I don’t know how I offended St Eithne to get chucked off my flight back from Dublin but my Aer Maidens got me back on board as they always do.
And here’s me who says a prayer to all the Irish saints every night.
Those who have flown on Aer Lingus, Ireland’s national airline carrier, may have observed that the planes are all called after saints and are thus blessed.
But Eithne’s wings (or another part of her body) showed signs of wear and tear.
And poor dear she had to rerouted back to Ireland.
Of course, this being a chatty Ireland-Scotland flight and me being stupid tired after five days in LA, the City of Angels, I hadn’t heard the announcement.
And woke up with Baile Atha Cliath looming up in huge letters in front of me.
Now the best place to sup your Guinness is Ireland and while we all have our fave bars there’s only one Guinness Storehouse.
Where you get the panoramic view from their Gravity bar, the top floor of their seven storeys.
But don’t take my word for it (well do) but American Presidents (and their governor pals) and British royalty have all sipped the stout.
Kodaline high hopes
Every one a storey: Guinness Storehouse
Some, of course, going the full hog to don a white foam moustache.
This year Guinness Storehouse in the capital’s Liberties district is pushing its already excellent green credentials.
By dressing up the Christmas tree with 1759 lights, soundscaped decorations and a festive menu of Irish produce.
The recently awarded Leading Tourist Attraction in Europe has collaborated with multi-media talents, Farouk Alao, Sorcha O’Higgins and Ger Clancy, as well as Jason Boland (Kodaline), who has created an original piece of music.
Sorcha’s artwork represents the Guinness Storehouse through the ages – an industrial past, an iconic present, and a technicolour future.
While Ger Clancy’s take on the iconic St James’s Gates makes for the perfect backdrop to festive photos this season.
Tunnel of love
Friends in high places: With former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe
This year, visitors can interact with a cinematic experience that uses cutting edge technology to breathe new life into stories and photography from the Guinness Archives.
Curated by Nigerian Irish multi-disciplinary artist Farouk, each scene uses motion technology to invite visitors to explore, capture and share moments of festive celebration with friends and family during their tour.
One of the first visual installations that consumers will see is the dramatic tunnel, which sits beneath the Guinness Storehouse Christmas tree featuring those 1759 lights as a nod to the year Guinness began.
And reframes the 9,000-year lease signed by Arthur Guinness.
Guinness with it all
Settle down: The Frothy One
There are seasonal experiences to marvel at and excite the senses behind St. James’s Gate this Christmas.
A giant bauble display fills the building, perfect for capturing a story for Instagram, while pop-up live entertainment during the holidays will help visitors create special memories.
Of course the stout is at the centre of everything in the Storehouse.
So enjoy the best artisan producers like Kish Fish and Medialuna, Irish cheese producers, the spiced beef sandwich, and Mulled Guinness and Guinness smoked salmon.
Black and white: And the purrfect pint
Meaning you can take a taste of the Guinness Storehouse from our home to yours this Christmas.
Guests can also upgrade to the STOUTie or Academy experiences, both available as optional extras when booking on the Guinness Storehouse website for the ultimate day out in Dublin over the festive break.
Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse is included in each experience ticket.
Make a date
The law of Gravity: At the top of the Storehouse
EXPERIENCE DATES: Wednesday November 22nd– Friday 5th January
Time flies by when you’re the driver of a train, the Chigley version rather than the Half Man Half Biscuit version.
Because whatever else changes in the world kids (and big kids alike, like my father-in-law Casey Jones) always love pulling the levers or pushing the buttons.
In the booths and cabins of planes. (back in the day), trains and cruise ships.
Perhaps it’s testimony to how Modern Ireland has moved on that a fellow exec on the Irish paper I worked on didn’t know the rebels’ names… so for him here’s the Easter Reprising.
Another who worked for me thought that King Billy had won the Battle of the Boyne and passed that off jokingly as a lack of interest in history.
Ireland’s history, of course, would have been very different had its people and those of its neighbours left history where it was.
But then God did give his greatest creation a rewind button and the Irish (most of them) use it more than the pause or fast forward.
