, I have to start by saying that, lovely as it is, Santa Cruz is a rotten place to spend St. Patrick's Day. The only so-called "Irish" pub in town served green beer and corned beef (how frickin "Oirish" can you get?), and had only jazz as its musical offering (jazz is fine, but in an "Irish" pub on St. Patrick's Day????).

I did, however, have a great day. First, my new whistle came (Sweetheart Pro), and I had a lovely time getting to know it. Second, I got to spend quite a lot of time on the Irish Translation Forum, which is always interesting and fun. And third, I got to sing with my old choir, which was a pleasure beyond imagining! So dismal "official" offerings aside, I figure I had a pretty happy St. Patrick's Day!

Redwolf

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 3:23 pm

JessieK wrote:Nothing different. Just a lovely evening at home. I made steak, garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli with parmesan.

And I played a Hammy flute and a little blackbird whistle all day.

Jessie: I still remember your review of the LonDubh and it caused my Whoa to itch like crazy.

Is that your favorite whistle these days?? Now that you have had it for quite a while, do you think you could point out two superlatives: it's greatest strength and greatest weakness?

OnTheMoor · Post by **OnTheMoor** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 4:01 pm

The entire city was out for St.Patrick's Day this year, not expected or appreciated by me. Went to my favourite pub and there was a 2 hour line-up! There's nothing worse than discovering that "your" pub has become a popular hang-out. So we stood around like idiots from 5:30 to 7:30 on a very chilly March Evening for Ottawa (which is, indeed, chilly). I wasn't happy since I had been looking forward to a bowl of their stew all week with a nice pint of Guinness before the crowds showed up. Worth it when we got in, 2 fun bands (it's called The Irish Village, has 4 pubs at the moment, all connected), although I only actually saw one since the real trad band was blocked by a throng of people. Mostly we were confined to the downstairs pub, which was nice because it had an open fire and wasn't quite as crowded as the other bars. All in all, a fun night with the usual 5th Generation North American Macho frat boys who will constantly, and angrily, proclaim that they are Irish all bleeding night.

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 4:25 pm

We went to the parade in Luton (UK) on Sunday. Unfortunately had to work on St Paddy's day proper.

rebl_rn · Post by **rebl_rn** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 5:31 pm

Didn't do much on St. Patrick's Day proper other than play Irish music all day at work (and for once people asked me to turn it up rather than down). I did go on Tuesday night to see the Makem Brothers with the Spain Brothers over in Stoughton - a great show (even though there wasn't any whistle) and the Stoughton Opera House is the coolest little place! I had never been there before.

Anyway, we had our annual family St. Patrick's Day gathering on Sunday at my parents' house, and my mom (who is an incredible cook) made the obligatory corned beef and cabbage along with Irish lamb stew, soda bread, potato bread, carrots, potatoes, and for dessert Irish cream pie (yummy!), Irish mint cake and Irish brownies. It was a fun day of family and food, even though the whole family didn't make it this year.

Beth

Peach · Post by **Peach** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 5:38 pm

Lucky me, I had the day off! So after a nice fresh cup of coffee, I went to shovel out -(we had snow the night before). A warm, candle lit bubble bath was enjoyed in the afternoon, before heading out for my gig. (the relaxation prior was to balance what was to come...)
I played at a local Irish pub in Worcester Ma, called O'Connor's. Great place! Wonderful people! And crowded??? Lines three and four deep waiting over two hours! But, since I was with the band....
We started playing at about 4pm and didn't wrap up until 11:15pm. A few mishaps, but overall a fantastic time!
To be able play a gig on St Pat's day was awesome!

Peach

Matan · Post by **Matan** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 4:06 am

St. Pat was a lovely day, i came back from a night shift at work. went through the post office and got my new whistles, went to sleep.

I woke up, grabed some lunch and went out to the local Irish Pub called "Molly Bloom's". i got there early (around 21:15) so my friends and I were able to find a place to sit.

We listend to the band (appropriatly called "Black Velved") and danced around.
at one point the band took a break so we filled up the vacum, we started to sing a song that goes: "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly, I dont know why she swallowed a fly, I geuss She'll die..." and it wasnt long before the whole pub was singing with us

. after that we sang "allways look on the bright side of life", and then the band returned so we thought it would be a good idea to let them play..

the place was awsomly packed, the whole street outside was filled with people who didnt even try to get in.
well, well 5 hours and 5 pints later, we went home.

maybe i'll put some pics up once i get them back.

dlovrien · Post by **dlovrien** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 12:06 pm

I had a chance to sub in on whistle with a local band (Gallus) playing at MacHenry's pub in Ft. Worth - my first Irish pub gig! It was a blast.

I still have to use printed music to get me through the reel and jig sets, but I hung in there pretty well I think. They had also begged me to bring my sax (my main instrument) which I played on a few tunes... mostly the songs, but I also played "Julia Delaney" on it and everybody dug it.

We did several standard Irish drinking songs too and had everyone singing along. Good time had by all.

- David

Ro3b · Post by **Ro3b** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 1:04 pm

We played at a party at the Irish Embassy. Bertie Ahern was the guest of honor; Ted Kennedy and George Mitchell were also there, along with a whole bunch of Washington power-elite types I recognized but couldn't name. It was an enormous crowd, and nobody could hear us, but oh, the elbows we rubbed.

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 1:22 pm

Not so fast Robbo. YOU GOTTA tell us what Teddy was up to!!!!! Did he still have his pants on? Cmon details, details!

johnkerr · Post by **johnkerr** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 1:26 pm

Ro3b wrote:Ted Kennedy and George Mitchell were also there.

George Mitchell, the new chairman of Disney? Did you and Philippe wear your green Mickey Mouse ears in honor of the occasion? Inquiring minds want to know...

Seth · Post by **Seth** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 2:25 pm

I had a great St. Patrick's day,

My band had the early show at a local bar called The Dubliner. Tom, the owner, rented a huge pavillion tent and it was completely packed. Tom wanted us to go on at 5:30, but at 5:00 the place was still all but empty and I began to worry . Fifteen minutes later however, the tent was full enough that I had to literally push my way from the back to the stage. The show went pretty well with only one exception, our guitar player restringed his axe before the show with some apparently bad quality strings, and he broke two in four songs. We started in on an acapela set while he fixed things, and after that smooth sailing.

Some of my bandmates were miffed about getting the early show. They felt that we would have done better as a headliner rather then an opener. Personally, I loved having the early show. We headlined last year and it was a tough, very late night (possibly because we had two shows last year which meant 6-7 hours of straight performance). But this year we were done at 8:30 and got to enjoy listening to music and relaxing the rest of the night. Overall I liked the early start much better.

Seth

Chiff and Fipple Forums

How did you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

I played my first Irish pub gig!