St Patrick’s Day, as Michael Scott tells us, is “the closest that the Irish will ever get to Christmas.” It is also the first holiday of the spring. Okay so it’s not technically spring until March 20, but St. Patrick’s Day offers us a glimmer of hope after the long and dreary winter. Whether or not you are Irish, here are five ways to celebrate this glorious holiday.
5. Watch a Kathy Griffin special – This self-proclaimed fallen Irish-Catholic comedian isn’t afraid to let Hollywood have it. Her uproarious Bravo specials, most recently “Balls of Steel” and “She’ll Cut Bitch”, dish on everyone from Barbara Walters to Whitney Housten to her alcoholic Irish-Catholic mother, Maggie (Tip it!). The sixth season of Griffin’s Emmy Award winning reality show My Life on D-list premieres this summer and mark your Tivo, Cher is guest-starring.
4. Attend a Riverdance performance – Irish step dancing is addicting. I have spent countless hours on YouTube watching “Lord of the Dance” Michael Flately and other Irish step dancers perform. It’s even better and more impressive live. But if you are susceptible to headaches, this might not be for you.
3. Check out Finian’s Rainbow – Recently revived on Broadway, this musical follows recent Irish immigrant Finian McLonergan and his daughter Sharon when they settle in Rainbow Valley in the fictional state of Missitucky. Finian buries a stolen pot of gold that he believes will multiply. Complications arise when Og the leprechaun demands his pot of gold back and a bigoted senator gets involved. Unfortunately, the last Broadway performance of Finian’s Rainbow was on January 17. The only way to be enticed by the magic of this musical and its most famous tune, “How Are Things in Glocca Morra” is in the 1968 film adaptation, which stars Fred Astaire.
2. Host a movie fest – Turner Classic Movies is celebrating the best of the Irish by broadcasting classic films such as The Flying Irishman, My Wild Irish Rose and Young Cassidy. Another fabulous movie to check out during your St. Paddy’s day movie celebration is The Quiet Man, a rare John Wayne-John Ford pairing that is not a Western. Wayne plays Sean Thornton, an Irish-American from Pittsburgh who travels Ireland to reclaim his family property. In the process he (naturally) falls in the love with local Mary Kate Danaher, played by the always magnificent Maureen O’Hara. Thornton knows nothing about Irish customs so their pairing becomes a comedy of errors and misunderstandings. Do they end up together? You’ll have to watch to find out.
But if you’re looking for a more recent Irish fix than look no further than Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley. The winner of the Palmes D’Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Loach’s film is the powerful story about two brothers (Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney) who join the Irish Republic Army and lives are destroyed by the war.
1. Attend a parade – Boston, New York, Chicago…these big cities have notorious Irish-American populations and St Patrick’s Day festivities. But did you know that Holyoke hosts the second largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the US? This year the parade is being held on Sunday, March 21. The parade is one part of a weekend of festivities, including a 10 K road race and honoring the recipient of the John F Kennedy National Award, Daniel Rooney, the US ambassador to Ireland. If you’re in the area, the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day parade is one event that should not be missed.
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