“Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig!”

Growing up in my neighborhood with an Irish mother and a large Irish family St. Patrick’s Day was a big deal. (The fact that my family settled in GREENpoint when they came here from Ireland says it all) Years were spent at the parade with my grandmother, later with friends. There would be parties afterward with traditional Irish music and all the aunts and uncles doing jigs of their youth. Soda bread flowed freely as did the pints and whiskey. Those were good years. These days I am not into going out on St. Patrick’s Day with the masses. Here in NYC it’s a lot of overcrowded bars, people in giant green plastic hats and rivers of vomit. Rivahs.

But green beer aside, St. Patrick’s Day always makes me smile and be proud. Ireland is a green mystical place with lovely people; amazing history and most importantly, so good you could cry Guinness Beer. Which leads me to…

One of the coolest things to do if you find yourself in Dublin is a trip to the Guinness factory. As you walk around outside the actual building there are old ads posted and I thought they were both strange and wonderful.







Anyway once inside this magical place you can tour the process of how Guinness is made. Really the entire time I did this all I wanted was the beer. The hops made me drool, the crisp clean water made me thirsty and I almost couldn’t wait to get to the top where in the roof bar you could have your free Guinness complete with a lovely shamrock carved in the delicious foam and a spectacular view of Dublin. It is truly a place to savor the best beer in the world. Guinness is my favorite beer and therefore I proclaim it the best. Now of course you can get delicious Guinness throughout Ireland. But if you ever get a chance going straight to the source is very much worth it.



Now if you ever find yourself in NYC here are some very Irish centric things to check out:

The Tenement Museum tour of the Moore Family dwellings, an immigrant Irish family that settled on the Lower East Side
http://www.tenement.org

The Big Onion Irish walking tour that takes you throughout the former “Little Ireland”
http://www.bigonion.com/description/index.html

Dempsey’s on Tuesday nights for traditional Irish music and a good pint.
http://www.dempseysnyc.com/index.html

Paddy Reilly's Music Bar for Irish bands almost every night in a bar constructed of things brought over from Ireland right down to the floorboards
http://nymag.com/listings/bar/paddy_reillys_music_bar

These are just a few of the many things you can do in the city if you want to get into the Irish spirit not just on St. Patty’s Day but just about all year round. The Irish were and are a big part of this city and their presence is felt from Manhattan to the Bronx to Woodside, Queens.  Now I’m off to have a pint, watch the parade and dig in to some homemade Irish soda bread. On my couch where it’s not crowded and there is not a plastic hat in sight.

Sláinte!

All photos copyright of H. Papageorge