News that 70,000 fans have signed a petition to have an erection of Paul O’Grady (he’d appreciate that) put up in his hometown Birkenhead sees us dragging up the statue debate again.
Whether the proposed O’Grady statue over the Mersey from Liverpool would be of pets’ pal Paul with a beloved pooch.
Or his beloved alter ego, Lily Savage, a celebration of this towering figure would be most welcome.
We make no apologies for dredging up this contentious subject again because simply put statues are a fixture of every tourist’s city break trip.
And it is our mission to redress the balance.
By putting up more cultural figures on pedestals to match, replace or overtake the mystery military statues that look down on us.
Who’s a hero?
A horse, a horse: Stonewall Jackson at Manassas
Statues was all the talk in of all places Barbados a few years ago.
When the Ski Club of Virginia made their annual pilgrimage down to the Caribbean.
And our new friends from the Deep South were alerting us to the gathering storm.
Over the statues of the Confederate leaders proliferating there.
Which I saw for myself when I went out to Virginia.
Of course for every celebrated soldier, conceited king or quaffed queen there are real heroes and heroines who have rightly been placed in marble and stone.
And it’s a racing cert that an English market town is awash with Guinness mid-March but what of down the road and a history of London‘s Paddy’s Day?
We’re all recovering from the last few days when half the population of Ireland got jinglier of pocket through four days at the Cheltenham Festival.
When their favourite, in this case Gallopin des Champs, comes romping home.
Norah’s story: Norah Casey in Trafalgar Square in 2002
Of course Paddy‘s Day has become something of a misnomer over the years.
What started out as a one-day break from Lenten sacrifices when us youngsters got to eat sweets has grown.
A weekend bender
The craic: The Irish rule in Cheltenham
And in these more heathen days it’s a bevvy-up that stretches out over a whole week.
Which is why Cheltenham designated March 16 as their Paddy’s Day which, of course, extended into the real day.
While March 18 at the start of Paddy’s Weekend, has become a recurring celebration of Irish rugby excellence.
Or whenever it lands.
When Ireland win the Grand Slam and in the best possible style with victory over the Old Enemy, England.
Of course, you don’t have to be sporty to indulge in Paddy’s Day revelry.
And Daddy’s Little Girl has been living it up in the Dublin of her youth (insert your own city in here).
Paddy’s Day, of course, has been celebrated around the world by ex-pats for hundreds of years.
The London Irish
Green for go: Ireland regularly win around St Paddy’s Day
But London’s St Paddy’s Day celebration is oddly and shamefully no long-held tradition.
And only within this Fiftysomething’s lifetime.
Its history too is tied up with an old travel companion and Irish businesswoman par excellence, Norah Casey.
For those of you lucky enough to still live in Ireland.
Norah is instantly recognisable from Dragon’s Den.
But she also more than made her mark in 22 years in Britain and at the helm of the Irish Post.
Not least in leaving her legacy with the first St Patrick’s Day Festival in London in Trafalgar Square in 2002 and which you can pencil in your diary for next year.
Livingston, we presume
Greening it up: Global Paddy’s Weekend celebrations
Which she organised with the-then Mayor of London Ken Livingston.
Norah informs us that it had been written into the bye laws of Trafalgar Square that no Irish gathering was to be held there.
Nor was an Irish flag permitted to fly in the square where Nelson looks down on us all.
Maybe the Admiral’s revenge for blown to smithereens on O’Connell Street, Dublin.
It had been written into the byelaws of Trafalgar Square that no Irish gathering was to be held there, nor was an Irish flag permitted to fly.
And so back in 2002 tens of thousands of Irish packed the square to hear The Dubliners and Mary Coughlan sing to the crowds.
As Norah so poignantly put it: “I don’t mind admitting that I cried.. but so did Ken and the whole team.
“Along with everyone else there, I felt so proud that finally we could celebrate being Irish in London.”
So if you’re in Trafalgar Square today as I was last week, and celebrating Ireland’s victory over England and their Grand Slam just remember.
What Norah and Ken and countless others did to ensure you enjoyed your London’s Paddy’s Day.
