How do Irish people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

As some of you may know, St. Patrick’s Day is a day when all the streets of Dublin are full of people in costumes and hats, raising glasses to the greatest Irish saint. Most of them are actually tourists from all over the world, but what about the real Dubliners and Irish? Do they mix with the crowd to celebrate St Patrick’s Day or do they prefer to do something else by themselves?

In order to answer that question, SEDA interviewed some Irish people. We found out that, indeed, this big event is much more for outsiders rather than the Irish themselves. But, how come? Irish people don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Something must be wrong! Check this out below:

By Lili Chatterbox

Caroline Campbell, an artist living in Dublin who works in cinema and film production said that all the cool Dubliners would avoid the city center on March the 17th:

“My friends and I may go to see the parade if the weather is good, but I would definitely avoid the big crowd on St. Patrick’s day. It’s a bit dangerous to get drunk with so many trouble makers around”, she said. “But, obviously, this is not a reason not to have some pints and celebrate somewhere else”, she added.

DRY ST PATRCK’S DAYDry

Despite the fact that most Irish would happily go for pints to celebrate pretty much anything, there are some who wouldn’t drink at all. Trust me, non-drinkers really do exist in Ireland and Brian Gallagher is one of those guys – drinking is definitely the last thing he would do to celebrate anything. So for him, Saint Patrick’s Day will be a family day at home. “Well, we don’t have any family traditions, but still the day shall not pass without being noticed,” he told SEDA. “Saint Patrick is a great historic character in our culture and I want my kids to recognize it. So, basically, my family and I would just have dinner together, maybe raise a glass for St. Patrick and watch the parade on the telly. But we don’t have special food for the occasion like on Christmas.”

MAD CROWDS

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Louise Condren also believes that it is important for her kids to know about Saint Patrick, his story and greatness so she bought them costumes and she will take the kids to see the parade “live”.

“I’m very concerned about the crowd, it might be a dangerous day in Dublin, so I wouldn’t take my eyes off my kids for a minute and after the parade is over I’ll certainly go for a few pints with my husband,” she said. “Although, I do remember when I was younger I’d take part in the crowd and get really drunk with my friends in town. It was fun days that I had back there. I mean, the best St. Patrick’s Day celebration I ever had I can’t even remember so drunk I was. (laughs)”

Gary Condren, her husband, added laughing: “What can I say? Saint Patrick did not end all the snakes in Ireland, I’m married to one!” He said it as a joke of course and he admitted that he bought a green hat for the occasion.

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