Kiss Me I'm Irish!

We've come full circle and end up in Dublin on St. Patrick's Day.  We make our way to O'Connell Street to the parade route along with throngs of other revelers.   It is bitter cold and rainy but it doesn't dampen our spirits or the others there to celebrate the Patron Saint of Ireland.

The moment we reach O'Connell Street the bagpipes begin piping, people start cheering and the parade commences.  It's quite a surreal moment.



I'm dismayed as initially all I can see are the backs of heads.

We notice everyone there has ladders and realize we are woefully unprepared.  I see a family with a ladder and ask in my best Southern drawl, "Do you think I could step up on your ladder for a quick look-see?  We've come all the way from Texas and I just want to get a glimpse of the parade."  Well, that's all it took.  This woman let me climb up her ladder and get a great view of the parade.  She explained that they are locals and that her family has come to the parade every year for the past 20 years so if I came all the way from Texas, I deserved to see the parade.  

Like Moses, I descend from my mountain where my new friend makes me an honorary Irish citizen and bestows upon me the a most awesome hat and banner that declares, "I'm Irish!"  Being Southern, I feel a strong kinship with this woman as she goes out of her way to make us feel welcome.  KISS ME I'M IRISH!

It literally begins to rain on our parade so we seek shelter in a pub along with hundreds of other leprechauns.

No one cares that the pubs are packed and you have to wait a couple of extra minutes for your Guinness.  We're kindred spirits.  We wander from pub to pub to pub to pub, enjoying Guinness and listening to live music.

This guy obviously has a sense of humor!

We pub hop the rest of the day before heading back to our hotel.  As we leave the last pub, I catch sight of the poem On Raglan Road painted on the side of the pub.  This is a famous poem written by Patrick Kavanagh about a love affair he had with a young woman.

"I saw the danger yet I walked along the enchanted way.  And I said let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day."  This is our love affair with Ireland.