St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

In March, I hopped to a greener nearby island with some friends to celebrate St. Patrick's day. Purdue's 'All-American' Marching Band were in town to perform during the parade again, so I was excited for the opportunity to celebrate as a spectator instead of being a participant.

We arrived very early in the morning two days before St. Paddy's day and headed into our company's Dublin office. I often collaborate with our Irish team, especially on Life Sciences projects, so it was great to have the opportunity to work with some of them in person.

For the evening, we had picked a hostel next door to the Jameson distillery. I enjoyed the distillery tour when I was in Dublin three years ago, it was one of several sights and experiences I had the chance to revisit with my colleagues! We enjoyed the whiskey before heading to a local pub for dinner, and finished the night with some baby Guinness at the hostel bar.

The next day, we also headed into the office and had a very neat opportunity to tour of Intel's semiconductor wafer fabrication facility. My company is a supplier of valves & instruments to Intel, and fortunately our colleagues who coordinated the visit found our we would be in town at the time and invited us to come along. It was really impressive to learn more about such a precise manufacturing process!

After wrapping up the work day, we headed into the iconic Temple Bar area to grab dinner at another nearby pub.

Some of my Purdue alumni friends who were travelling with the band arrived in the city that evening, and we were able to meet up with them to catch up over a few pints of Guinness and Smithwicks. A few hours later, we reluctantly called it a night knowing that we'd get an early start with the parade the next day and, more importantly, that we'd be able to spend the afternoon together as well.

The morning of the parade, my friends and I set up near Christ Church Cathedral to enjoy the festivities. We made sure to be early enough to grab a front-row seat!

Overall, the parade was quite whimsical and creative, pretty different from what you'd expect from a holiday parade in the US. There were several marching bands, but the vast majority (including the Purdue AAMB of course) were 'imported' from the states.

To give an example of the locally-sourced content, one memorable segment of the parade was built around aliens and seemed to satirize misinformation, particularly with respect to politics. There were two factions: pro and anti-alien, of course, surrounded by 'fake newspeople' running around with cameras and microphones.

As they passed, one of my friends was kind enough to point out that I was an alien and attracted the attention of several of the parade-ers: an anti-alien gentleman began shouting, among other things pointing out how I was only just beginning to turn green, before a pro-alien lady came over and began chanting a welcome to our alien overlords. It was quite an overwhelming experience.

Following the parade, we headed towards St. Patrick's cathedral to meet up with my fellow band alumni.

To try to avoid the crowds, we looked for a pub nearby instead of heading back to the Temple Bar area and found a lovely spot with a strong IRA feel featuring the horse races in Cheltenham. We enjoyed some pints, pizza, and an Irish win!

Later on we attempted to head toward the Temple Bar area. On our way over, we stopped at the Dublin castle, which was interesting to see from the outside.

Once we got over to that area, most pubs were packed, literally shoulder to shoulder, or had long queues. Needless to say, we didn't spend too long there before continuing to a different area, Baggot Street, and enjoyed our time and each others' company there the rest of the evening.

The next morning we were off to a bit of a slow start, not least due to Purdue's dismal March Madness performance. After some coffee and pastries, we headed to the Guinness Storehouse at St. James gate. Again, I'd visited the storehouse before, but the experience was very unique since there were many St. Patrick's features going on. For one, there was an interactive lesson on how to play the Bodhrán, a type of traditional Irish drum.

There were also several pints of Guinness involved, of course, first in the rooftop Gravity Bar and later in the downstairs Fáilte Inn which featured many different performers.

It started off with some excellent music, as well as some really impressive Irish dancing, including the Guinness World Record holder for the fastest feet in the world. Later, there was more live music as well as a quick Irish lesson.

After spending several hours there, we headed back to the city centre to stake out our spot in a pub. The Six Nations championship rugby match was being held later on, and even when we arrived several hours ahead of time there were very few tables available, granted France and Wales were playing at the time. We enjoyed a delicious meal before watching a very exciting match with a fantastic conclusion: Ireland won and took home the championship!

Once it wrapped up, we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags before going straight to the airport. Ultimately, an eventful trip full of new memories and catching up with old friends, along with a very successful weekend for Irish sports!