Friday, June 2, 2017

From South Bend to Dublin


When I think of Irish I instantly think of the color green and leprechauns due to the extreme stereotypes of St. Patrick’s Day. It did not help living in a town that religiously celebrates a college team called the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to enhance these views. In downtown South Bend, Indiana I have been going to the annual St.Paddy’s Day Tent Party and Pub Tour, where the whole town goes from bar to bar drinking green beer on the way. This event always gave me a sense of community that I also believed was a strong aspect of the Irish culture.
Plastic Paddys enjoying the South Bend Tent Party

Now that I have been learning about Ireland (for 3 weeks) with Indiana University of South Bend, I now know my assumptions were not completely accurate. Green beer would be a travesty in an Irish pub, to waste a good beer by tainting it with food coloring. I did not realize that both the GuinnessStorehouse and JamesonDistillery are located in Dublin, Ireland. Along with these two major alcohol corporations, I noticed by looking at google maps that there is a surplus of pubs in Dublin.
I am interested to see different places and try different foods. Hopefully we might run into some famous Irish celebrities such as U2 singer Bono, UFC fighter Conor McGregor, or former One Direction member Niall Horan to name a few. Seeing that the geographical size of Ireland is roughly the size of Indiana, and that the majority of the population resides in Dublin, it is a possibility to be star struck while out enjoying a pint of ale on our literary pub crawl.

Real Irishmen on a pub crawl

3 comments:

  1. What celebrity from Ireland would you be excited to run into while abroad? Personally I would like to meet Conor McGregor due to my interest in the sports world.

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  2. It's definitely possible to spot celebrities in Ireland, and generally people don't make a big deal out of it there. Many famous Irish musicians will occasionally play on Grafton Street if they're in town, and several American celebrities have vacation homes or vacation in Ireland because they're not mobbed there (Beyonce and Jay Z, Kim and Kanye, Julia Roberts to name a few).

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  3. Ha! It would be cool to come across celebrities! My little sister already asked me to keep an eye out for the guy from One Direction. I should probably look up what he looks like first... I'm definetely interested in some of the same things you are such as the pubs and food. I really want to know the kinds of place locals like to go versus the over priced tourist areas. Submerging yourself in any culture, I think, is the best way to get to know it!

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