St. Patrick’s Day @ Dublin

Saint Patrick was a Christian missionary in the fifth century that became one of the patron saints of Ireland. He was captured by Irish raiders at age 16 and taken from his native Wales as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. He later returned to Ireland as a missionary in the north and west of the island.

More importantly, Saint Patrick is the one responsible for single-handedly expelling all the snakes from Ireland (I haven’t seen a single one, so I’ll give him that, for now…). He did some other stuff as well.

And even more importantly, it’s because of Saint Patrick that Paddy’s Day exists. The day is the national holiday of Ireland. On this day (generally the 17th of March) there are celebrations worldwide themed around all things Irish and, by association, the colour green. For example, the Chicago River is dyed green every year, and in 2009 even the White House fountain went green.

To put it bluntly, it’s an excuse (not that the Irish need another one…) to drink as if the Apocalypse was coming. And do it with the Ireland flag and shamrocks painted all over the body.

So I took this opportunity to head over to Dublin for the first time since I arrived in Ireland, with the intent of experiencing it in the middle of a big crowd. Unfortunately I had to work both on Monday and on Wednesday, so it had to be a one-day trip, which is kind of scary at first due to the fact that it takes 3h30m by bus each way. Anyway, said trip started on Monday evening, right after work, and I was back to Galway on Wednesday at about 1am. I’m still a bit sore from all the contortionism I had to do in order to get some sleep on the bus.

In short, Monday night was spent on the pub, on Tuesday we slept late, then went outside to see the Irish madness and finished with a tea party. There are a lot of pictures and also some videos that will have to be sliced into several posts, and there are quite a few fun ones that’ll be featured as an Image Of The Day. I promise to post them soon, when I have the time to browse through all of them and choose the best ones.

All in all, it was great fun. Mainly for the get-together with the Portuguese guys that welcomed me (also participants, or previous participants, of the same internship program I’m in) and their friends, who already promised to visit Galway soon.

The detailed reports are coming soon. Stay tuned!