Saint Patrick's Day

Today was Saint Patrick's Day and we had the full Irish experience here in Dublin. Saint Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland and the Irish people take advantage of this fact and have created a national holiday in his honor. Over the years, this day has been a great way to celebrate Irish culture and our day today was jam packed with excitement. Small side note: I have officially started my internship with Enable Ireland. More on that to come, but because of the holiday, we had off work today and were able to spend the day in Dublin experiencing the fun. All decked out in our patriotic attire, we took the bus into the city center this morning for the parade.

We arrived to a sea of green in the city center and saw people gathered everywhere to snatch a spot for the parade.

It was packed, making it difficult to find a spot to watch. Some were more creative than others when it came to picking a location.
We were able to catch bits of the parade, and saw some pretty interesting acts.


We had fun enjoying the atmosphere and making friends.


We took a break from the large crowds outside and enjoyed a pint of Guinness at Maguire's Pub and listened as a live band played some of our favorite Irish tunes. Even the pub was crowded, and in fact I spotted two babies with their parents. This was something I would never see at home and the situation made me laugh as I realized how different the atmosphere really was.


The next adventure was Croke Park, home of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association). On our way we ran into some friends from DCU. With all of the people gathered that day, chances of finding familiar faces are pretty slim, so we all laughed when our paths crossed.
Today was the All Ireland Finals in both Hurling and Gaelic Football. With a five euro student ticket, we were able to see both games! Since I was very unfamiliar with both sports when I arrived in Ireland, I thought it would be fun to show a small clip of the games.

The first match was hurling...


and the second was Gaelic Football.



The day was a success, and we headed back to DCU feeling fortunate to have been able to join the celebrations.