An American in Ireland
by The YankRSS 
Recent Posts
- Hey Senator Levin - Ireland is NOT a tax haven
- When your daughter insists on going in the One Direction that creates the most stress
- Ireland as Britain's wind farm - weighing up the pros and cons of ugly and heavily subsized Irish windfarms
- Justin Bieber's perfectly judged comment on Anne Frank - "Hopefully she would have been a belieber"
- The Irish property tax problem - everyone wants to own some and no one wants to be taxed on it
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I realize that visiting Ireland in the winter is not on many people's 'to do' list, but the other night as I was watching an American television show filmed here last winter I was reminded of just how beautiful Ireland looks in the winter.
Swimming in the Irish Sea is not for the fainthearted. I should know because I'm fainthearted and the Irish Sea is cold - really cold.
How cold? I don't know, but someone I know who has sampled both the waters off Maine and the Irish Sea says the two are about the same. What I do know is it sure ain't summer at
It's the 4th of July and you'd almost think it's a holiday here in Ireland, what with all the mentions of it I've seen. Dublin Airport is decorated in Stars & Stripes, local pubs are offering America-themed entertainments and specials, the local supermarket is using Old Glory to encourage shoppers to buy donuts and other "American" food and the hardware store is selling stars & stripes paper plates and napkins to go along with your Independence Day barbecue (which they're selling too).
These sorts of sales and events have been going on for years, but it feels like it's everywhere this year. Some people might say it's thanks to President Obama's visit in May and how he's made American 'cool' again (or whatever), but I'm skeptical of that explanation.
I think it's more likely that with the recession still biting deep, retailers are just trying any angle they can think of to entice shoppers to part with their money. Thanks to the prevalence of American popular culture the 4th of July is fairly well known as an American holiday, even if what exactly it's all about is lost on many people. It's a case that 4th of July equals America which equals a chance to sell stuff using American flag decorations.
