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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Anger over Walmart selling drunken leprechaun wine for St.Patrick's Day

Posted on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 02:26 PM

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Walmart is marketing drunken leprechaun wine to their customers this St.Patrick’s Day.

The white wine bottles replete with a drunken leprechaun ready to swig from the bottle are on sale in their stores. This photograph was taken in Albuquerque New Mexico by Trish Meyer, originally from Dublin.

She sent in the above photograph with her comments.

She writes "I complained to Walmart about their "Happy St. Patrick's Day" wine - featuring a drunken leprechaun and a pot of gold (see image attached). She has yet to receive a response.

She writes "They wouldn't think of putting a sombrero on Our Lady of Guadalupe to celebrate Mexican heritage, so why is it's okay to associate our patron saint with leprechauns?

She stated the wine was for sale near the entrance and looked like "cheap plonk"

In her letter to Irishcentral she stated "I'm fine with using such imagery on "Celebrate Being Irish" hats and tees and so on, but the icon for St. Patrick should be a simple shamrock, which ties into how he explained the Holy Trinity to the native Irish. (The marketing arm at Guinness just uses an understated Shamrock.)

Am I the only Irish person who is annoyed that companies just want to make money off our Irish heritage while not having the first clue as to how to do it with respect?"

No Trish I don't think you are the only Irish person who feels that way but it is all too common around this time of year.

I'm just surprised that Walmart is buying into it as well

Maybe they should change their motto to 'everyday low standards.'

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GeorgeDillon | Mar 17, 2011, 07:48 AM EDT

Haikued: Looks like you may need to go back to Reading Class. I'll spell it out for you, though really I shouldn't. I made no reference to Guinness advertizing. I condemned Irish Central for giving free publicity to a drive to sell nore alcohol. Get the difference? Why can't you ever get even the simplest things right? You really shouldn't post here till your literacy skills improve.

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sirpeter | Mar 16, 2011, 10:25 PM EDT

The stories I grew up with, leprechaun's were happy,jolly little shoemakers.Harmless and if you caught one you got his pot of gold. Then Hollywood made them into serial killers in the horror movies and now they are drunken leprechaun's. Why does somebody have to turn everything into sh*t.

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KLennox | Mar 16, 2011, 09:16 PM EDT

To RebelForce and others: SPD isn't ON it's way to being a day of drunkenness and stupidity - it's been there for decades. That said, it isn't the media, it's ignorant Americans, mainly, who don't get it about anything. [I am an American. ...] They claim anything as an excuse to do what they always do: behave badly. These same people would get drunk and stupid no matter what. They also celebrate Samhain as "Halloween" that Anglicized bastardization of a previously sacred day and just, generally, make bad decisions about life. None of this means I excuse the unthinking, beer-swilling [or rather, warm urine-like libations] lumps are really a waste of oxygen, no matter what they're doing. Slainte - Happy Saint Patrick's Day from America

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Gearoid4 | Mar 16, 2011, 08:39 PM EDT

begorrah sorr! It's what St Pat's day is all about!

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srdools | Mar 16, 2011, 08:38 PM EDT

What if walmart sold a tee-shirt that read;"I love watermelon" targeting blacks ? what would happen then?

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srdools | Mar 16, 2011, 08:34 PM EDT

Walmart also sells tee-shirts that read; "hooligan" and "I love beer" all green and ready for SAINT SAINT SAINT Patrick's day.

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jacersagain | Mar 16, 2011, 07:30 PM EDT

Niall, forget aabout drunk leprechauns tomorrow and think banshees. America’s NBC station, as part of their “Destination Truth” series, will broadcast live from Duckett’s Grove Castle in Co. Carlow, Ireland, as they film the night-time goings-on there, hoping the Castle’s banshee makes an appearance. You can watch it live on the internet at (wx3)syfy(dot)com/destinationtruth from 6pmEST.

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jamieLM | Mar 16, 2011, 06:53 PM EDT

The labels were probably Made In China.

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reader1 | Mar 16, 2011, 05:46 PM EDT

What I mean is, that kind of humor could be OK, but shouldn't be associated with St. Patrick's Day or with drunkenness.

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reader1 | Mar 16, 2011, 05:44 PM EDT

I don't see a problem with the pot o' gold but the leprechaun's depiction of public drunkenness is low class. They could have had a regular guy in a black tux with a dark green bow tie, cummerbund, and handkerchief, with a shamrock cufflink showing as he holds the wine up to the light studying the color, or giving a toast or something. I wouldn't mind seeing a leprechaun on a bottle of green hot sauce though, while the girl on his arm would have hair of red flames and a bikini-top of four leaf clovers, as the usual red guy drops both his jaw and pitchfork.

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haikued2 | Mar 16, 2011, 05:36 PM EDT

Seems like the purists and the rest of the world have a difference of opinion. Everyone I know love the Irish and completely understand that the celebration is a bit out of hand, but none of them have lost respect for the Irish because of it...any more than drinking margaritas on Cinco de Mayo or any other holiday celebration...

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haikued2 | Mar 16, 2011, 05:33 PM EDT

Have to sign off and get to our local Walmart...thanks for the tip.

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haikued2 | Mar 16, 2011, 05:32 PM EDT

Guinness, Mr George Dillon, is a major, major part of the economy of Dublin...and you think it shouldn't advertise???? Every consider that people are free to drink it or not and about 10million pints a day around the world says many choose to do so.

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haikued2 | Mar 16, 2011, 05:28 PM EDT

Get a life. Get upset about things that are important, like the takeover of EU by Muslims or the collapse of the Irish economy or the destruction of so many homes and businesses in Japan by the tsunami or the problems in the Japanese nuclear power plant or the idiotic state of American public education. Leave the fun stuff alone...see you at the Pub on St Paddy's day but won't drink any alcohol so people wont think the Irish drink alcohol...dumb, dumb, dumb...I'll raise a Jameson's to you.

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antoman | Mar 16, 2011, 05:25 PM EDT

Better than disappering in Armagh..what? :)

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