St Patrick's Day 2016

I won 2 tickets last minute for the Bow Street Sessions at the Jameson Distillery, thanks to Hotpress magazine. The night included free food and a few drinks whilst we enjoyed the musical styling of Otherkinok and +Maverick Sabre. A particular hightlight was the collaboration of Maverick Sabre with Dublin Gospel Choir covering +Adele Hello. It was a great way to spent a night out and especially in the lead up to my birthday and my week off from work.

I was taken away to bray for a few days to celebrate my birthday and spend time alone with Paddy. The days we spent there, were quiet yet perfect and we decided after it, to move in together, the following weekend. Once all the logistics were all taken care of and everyone got all settled in with the new arrangement. We decided to arrange an apartment day out together, as the weather was promised to be nice, we decided to head to +Dublin Zoo, somewhere where we all enjoy going. An interesting antidote was, while all of us were waiting for the Asian Elephants talk, we had a pre-talk entertainment as the Bull elephant decided to illustrate an education talk in the form of the birds and bees, which was so funny as the parents panicked trying to distract the young children from watching it.

With the year that was in it, +Niamh  and myself, expected that the crowds for the St Patrick's Day were gonna be outrageously massive, that we decided to go in for the parade early. Considering how early we managed to get in, the crowds on O Connell Street were too bad for our liking and decided to head back towards the spot we had last year, which luckily enough we managed to get a decent spot to watch the parade. Typically the Irish way of doing this, the start of the parade was nearly 45 mins late starting however despite how cold the wind was, the parade was worth the effort and wait. The fact we got our spot early, was definitely lucky as the crowds gathered were the biggest ever.

 

Once the parade finished, we dashed quickly out of the city centre before the drunken madness that descends onto Temple Bar commenced. En route out, I noticed on Instagram, that there seemed to be something going on at Old Jameson Distillery in Smithfield. When we got there, we noticed that they were hosting an event called St Patricks Hub for the day, with live music indoors and out in the courtyard. Talking to someone while listening to one of the acts, she told us that they were giving away free, freshly printed sweatshirts there live by Damn Fine Print in front of you and original signed art work by the artist James Earley.

After having some well earned food at Jo Burger, we enjoyed some more music and a drink before heading home. It was the perfect way to finish the day after the parade.

 

The Wednesday during Easter Week, I finally managed to see the inside of St Werburgh's Church after years of trying.