St. Patricks Day Survival Guide

1. How to be Irish for the day!

1.1. Learn at least one of the following Irish ballads

1.1.1. Whiskey in the Jar

1.1.2. 7 Drunken Nights

1.1.3. Wild Rover (No Nay Never)

1.1.4. Finnegan’s Wake

1.1.5. Another Irish Drinking Song by the Foremen

1.1.6. Nancy Whiskey

1.1.7. Dirty Old Town

1.1.8. Come Out Ye Black and Tans

1.1.9. Pair of Brown Eyes by The Pogues

1.1.10. I’ll Drink from Dusk Til Dawn by Marc Gunn

1.1.11. Home for a Rest by Spirit of the West

1.2. Adopt an Irish accent for the day

1.2.1. Watch any Colin Farrell movie

1.2.2. Watch Gangs of New York - Brendan Gleeson and Liam Neeson

1.3. Dress up - you don't have to go too crazy

1.3.1. Paint shamrocks on your face

1.3.2. Wear at least one green piece of clothing

1.3.3. Leprechaun hat always goes well!!

1.4. Popular points to make in the bar (after some drinks)

1.4.1. Brian O Driscoll is the greatest rugby player the world has ever seen!

1.4.2. How Thierry Henry should be banned from football for life

1.4.3. All Irish bankers should be locked up in prison!

1.4.4. Wexford will never beat Kilkenny in an All-Ireland Hurling final!

1.4.5. Black pudding is an essential ingredient to a good Irish breakfast

1.4.6. If the weather is good - complain about it being too hot!

1.4.7. If the weather is bad - complain about it being too cold!

1.5. Don't take any insults from an Irish person seriously -they're always joking!

2. Eat well!

2.1. Start with a large traditional Irish breakfast!

2.2. Beef and Guinness Pie for Lunch

2.3. Roast beef and roast potatoes for dinner

2.4. Check out the link beside 'eat well' for more ideas!

3. Drinks!

3.1. Stouts, Lagers and Cider

3.1.1. Guinness

3.1.2. Murphy's

3.1.3. O'Hara's Celtic Stout

3.1.4. Harp Lager

3.1.5. Kilkenny Ale

3.1.6. Smithwicks

3.1.7. Bulmers Original Irish Cider

3.2. Irish Whiskeys

3.2.1. Bushmills

3.2.2. The Wild Geese Single Malt Irish Whiskey

3.2.3. Tullamore Dew Single Malt

3.2.4. Tyrconnell

3.2.5. Feckin Irish Whiskey

3.2.6. Inishowen

3.2.7. Jameson Irish Whiskey

3.2.8. Kilbeggan

3.2.9. Midleton

3.2.10. Murphy's

3.2.11. Paddy

3.2.12. Powers Gold Label

3.2.13. Tullamore Dew

3.2.14. Writer's Tears

4. Things to do!

4.1. Find an Irish pub having a trad session

4.1.1. Sing along to any songs you know

4.1.2. Trad session = Traditional band playing Irish music

4.1.3. Sit beside the fireplace and drink pints of Guinness (Alcohol optional!!)

4.2. Attend the morning parade

4.2.1. If in Ireland there will be parades in all big towns and cities

4.2.2. If outside Ireland there are many parades in most of the big cities across the UK, Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand

4.3. England V Ireland Rugby match 5pm GMT

4.3.1. Find an Irish pub and watch Ireland beating England in Twickenham

5. Some useful Irish words and phrases

5.1. Sláinte = to health ('cheers' when having a drink)

5.1.1. Pronunciation: Slawn-cha

5.2. Póg mo thón = (no translation available!!!)

5.2.1. Pronunciation: po-g-mu-hone

5.3. Go raibh maith agut = Thank you

5.3.1. Pronunciation: gu-rev-moth-a-gut

5.4. Failte = Welcome

5.4.1. Pronunciation: fall-cha

5.5. Dia dhuit = Hello

5.5.1. Pronunciation: dee-a-gwit

5.6. Cailín deas = beautiful girl

5.6.1. Pronunciation: call-een-jass

5.7. Slán = Goodbye

5.7.1. Pronunciation: slawn