Saturday, March 17, 2012

Ah begorra, where did I put my shillelagh?

Since most of the coastal strip from Torrevieja towards San Pedro can hardly consider itself Spanish, the celebrations there are centred on the largely British population. 

One of the most popular causes for celebration these days on the British calendar is St Patrick’s Day. Why the patron saint of Ireland commands more attention than the patron saints of England, Scotland and Wales is due to the fact that a lot of Brits have an affinity with drinking copious quantities of Guiness. Of course, you don’t have to be Irish to join in, you just need a good thirst and perhaps wear something green on the day. I reckon, if the other countries that make up Great Britain had a nationally recognised beer then things might be different but they don’t. 

This year the coastal strip has gone all out to promote its St Patrick Day celebrations with a full programme of events taking place including a rugby match between England and Ireland. They have even gone to the trouble of posting notices about it on our estate and put flyers in our post boxes. Of course we all know that the main event will be drinking pint after pint of the black stuff (Guiness) everything else will be subsidiary to that!

PS A shillelagh is a cudgel (kind of stick) made of oak, blackthorn, or other hardwood. Basically its a club made out of knotty wood.

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