St. Patrick's Day Celebration(s)
It’s our Dodge City at the end of a long cattle drive; we count the days like desperados and feast on the music of our favorite Irish band ‘The Hooligans’ every St. Patrick's Day. The annual celebration was on Saturday the 13th since the 17th falls on a Wednesday.
We started at the Blarney Bash and ended at the Ancient Order of Hibernian's party. Today was a rare duo Hooligan set since we'd hear them at both parties. At the Blarney Bash, as can happen between aficionados and less-than-aficionados, our enthusiasm seemed to annoy the neighbors (which meant we were doing something right).
The Bash went absurdly fast and I checked thru the Kubler-Ross stages of death and dying – denial the Hooligans had finished, anger, and finally acceptance. Fortunately we’d see them again in an hour or two so there was healing in that.
We arrived at the little school gym that feels of home, the AOH gig being the soothing antidote to the huge and impersonal Blarney Bash. To join AOH you must be of Irish heritage and a Roman Catholic, which makes it the most exclusive club I could belong to. I feel the love in the room.
Here we were welcomed, if only in our minds. As is our wont we yelled the request “John Paul Polka”, an obscurse song in homage to the Pontiff that the band played once two or three years ago and had never played again. Amazingly they played it; it had the feel of the miraculous about it and in a way it was because the older woman who sat next to us and endured our singing turned out to be the spouse of one of the band members. Bone saw her go up and relay our request.
We sang to hoarseness all the old chestnuts including, "Come Out Ye Black and Tans" and “Give Ireland back to the Irish”...
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