>>Happy St Patrick's Day from the NJ Fitzes.
>>
>>http://www.cnbc.com/id/101496160
>>
>>Despite the boycott, I'll be hoisting a pint or two later at the AOH.
>>I still miss the excellent corned beef and cabbage we got in the bars in NYC on St Patrick's day.
>>Not the same here in NJ.
>
>I don't drink beer, but if I did, this would be a reason to choose Guiness (or Sam Adams, for similar reasons).
>

I spent one St. Patrick's Day weekend in Dublin, although that wasn't the purpose of the trip. At the time I was working on a large project in Manchester, England, consisting of both Brits and Yanks. One of the Americans was an Irishman and he organized the trip. Tom has lived his whole life in Chicago but his father was born in a small village in Ireland and Tom wanted to go see it. This just happened to be a weekend that worked with all our schedules. 8 or 9 of the rest of us went along, just planning to spend a weekend in a famous city. (Which was exactly what Tom wound up doing, too, but that's another story). It was an eye opener. St. Patrick's day is a holiday there, yes. There is a parade down O'Connell Street. But it's a religious holiday, very low key compared to what happens here. The Irish think getting drunk and stupid on St. Patrick's Day is something dumb Americans do.