This may surprise you, especially if you live in Boston or Chicago, but it's not as easy to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Northern Ireland as you may think it would be. Like so many other things here, whether you celebrate it or have the day off of work or school has religious/political overtones. It is seen as a mostly Catholic Nationalist holiday, and schools and businesses have the choice to remain open or not. Coleraine, being a Plantation town, is still primarily Protestant, and there were no city-wide, city-sponsored events, although some community organizations and schools had programs.
I had thought of going to [London]Derry (another religious/political distinction), which has a much larger Catholic population and a big outdoor festival with music and a parade – but I got a late start because it was rainy this morning, only to learn that the buses and trains were on holiday schedules, which ended up making it unfeasible for me to get there in time for the festivities.
So instead I went to Portstewart, wandered the cold and windy Promenade, and sat in on the last hour of a community music and dance concert at the town hall, which was filled with families and little noisy kids running around. That was followed by some coffee and a chocolate-filled croissant in a cafe on the Promenade, reading my book, and walking along the shore a bit more. By this time, the sky had cleared, the sun had come out, and the evening was calm and beautiful, and I got to watch the sun set over the water. At 6:15 I hopped on the bus to Portrush, wandered the [very quiet] streets a bit, and then headed back to Coleraine and Kilcranny.
I bought some Guinness on the way home to share with Mike, since he'd decided not to go out, and we celebrated in style with our cans of Guinness and some freshly baked Irish soda bread...because if you're going to be in Ireland on St. Patrick's Day, you have to do something Irish!
Tomorrow - planting potatoes? That seems to be the farmers' Paddy's Day tradition!
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