St Paddy's Day Reveller Might Start With A Snakebite, Just Because It's 9:30AM, Like
CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT As anyone who has lined up for a rental inspection in our nation's major
CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
As anyone who has lined up for a rental inspection in our nation's major cities over the last few years would be able to clarify, Australia's never been more Irish!
And the Irish Boom is visible on worksites, in hospitals and classrooms right around the country. Except for today, because they're all taking Tuesday off to honour their home country's patron saint by wearing green and drinking Irish beer.
St Paddy's Day festivities are in full swing across Australia, with pubs across St Kilda, Coogee and Woolloongabba opening as early as the state governments will allow them, and ushering in green crowds of excited Irishmen and their friends.
This year's St Paddy's day coincides with the largest intake of Irish immigration to Australia since the English were warehousing them here as convicts in the early days of British settlement.
In Betoota's increasingly Irish Meriton-apartment belt known as the Flight Path District, the local pokie den is covered in the tri-colour bunting and green streamers, as the Grafting Copper Hotel looks to capitalise on 24 hours of excitable young migrants blowing their wages on Guinness.
However, one local fenian, Cormac McCormac (20) says it's best not to play into stereotypes on a day like this.
"The 'drunken Irishman' is a hurtful trope, like" said the local tunneller.
"And not all of us drink Guinness"
"In fact, I'm probably going to start with a snakebite. Given that it's 930am, like"
At time of press, Cormac had moved on from the Guinness and Cider cocktail to just straight Guinness, and was beginning to tell rather exaggerated stories about his grandfather's involvement in the The Troubles.