Celebrating St Patrick's Day in Ireland and the US

On the Saturday before St Patrick's Day, green dye is pumped into the Chicago River. Photo / 123rf

It’s the day they paint the towns green. Ewan McDonald sets out to find who does St Patrick’s Day better – Dublin or Chicago?

Hard to believe now, but Brendan Behan – arguably the greatest of his generation of great Irish writers – was banned from marching in New York’s 1961 St Patrick’s Day parade - by its Irish American organisers. They feared his roistering ways – “I only take a drink twice a day, when I’m thirsty and when I’m not” – would embarrass them.

To be fair, the playwright-poet-diarist-IRA trooper was not used to having a drop on March 17. He was from Dublin, where it was illegal to buy alcohol on St Patrick’s Day until the 1970s, well after his death in 1964.

In Behan’s time, the only place where he and his fellow drinkers – sorry, writers - could lawfully take a drop was the Royal Dublin Dog Show, which naturally attracted thousands keen to discuss the finer points of blue spaniels and water terriers.

Which illustrates the Atlantic-sized gulf in the way two nations have marked the day – until recently. Every March 17, the US becomes the Emerald Continent: Americans of all heritages wear green clothes and drink green beer or green milkshakes, eat green bagels and grits, corned beef and cabbage. Coast-to-coast shenanigans celebrate all things Irish: Guinness and craic, parades and bagpipers, step-dancers and marching bands.

Except most of these are not genuinely Irish. Almost all St Patty’s Day (US) or St Paddy’s Day (Ireland) “traditions” hail from the Newish World, not the Old Country. They are, however, slightly older than The Fields of Athenry, the rugby dirge written in 1979.

The Irish did start it. For four centuries March 17 has been a holy day to honour the 5th Century missionary credited with spreading Christianity across the island. Catholics went to mass in the morning and families gathered for a meal in the afternoon. There were no parades and the saint’s colour was blue, not green, certainly until the 1798 rebellion if not later.

Over the water, the Irish Americans didn’t start it. Spanish troops staged the first parade in Florida (1600), followed by Boston Presbyterians (1737) and – believe it or not – Irish Redcoats serving in the British Army in New York (1762).

It wasn’t until Irish Catholics flooded into the country following the Great Hunger of 1845, when the potato crop failed, that March 17 became the day to parade their national identity.

New York might grab the headlines and Boston might have the Kennedys, but the US city that makes the biggest song and jig of March 17 – and on the days leading up to and, quite literally, out of it - is Chicago.

Famously, the city turns its river green, a tradition started by the notorious Irish American mayor Richard J. Daley in 1962, assisted by the plumbers’ union who created the dye after seeing bright green stains on a workmate’s overalls. Daley declared March 17 a city holiday – it’s not anywhere else in the US – and the rest is, albeit artificially created, history.

Thousands brave early morning cold or take a cruise to watch boats dropping the dye into the water. While that first green river lasted nearly a month, the plumbers’ modern, environmentally friendly dye lasts only a few hours.

One of the US’ largest St Patrick’s Day parades jigs and reels along Columbus Drive, past hundreds of thousands of green wigged and kilted leprechauns-and-colleens-for-a-day, piped and drummed along by the Shannon Rovers, not a football team but the city’s premier Irish band, which has been leading the procession since the first official parade in 1956. Irish neighbourhoods on the South Side and northwest host their own festivals, after which it’s time to hit an “Irish pub” for ... oh, you know the menu and the soundtrack.

Which brings us to another tidbit. Ask anyone from the Land of the Free’n Easy, and they’ll tell you the traditional St Patrick’s Day feast is corned beef and cabbage. Ahem. It’s as Irish as sushi, originating with immigrants who went to the Manhattan wharves to barter for leftover salted beef and vegetables from tea-clipper ships docking from China so they could make something reminiscent of boiled bacon and cabbage. Dubliners are more likely to chow down on fish’n chips or curry fries.

As the day evolved into a 20th century party for Americans of all ethnicities, the Emerald Isle’s commemorations remained sombre. The Connaught Telegraph reported after March 17, 1952: “St Patrick’s Day was very much like any other day, only duller”.

The party atmosphere spread to Dublin after the arrival of television. Entrepreneurs decided that if someone was going to make money out of Irish songs and step-dances, beer, fake pubs, shamrocks and leprechauns, it might as well be them.

Cue the capital’s multi-day St Patrick’s Day Festival, launched in 1996; it’s estimated one million tourists now fly in each year.

Dublin’s fair city is going to give the big day a fair crack of the shillelagh in 2024. St Patrick’s Day is perfectly timed, with March 17 falling on a Sunday and the Monday public holiday allowing a three-day weekend.

This festival is set to be the most ambitious ever, with events, gigs and parties taking place day and night from March 15-18. The main event is the parade, when half a million people will line the main drag, O’Connell St, to watch the floats, bands and dancers.

The theme is Spreach (Spark), which represents “the unique essence of Ireland and of Irish people that we share with the world through humour, joy and wonder”.

The National Museum at Collins Barracks is a focus, the historic site in the heart of the city transformed into the festival quarter with daytime family activities, gigs and parties at night. Venues include a 3000-capacity covered main stage, intimate performance spaces, relaxation areas and an Irish food and craft village.

All the major museums are open, many offering themed tours and events over the long weekend, honouring global cultural icons from William Butler Yeats to, yes, the Pogues.

Outside cities like Dublin, Cork and Galway, however, St Patrick’s Day is not as big a deal as some visitors might expect. Many locals still treat it as a religious holiday, perhaps taking a quiet walk up the mountains associated with the saint on or around his feast day: places like Croagh Patrick in County Mayo or Slemish Mountain in County Antrim.

St Patrick’s Way is a 27km mini-Camino in County Down taking in many sites related to his legacy. It’s organised by the St Patrick Centre in Downpatrick, the world’s only permanent exhibition dedicated to Ireland’s patron saint.

While Dubliners, in particular, are importing St Patrick’s Day traditions from America, some are still off-limits. The Liffey, the main river running through the capital, was to be dyed green in 2020 as a tribute to the relationship between Dublin and Chicago. Cancelled due to the pandemic, there are no plans to float that idea again. And, as any true Irish soul will tell you, “St Patrick never drank green beer”.

Writer’s note: Despite the name, Ewan McDonald is a fifth-generation Kiwi with (mostly) Irish DNA. St Patrick’s Day musical recommendation: Sinead O’Connor, Molly Malone.

CHICAGO

For over 15 years the Gage, a popular gastro pub just a few blocks from the iconic green-dyed Chicago River, has been a top spot to celebrate St Patrick’s Day in Chicago. Serving signature Irish food, a medley of drinks, including the signature Gráinne O’Malley’s Pirate Punch and live performances.

To observe Chicago’s green-dyed river in all its green glory, Travelle (at the Langham) and Raised | An Urban Rooftop bar both boast prime river views. Visitors can also feel part of the action with a river cruise.

DUBLIN

Dublin’s parade snakes through the city, while big-ticket events take place at both the festival quarter and at various venues around town as part of the One City programme. Expect numerous gigs, walking tours and theatre performances across four epic days (March 15-18).