St. Paddy's, when everyone is Irish

By Rachel Oppenheimer


At 11:20 am on Tuesday morning, 86th Street and 5th Avenue started out full of police barricades and sparsely populated with parade attendees. The drinking here had yet to begin. Well before the parade reached the area, the Upper East Side section of the 247th New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade staged more police officers than Irish-Americans or festive partiers. But as time progressed, the parade began, and the Streets went down numerically, the party raged.

St. Patrick's Day is the day when everyone's Irish – it's about fun and inclusion. On the fourth of July, you wouldn't say everyone's American. On the day of the Puerto Rican parade, not everyone is Puerto Rican. But on St. Patrick's Day, when asked if parade-watchers are Irish – non-Irish simply respond “Today I am” and have no reservations about it. New Yorkers seem to derive this attitude from the lightheartedness of the Irish people. “How crazy it is to be Irish. The most easy going people you'll ever meet. There's nothing I'd rather be but Irish,” said Michael Dolan, a student of State University of New York Maritime College in the Bronx. With a brown paper bagged drink in hand, a drunk but articulate Dolan explained that when someone in the Irish community dies, friends and family rejoice rather than mourn. “Let's go celebrate their life,” they say. “They're lighthearted about everything.”

Out of lightheartedness can grow heavy drinking, but the common stereotype that the Irish have a strong tolerance for alcohol was only supported by the day's lack of unseemly, unsafe, or unwell behavior. Only one puking kid was spotted throughout the day. Head on the table and nearly passed out, he vomited into a fast food bag at the McDonald's on Vanderbilt, but none of his high school Junior friends had consumed any alcohol and his consumption miscalculation probably had less to do with St. Paddy's and more to do with a teenager's immaturity and irresponsibility. As Dolan said, in general, “The Irish don't need to prove anything to anyone. Alcohol and Irish just go hand in hand.” When probed further about the connection between drinking, the Irish, and St. Patrick's Day, Dolan's friend James Franklin, also of Maritime, explained that “Everyone knows that alcohol is a social lubricant. Alcohol is a godsend.” The Irish coined the term “pub,” he explained, deriving it from the Irish public houses, centers where people came to gather and socialize. Sure, times in Ireland are tough, Franklin, Dolan, and John Frederick agreed, but the Irish “just go have a drink and forget about it.”