St Patrick and the Channel 4 News Team

When we look back on our wondrous journey into the Irish country and it's way of life, one day might well stand head and shoulders above the rest. Like a 21st or great sporting victory, it'll be remembered in years to come over a pint, and more than likely embellished in many more ways. For there is no more an Irish day than the great St Patrick's Day, and it doesn't get any better than celebrating it in Dublin! So here my friends is the brief description of the day, as seen thru 2-3 rather intoxicated eyes.

9.30am - Lads all meet at Seamus and Sam's place for a top notch cooked breakfast, once again would like to thank the ladies in the kitchen for there work . Due to Extreme numbers, Dan had about 15 people at his place across town too……were quite popular don't you know. Irish music was played, well U2 was on repeat. I believe that it was as good as seeing them Live in Auckland!

10:30am - By now a few sighters have been downed and the general spirit is lifting, the lads are shaking off the effects of Thursday night and are warming up. Nothing Crazy, but we're as excited as Bondy bowling at the tail!

11:00am - Shit house, out of Beer, and were gobsmacked to learn the Offie does not open till 12:30! Lucky the team have brought a back up, with the least of Irish drinks – Pimm's (Sorry Manu...we had to drink it) and Lemonade! Looks like Beer, but it's a rather cunning illusion, becasue in reality tastes like mud! It'll do.

11:22am - Our attempt at dressing in suits and looking classy backfires somewhat, when some genius notices that the 4 Lads (Harbott, Seamus, Sam and Myself) bear striking resemblance to the Anchorman movies Channel 4 News team - (Click Here). Personally, I can't see it. But we go with it, because were all about the craic. At first the plan was for Dead Man suits, but with our Charm and good looks, we decide to take to the new title with gusto! And it proves to be the decisive edge we needed for the day. With the Tardy polyester look, meat worker shirts and god awful ties, were set to go. Even managed to keep the tags on all night, incase I needed to return in morning.

11:45 am – We hit the Streets for the Parade. The world famous St Patrick's parade through the heart of the city. After a quick pit stop in the Pub we whipped out to watch the extravaganza……..I last all of 15min of watching, after 30 marching bands, 300 screaming kids (not including the 100,000 lining the street) , 1 million coloured fish (Not sure what the connection between St Patrick and Fish was, but one can only assume he was either a fisherman or had a small fetish for the little buggars), Rain, Hail and some fairly weird looking floats. Dissapointed I find myself heading for the comfort of the Doyle's Pub, lamenting the lack off Potatoes, Leprachuns and fiddles! Met up with Dan and the whole Dublin delegation was present for the big day, special times!

12:20pm – Witnessed the first and quite surprisingly my only arrest of the day, but in true Irish style it takes the cake. Large Gardi (Police) pushing young 12yr old in handcuffs along the sidewalk…with young lads old man in Tow, and both abusing nine colours out of each other. Classic stuff! Missed what would have been the greatest Kodak moment ever…no Bother!

Harbott managed to stay watching for the whole parade (Only one), I think he got wind of the Brazilian float, and once that went past…he was Hungary for more. Turned up in the Pub with a thirst on and oddly enough a mini version of 'Guess Who', that Zany favorite family board game from the 80's! After a few games, he was in to the drink and out of the championship, couldn't pick a dirty nose.

2:00 – 4:00pm – Buy now the lads are in Full Anchorman character. All taking on their Favorite one, while claming it was the initial plan from the outset. We really had fallen on golden times at Doyle's, effectively taking the place over as we all rove around acting like complete twats, and people are actually loving it! Queue fits of laughter from Yanks, Aussies, Poms and Irish. The only exception was the contingent of Eastern Europeans, who are always the funniest of people, and life of the party. On sighting our Suits, they enquired as to why! Answer – "To take the Piss", I said to the strange looking Chec girl…..which was met with blank faces, and the same question "Why you wear Suits….."

We all came to the conclusion that in Eastern Europe these suits were probably the height of fashion…I'm looking to move there next year!

4: 00pm 2:00 am - At this point the time line becomes superfluous to needs and ability, as the day become one long drunken crazy conversation with anyone who possessed either a mouth and/or ears, neither being a necessity for our banter. As the night wore on, so did our welcome mat, but god loves a tryer and we hung in there.

We ended up at the same pub for well over 12 Hours, till just before closing. I really believe you can break the night up into two distinct sections. Pre Snake Bite and Post Snake bite……..Basically anything after 4-5pm was snake bite territory!

So after waking the next day, the generally consensus was:

St Patrick's Day in Dublin – You number 1 !

St Patricks Day Photos

Welcom to the Party

The St Pats day attire!

Loving the Football

Welcome once again friends,

So last night was our second visit to the hallowed turf of Lansdowne rd within a week. But that’s were the similarities end my friends, this game was brilliant. A sellout crowd of 44,000 was
there to watch Ireland beat the Swedish in what they label as a friendly match. For most of us it was our first really big Football match (Soccer people) and we were all lucky enough to see Ireland take the match 3 nil. Brilliant.


The atmosphere was great, with heaps of singing, chanting and great craic. The poor Swedes coping most of it, all in good fun though. We were in the North terraces right behind the goal, so there were plenty of knackers voicing there opinions on every facet of the game. Have some short video footage, and you can here the little bastards giving it to who ever cocked up at that given moment, priceless stuff. Oh to be a sportsman.



The crowd even attempted the incredibly hard Musical Mexican wave, where instead of throwing rubbish when the wave arrives, that part of the crowd sings the song. Works for us!

Now those of you who are Auckland Warriors fans are familiar with the Ericsson shuffle, when, due to a shit house performance, you leave before full time! So with 15 min left in the game, the Swede's in the crowd decided to make for the border. The Locals were having none of this, and the first breakout attempts were greeted with the chanting of “Cheerio Cheerio Cheerio”…the whole Northern stand, all 10,000 of them. Magic stuff. All in all it was a great first match to watch, and might have even sparked an ongoing interest in Football.



So between the Rugby, Soccer and Dublin Riots, she’s been an eventful last week. The Lads are gearing up for a huge St Patrick’s day on the 17th March, which is a public holiday over here. 3-4 Days of partying in Dublin. So will no doubt have some yarns till then,



Photos - Ireland v Sweden
Video's - Clearing the Goal and Singing Swedes

Cheers
duChats