Irish American girl compares St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin to New York City

Differences and similarities between the two city’s celebrations - from the overrated to messy drunks

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KERRY O'SHEA,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

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Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Temple Bar, Dublin in 2010

Photo by Google Images

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Without fail, St. Patrick’s Day always draws moans and groans about what city is the best place to celebrate the day. Many say Dublin is overrated, while others point to New York City as a despicable mess of drunks.

I had the opportunity to spend the past two St. Patrick’s Days in Dublin - 2010 for my semester abroad, and 2011 for my spring break trip. Certainly, there are differences between being there on March 17th, and being here in New York City.

One of the biggest differences is, of course, that St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland is an official holiday, meaning that majority of offices and schools are closed. And what do you get when you close work for a holiday? A big party night the night prior to the actual holiday.

Much to the disappointment of many people across the country, the US doesn’t recognize St. Patrick’s Day as an official holiday. That, however, has not deterred people from celebrating. And this year, with St. Patrick’s Day falling on a Saturday, there is sure to be a marked increase in the number of those people choosing to join in the festivities.

I was pleasantly surprised to see March 16th in Dublin was a lively night in 2010, despite it only being a Tuesday. (Is there such thing as a not lively night in Dublin, though?) But, with a lively night in Dublin city comes a sore head the next morning.

Nothing a little hair of the dog couldn’t cure, starting at 9am.

After dousing our pained heads, we walked over to O’Connell Street to catch the tail-end of the parade. Then, it was a traditional Irish meal for lunch (Supermac’s) before having naps to get ready for the evening of pints at The Brazen Head, which felt slightly removed from the madness of Temple Bar.

For our return trip in 2011, we felt like practiced pros at St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin. (Well, not completely I suppose as there were still some sore heads on St. Patrick’s Day morning again.) We settled in at our local from the year before for rounds of Bulmers and Carlsbergs to fix us up on St. Patrick’s Day morning.

While we had the best intentions to head down to O’Connell Street to watch the parade, we found ourselves fairly comfortable in our cozy pub, and opted to watch the parade on television there instead.

It was over pints that morning that we began to notice one of the primary differences between the American and Irish St. Patrick’s Day celebrations - the contrast in the parades.

In New York City, the parade features mostly traditional Irish groups. Irish dancers, Irish music groups, all the county associations, etc make up the NYC St. Patrick’s Day parade, as well as the other major cities’ parades across the country.

In Dublin, however, there is definitely a more modern interpretation of Irish culture and arts, one that wouldn’t be found on the whole in the New York City parade. Artistic floats and bright colors - not the overwhelming green and Aran sweaters of New York City - make their way down O’Connell Street.

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