Imagine enjoying Monday’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations without feeling the need to imbibe alcohol. For many people, that would be stretching things a bit far. Paddy’s Day without the drink? Sure, that would be like Christmas without the turkey, Pancake Tuesday without the pancakes, Bloomsday without the, er, lemon soap.
Getting paralytic on Paddy’s Day is our birthright. We couldn’t hold our heads high as a nation if we weren’t all staggering around the streets on March 17th. Besides, what else are you going to do after the parade ends? Play snakes and ladders?
Relax – no one’s proposing to ban the booze on Paddy’s Day. But one group is offering a creative alternative to the drink-fuelled excesses that have become the norm for celebrating the feast of our national saint. Happenings is a collective that organises events in public spaces, and this year, as part of Limerick City of Culture, they’re holding Paddy’s Day Unlocked, a celebration that puts the sauce firmly to the side and focuses instead on the music, food, dance and craic.
Paddy’s Day Unlocked is taking place at The Milk Market in Limerick at 3pm-7pm, nicely timed for the period after the parades usually end and the drinking begins in earnest. The idea, says Peter O’Brien of Happenings, is to offer a safe haven for those who want to avoid the “messiness” that usually ensues after the parade has wound its way around the city.
In my day, I wouldn’t have been averse to a bit of messiness on St Patrick’s day. Now that I have a young family (and a lower hangover threshold), I’m happy to celebrate the day with a trip to the parade followed by a visit to McDonald’s followed by a flake-out at home with a glass of wine. I don’t want my kids to witness people staggering around like they’ve been shot by a six-gun, so we get out of Dodge before the first projectile vomit is fired.
Paddy’s Day Unlocked, says O’Brien, is a response to the “spiralling drink culture in Ireland”.
Source: Kevin Courtney, Irish Times, 14/03/14
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