What’s going on in Ireland in March - St Patrick’s Day events, music, festivals, and more

Sad to say that Irish low self-esteem in some cases goes as far as self-hate.Such negative self-feelings seem to have greately increased during the past 20 years. Most young Irish immigrants in NYC felt very proud of their nationality up to about 30 years ago. Around 1970 I asked a young girl for a dance at the City Center and she looked quisically at her older friend. Then her friend whispered:"You can dance with him, he's Irish. By this time immigrants from other countries would attend Irish dances,but most Irish preferred to socialize within their own national group.

The really weird thing about the St Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin is that it celebrates the cultures of Pakistan, Poland, Nepal--you name it, any of a couple dozen nationalities of migrant workers in Ireland. But it has very little of Irish tradition or language or culture in it. You're far more likely to see a Bangla Deshi band than an Irish one, for example, or Bosnian dancers than Irish dancers. The Irish actually have a real low self-esteem problem about their own language and culture, they think any foreigner is better than them. I really disliked March 17 in Dublin when I was there a couple of years back--Never Again. Of course all the booze and teenage vomiting and groping didn't help.