St Patrick’s Day parade in Northern Ireland

If I am completely honest, I wasn’t supposed to be in Northern Ireland during this time of the year. According to my original plan, I should be somewhere around France or Germany by now. But the circumstances made me come back to the Emerald Isle at the beginning of February. Therefore, I was ecstatic when I found out I was going to be spending St Patrick’s Day at one of the best places for it. Really, can you think of a better country to commemorate the death of the patron saint of Ireland?

My roommate, Nynke, managed to convince our boss to give us the day off for the celebration. And when he said yes (there might have been a couple of wine glasses involved), we started to plan a full Irish St Paddy’s. Many people would say that the south is the place to be for the celebration. Nevertheless, Dublin can get extremely expensive during the festivity and Galway was just too far away for us to take a day trip, so we decided that Belfast was the best option.

My boyfriend, Conor, who is Irish, was our official guide. We planned some activities here and there, but if I am completely honest, I quickly discovered that St Patrick’s Day is basically the best excuse ever for a daylong pub-crawl. So Nynke and I spent two days designing these shamrock headbands and last Friday we dressed in green and headed to Northern Ireland’s capital.

I’ll tell you everything about our day trip. But first, let me drop some quick facts about St Patrick’s Day.

When is St Patrick’s Day?

St Patrick’s Day takes place on March 17^th, on the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. It is a public holiday; therefore, many people have the day off and some businesses decide to close as well to celebrate.

However, even though this day commemorates the patron saint of Ireland, it is immensely popular in the United States and other countries like Canada, Australia and even Japan and Singapore. These places host their own parades and festivities and while most are celebrated on March 17^th as well, some others prefer to party a week or so in advance.

My mum and dad attended to their own St Paddy’s parade in San Francisco and it took place on March 11^th. So it pretty much varies depending on the country, but the official day is on the 17^th.

Myths about St Patrick’s Day

St Patrick was Irish

He was actually born in Roman Britain and then kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave. But he became so beloved by the Irish people because he brought Christianity to the country. Apparently, the shamrock became his symbol because he used it to explain the Holy Trinity to the Irish. But this is only a legend.

St Patrick’s official colour is green

It is true that he Christianised the Emerald Isle, however, he was originally associated with blue. The knights in the order of St Patrick’s wore this colour to identify themselves. However, it is believed that green became the official tonality of the saint after supporters of the Irish Independence movement used the colour to represent its cause.

St Patrick’s Day is originally an Irish celebration

Although St Patrick is the patron of Ireland, the first parade to honour his memory took place in the United States. In 1762, Irish soldiers marched in New York City. Today, it is the oldest civilian parade and the largest in the USA.

Actually, St Patrick’s Day celebrations weren’t that common in Ireland. For one side, during The Troubles years (late 1960s–late 1990s), the loyalist groups detonated a car bomb in Dungannon, causing several deaths. Additionally, up until 1970s, many Irish pubs were closed on March 17th, because of the Lenten restrictions that surround the date. However, around 1995 the Irish government decided to use St Patrick’s Day to attract tourism and showcase the local culture.

So there you go. If you, like me, had absolutely no idea about St Paddy and his day, you can now brag about your new piece of knowledge next March 17^th.

St Patrick’s Day Parade at Belfast

We decided to start our day watching the parade in front of the City Hall. The weather had been amazing most of the week, so we were counting on a sunny St Paddy’s morning. However, since it is Ireland, after all, we were received by a true Irish weather: rainy, windy and bloody cold. We endured the fury of the elements and waited under the rain for the show to start, cameras ready in our hands.

I had never been to any Irish carnival, so I didn’t know what to expect. The show opened with a marching pipe band. Then it was followed by several people in quirky costumes, dance exhibitions and even a couple of floats. The street was very narrow, so it was hard to catch a glimpse and snap some shots without being elbowed by the guy next to you or caught under a stream of water from someone’s umbrella.

Nevertheless, the atmosphere was great. You’d be amazed by the kind of people you see at St Patrick’s Day, and they are not even part of the parade. From guys wearing shamrock-covered suits, to green beards (Conor refused to dye his, unfortunately) and leprechaun costumes. The street is an entire different parade by itself.

The carnival was not very long, but since the weather was so crappy, we didn’t mind it that much and we decided to seek refuge in a nearby pub.

