St Patty's Day Pics

I started the day bright and early watching the famous rowing races on the River Liffey.  The Colours Races (they add the extra -u just to be difficult) are held annually in a thrilling match between University College Dublin (UDC) and Trinity College.  Trinity was founded as the Protestant College and is the oldest educational institution in Ireland.  UCD was founded later in response as the Catholic College.  (Although now this is no longer an issue and everyone goes to either college....the only thing that will keep you out of school are your grades!)

Then I meandered over to St. Patrick's Cathedral.  I figured it was apropos being that it's his holiday and all.  At the cathedral, they handed out actual shamrocks to pin to your jacket.  By the end of the day, the shamrocks had all wilted away and I just had green stems clipped to my lapel, but it was nice while it lasted. 

There are a lot of myths and legends surrounding St. Patrick.  He was actually from England, and after being captured in a raid of the coast, he came over to Ireland as a slave when he was 16.  After six years, he escaped and studied for the priesthood in Rome, but he always felt called to return to Ireland and preach the Gospels. 

He supposedly drove all the snakes out of Ireland, but actually there were never any snakes here (it's actually the only place in the world where there are no reptiles!).  This story is mostly symbolic - the snakes represent paganism.   Most stories implicate that Ireland became Christian overnight, but in reality, it took more than St. Patrick's lifetime. 

In fact, his prostylitizing was much more difficult than is commonly recognized, and he converted most people by combining Celtic polytheism with Catholicism.  For example, the Celtic high crosses that you see in ruined monasteries all over Ireland are a mixture of the two religions - Christianity is demonstrated through the cross and the pagan respect for the sun is demonstrated through the circle behind it.  Many of our current holidays also combine the two cultures - Halloween is the most prominent example.

St. patrick is actually one of three patron saints of Ireland.  St. Brigid and St. Columba are also Ireland's national saints and equally as important in Christianizing Ireland; however, for some reason, their stories are not as well known. 

Anywho, I digress.  Everything is so steeped in history that I can't resist!  But enough about the past; here are some pictures of the parade.

I loved this little girl with her leprechaun beard!  She had the best seat in the house - on top of her dad's shoulders.

What you don't know is that her bottle is actually filled with whiskey.

Bree and I started waiting at 10am!  The parade started at 2:00pm.  I thought that the mini leprechaun hat was cute when I bought it, but now looking back at the pictures, I realize that it makes my head look gigantic!

The TV announcer was right next to us!  We were on O'Connell Street in the thick of the action.  We were probably on TV since the cameras kept panning the audience right in front of us.

crazy crowds!

Here comes St. Patrick....with sunglasses!?!?

The parade was divided by district.  Each county of Ireland was in charge of creating one part of the parade.  The theme of the parade was Roddy Doyle's short story "Brilliant" but I thought that ths was strange.  Most of the costumes looked like they were meant more for Halloween than for St. Patrick's Day.

I was right on the fence so the performers came right up to me and would pose for pictures.  One of the performers even kissed me on the cheek!

The performers would harrass the police (garda) but in a fun way.  This is one of my favorite pictures :-)

good music :-)

Then the aftermath....  it took me 45 minutes to get to work!  (Normally, it only take 10 minutes from this spot.)  The massive throngs of people were crazy!!