Traveling seeker in British Isles

3-17-06
 

   Today I find myself up at 7:30AM with the feeling like Christmas’s of the past.  I’m anxious and excited about the events of the day!
 
  Today is my FIRST St. Patty’s Day to be celebrated in Ireland.  Even though everyone says that St. Patty’s day in Ireland is really a holy holiday and is NOT anything like St. Patrick’s Day in America- from what I have been seeing, that is not completely true.
 
  I have seen and felt a HUGE energy shift in this wonderful little town of Westport.  All the colorful slices of shops that devour the 3 or 4 streets of Westport have window displays that are dominated by the “green”.  In windows are green balloons, and shamrocks, cardboard cut outs of leprechaun’s and dolls dressed in shamrock finest.
 
 Added in, the array of silly things that are sure fire hits with the tourists that can’t wait to buy useless items just because it has the Westport name and photo’s on them, like, huge pencils, shot glass’s, coasters, linen hanging things, walking sticks, dolls, pipes, coffee mugs and anything else some company makes to take the expendable income of tourists- you find it in the stores of Westport.
 
  I witnessed the “changing of the postcards” which are in EVERY store.  For the last 2 months I have see the rained on, the wind blown, the bent corners of the postcards on the ¾ empty racks that are a staple in the shops and hanging on the doors.  But in the last week they have been replaced with fresh ones with wonderful color but are photos that have been taken in the last decade – but never get old to the tourists that flood this magical place.
 
I saw the installation of the colorful flowers that are planted in the ground around the Octagon and the Clock tower that welcome the hordes of tourist that have begun the decent on Westport for the “downing of the Shamrock” – which is what the locals refer to on this most holy day.
 
  The shops in the town close down on this “bank holiday”.  The only places that are open are the restaurants and the pubs and OF COURSE the newsagents of whom I work for!!?!?!?! 
 
I, Kym McBride who has never worked or gone to school on St. Patties day – HAS TO WORK ON ST. PATTY’S DAY IN IRELAND!!!!  Do you too see the ironicness of this?  It is NOT lost on me.

 
  The Church’s also have one of their busiest of days.  The Catholic church-, which is THE church of Saint Patrick, will be packed to the rafters with God Fearing People paying homage to the Saint that saved Ireland so many years ago.  I will be sure to take a few photos of Croagh Patrick the holy mountain of this most dedicated man on his most important day.
 
  I have witnessed the transformation of this sweet little town that has a magic all it’s own every day, but today is a turned up and louder energy.  There is a bigger spring in the locals steps, the local school children are getting ready to dance their little hearts out at the clock tower, the Octagon is slated to have Irish music a few hours before the big St. Patrick’s Day parade that will close off the streets of Bridge and James. 
 
  The weather is to be cold but dry – which was acknowledge with a huge sigh of relief considering that we had a hale storm just yesterday!
 
  The parade start time seems to be a bit of a debate depending on whom you ask.  I have heard disappointment that it is schedule for later in the day, when it has always been after the high mass (which I have taken to thinking is noon or 1 o’clock.  But I have heard that it is to take place at 3 or ½ 3 (3:30 to you Yanks!)  So I am in the dark as to the actual time of the proceedings – but IF I am still working at that time…I will not care, for I will be an excited little child with my camera in my hand and looking out the shop window for the first ray of color to make it’s way up the Bridge street.
 
  My employer, Margaret has been a bit reluctant to give me a list of my hours this week.  Well, reluctant may not be the best description for it has been an unusual week for this little newsagent store.  For we were robbed this past weekend (YES!  Even in Ireland!)  On early Sunday AM (12:05AM- to be exact) our cameras recorded the removal of every cigarette in the store, all the instant lottery scratch off’s and a very educated removal of the sterling silver photo frames (that I myself didn’t know we had) and a little bit of cash in the register to start the next day.  They then proceeded to the meat market next door and took the few bits of cash in their register and hit 2 other shops.  All while the 70 odd pubs were closing and the streets were full of drinking Irishmen.
 
  So it has been a week of Gardi (police) in the shop and poring over shop camera tapes with the conclusion that it was a gang of locals.  Which is a big switch from America, which would blame it on the blacks.  And I was quite relieved to NOT hear it was the “foreigners” that I am now a part of.
 
  Our plans of the day, so far – but can change on a dime, for the Irish family on this side of the pond is VERY much like the Irish family on the other side- plans can easily change.  Cousin Geralyn and Aunt Teresa will come into town for the parade for I will be there already.  Who else, I don’t know.  Laura (Geralyn’s 17 year old “beautiful” daughter) is slated to be one of the dancers at the Clock tower.  I know that even workaholic cousin Liam and Sean are not working today. (It MUST be a HOLIDAY!) Sean and his wife Shona (yes – that is her name) and their 3 boys are leaving for Spain for a well-deserved holiday on Saturday, so I don’t know if we will be seeing them on this holiest of days.  Maybe Liam and Mary will join us for the parade. (I say US, because I am PRAYING that I will be allowed to leave by 3 or ½ 3 today! (I start at 1PM- just replacing for lunches). And I have NO idea what Anthony is up to!
 
  Geralyn is taking the reins on this day.  She starts off with “what do you want to do Kym? – Which I tell her I want to be in the pubs all day before and after the parade and she promptly tells me “no” you can have one pint before the parade then we will come home, change our outfits and then go out about 8 or 9PM for music. No real Irishman goes out before that!” 
 