The Garrick: A Traditional Irish Pub (of course)

There was also a free concert after the parade, but since we were freezing and soaked, we agreed that we deserved a pint.

We walked to The Garrick, a nearby bar with a very traditional flair. Like most of the drinking places around town, it was packed, but the people there were quite cool. An Irish lady near the cashier noticed that Nynke and I were foreigners and she told us that it is a St Patrick’s Day tradition to get your first drink bought by a local. I’m pretty sure she made that up, but, in any case, it worked, so Conor paid the first round and got us two Magners.

I know Guinness is the first thing that comes to mind when drinking in Ireland. But seriously, if you are in the country, you can’t miss the chance to try Magners. It I not as sweet as your typical cider. Nevertheless, it still has that bubbly, fresh taste that makes you brain think it is not really drinking while it totally is.

Anyways, we enjoyed the various and eccentric personalities in the pub while sipping our drinks. Seriously, people-watching is one of the funniest things you can do during St Paddy’s. And after we competed to see who could finish their pint first, we decided it was time to get ourselves some tea. Yeah, you read it right, tea on St Patrick’s Day. Keep scrolling and you’ll see what I mean

Tea at Belfast

As I said, after the first pub, we thought it would be a good idea to share a teapot among the three of us, so Conor took us to Bootleggers.

Bootleggers in a bar in Belfast that sells especial cocktails served inside of teapots. It is like your typical British High tea, just ten times better. I can’t even remember what was inside the first pot we ordered, but it involved a mix of vodka, raspberries and gin. A full teapot costs around £13.00 pounds and you can fill about six cups with it.

Nynke got us some chips and nachos (you know, to replace the pastries) and we quickly got into a tipsy, happy mood that was perfect for the day. We enjoyed our “tea” while toasting in English, Dutch and Spanish and learn the names of fruits and vegetables in different languages (I told you we were tipsy). The place was fun and hype, full of an interesting crowd and good music. Also, it is located in a very central part of the city.

St Anne’s Cathedral

To rescue the more religious background of St Patrick’s Day we opted to visit St Anne’s Cathedral. To honour the saint’s memory, they were having a special event. Since we had the whole day ahead of us, and plenty more pubs to visit, we thought we could have a look.

I had been to St Anne’s before, well, at least to the chapel. They usually charge an admission fee, so I never had a good excuse to pay it. However, thanks to good old Patrick, we could get in for free this time. The church is not very big or extravagant, but still pretty. Most of the aisles exhibited some crafts made by children. Additionally, we managed to catch the last part of a theatre performance re-enacting the life of St Patrick.

Gay St Patrick’s Day

After our dose of religion, we went the opposite way and stopped at a gay bar nearby. Oddly enough, that was the only quiet pub we found. The Maverick has that cool, flamboyant look with its pink neon lights and hanging shamrocks to commemorate the occasion. The small stage made us think that it’d be the perfect place for a karaoke night, but we didn’t really dare to make the first move.

We ordered a super pink cider that was almost too sweet and fruity to enjoy. However, the bar tender was very funny. Additionally, the place was calm enough for us to actually have a conversation and plan our next move.

Kelly’s Cellar

We wanted to get back to the traditional side and visited Kelly’s Cellar. Kelly’s is the oldest traditional Irish pub in Belfast. The whitewashed walls, concrete floors and low arches really make you travel 200 years back in time. There was some Irish music on the outside, but since it was still raining, we preferred to stay inside. We enjoyed some pints of Guinness and I had a contest with a bunch of old ladies to see who had the flashiest St Paddy’s accessory (I think I won because the lady had a flashy necklace, but I had TWO flashing earrings). However, it was soon so full that it became unbearable, so we hit the streets again to our last stop.

Robinsons

We finished our day at Robinsons, a pub right in front of Great Victoria Street Station. The place was very cool and it even had live music. However it was reaching that state where the floors get sticky and people are so drunk that they try to engage in weird conversations with you (seriously, a guy tried to convince Nynke to break his finger). We had some gin and tonics and white wine and decided to call it a night and call our taxi to pick us up.

Overall, I think it was a nice first St Patrick’s Day. It was full of beer, cider, green and traditional Irish music. We were exhausted by the end of the day, but happy and sure that we had conquered some Irish luck during our excursion.