   Geralyn is a FASHION nut! Yes she is thin, beautiful and has the most amazing personality and confidence and can carry off ANY outfit they make – but she is a HIGH MAINTENANCE kind of girl- and her looks are all important to her.  And for some CRAZY thing, she thinks I give a HOOT about fashion.  She doesn’t realize that I have a TOTAL of 5 outfits to my name- and they are all in Black and Browns!  So “changing” from one black or brown outfit to the other isn’t all that important to me! 
 
Just this week I was walking past her shop and waved and she called me in.  She said that she is “making me a scarf!” and made me look through all the wool in the shop.  She hates my black and brown scarf that a friend made for me just for the trip.  She wants to see “color” on me!  So I picked out this wild lime green with bits of other color here and there and she said “NO”.  So I himed and hawed over the “allowed” colors and didn’t like any of them.  She then picked up the very first one that I had picked and said “What about this one?”  I told her that was the first one I picked and she said, “No, you didn’t”.  I really didn’t care one way or another at this point – so she said ok to it and I will some day have a colored scarf that might make Geralyn happy.  (She really is a sweetheart- even though this makes her sound very controlling and me very wimpy)
 
  Geralyn has NO IDEA how to do St. Pat’s day!  In AMERICA, we start out at 10:30 AM and make our way to our first bar.  Have a few, it’s a bit of a slow start, we are just priming the pipes at this point.  We are working our way up from American beer to having the token “Guinness or Green Beer” later in the day.  Then we meet up with the conservative’s of the family (the ones that aren’t drinking their breakfast) and we make our way downtown to the parade location. We make the most important decision of the day, which is where to park the cars on the hopes of finding them many drinking hours later (don’t worry, we have designated drivers!)  We then go into a VERY packed lunch crowd in the local downtown taverns for a cold one.  We then make our way to the area and bar that is at the start of the parade.  We love to see all the soon-to-be-drunk fireman and policeman that are priming themselves for the long cold walk down the parade route.  To see that mass of men in uniforms is a long-standing tradition in our family (uniform EYE CANDY). On this holiest of days, EVERYONE is Irish and add an O’ to their name.
  We have stocked the kid’s backpacks, purses, coat pockets, strollers, baby bags and anything else that we can with beer and cups. (Your not allowed to have open cans on the city streets).  We scope out the best place to see the parade with the final decision made by the “king of St. Pat’s parade”, Uncle Joe.  Uncle Joe ALWAYS works on St. Pat’s day and somehow he always seems to find a way to leave early.  We can’t figure out why he doesn’t take the whole day off, but he always works the morning and then meets up with us or makes us stop what we are doing and pick him up.  But he and my Aunt Gail are the two people that have insisted that we GO TO THE PARADE.  So we do, it breaks up the drinking and torments us with either peeing outside or finding a bathroom, but we do it.  Then we fight for a way to find the traditional Corn Beef dinners or sandwich’s to hold us over till we get out of town!  We find our cars, make our way OUT of downtown, because it is NUTS- and we make our way out to the suburbs. We go to ANY bar that has GREEN and an Irish name and FOOD, we eat, drink and talk.  Some years we have played scavenger hunts that have brought out the competitiveness in EVERYONE of us – but the Mahoney’s have usually found a way to con or trick or steal their way to winning the main prizes! (They are the MOST competitive of all our families!) And one year we even had an Irish mock wedding because Joey and Amy Mahoney got married and didn’t have the big wedding, so we had one in the bar.  Then people start going home- little by little till only the diehard’s of us remain.  But we soon give up the fight and go home to fall into the drunken stupor of a sleep and it’s only 7PM!  NOW THAT’S A SAINT PATTY’S DAY IN AMERICA!  Geralyn has NO idea!
 
OH!  I have to give you this tidbit of information: and it will blow your mind!

          THEY DO NOT EAT CORN BEEF IN IRELAND!!!!!!!
 
          THEY EAT Bacon AND CABBAGE!?!?!?!?!?!?!? (Salted Ham to Yanks!)

Joey Mahoney cried over this bit of MYTH blowing (me too.) It turns out that corn-beef is a salt laden, cured piece of beef and it is considered a very cheep piece of meat.  When the Irish came over to America they had NOTHING and the Jew’s told them about this cheep piece of meat and they started to eat it and so it is IRISH-AMERICANS who took this up as there own tradition!! Does this no freak you out?
          Think about that as you eat the AMAZING and GOOD Corn-beef sandwich that I CAN’T get in Ireland.  (I am salivating as I write this!)  Please someone send me a corn beef sandwich!!!!
 
(Note: Corn beef in a “spiced-beef” that is usually gotten for the Christmas meal – it is not well liked, but it is a tradition like “fruit cake” in our country – and like fruit cake, it isn’t eaten much…but another thing – they LOVE fruit cake in this country and eat it throughout the year!! Yuck!) (Teresa said that in Ireland everyone is a 1/2 a fruit cake and in America they are full fruit cakes!- She’s just tak’en the mic on us as usual!)

So now I have to get up and get dressed to GO TO F’N WORK and hope I can get out to celebrate.  I can’t wait to see how this day unfolds.  New country, new culture, new St. Patty’s day. (Maybe I can find a nice Irish man tonight- on this holist of nights! But hopefully he won’t be in is 80’s!)
 
I’ll let you know what happens! (Did you doubt it?)
 
Love you all- And a VERY Happy St. Pat’s day to you all!
 
Kym O’McBride
 

Tags: food, Ireland, St. pat's day, Travel, westport

This entry was posted on Friday, March 17th, 2006 at 5:31 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.