At one time, I probably had every Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem album ever made. I used to like to go to Irish bars. Often they had live music. When I was at Sub School, in New London, there was an Inn out in the country that had sea shanty bands every Wednesday night. Me and a buddy would go there, he brought his guitar along. We would get right up on the stage and sing along. I'm not sure the band liked us doing that but they never kicked us out. I'm not that big a fan of Irish music anymore. I probably don't drink enough. I still listen to some girl Celtic singers. Cathy Ryan and Connie Dover, who are American and Kate Rusby an English woman are a few of them. Their music is pretty but not very rollicking.
I hear Irish Catholics are being cautioned not to celebrate St Patrick's Day this year because it's close to Easter and during Lent. I don't think that will stop anybody.
I bought a corned beef. It's a big seasonal sale item and pretty cheap. Most people boil them. I like to roast them low and slow, smothered in onions. That way the fat melts into the meat and not into the cooking liquid. Sometimes I make it with cabbage but mostly I like it for sandwiches and hash. One big corned beef a year, when it's cheap, is usually enough.
Corned beef is not a traditional Irish food. They learned to eat it from the Hebes in New York. It was cheaper and leaner than the salt pork they were used to. St Patrick wasn't really Irish. He was an English slave. I'm pretty sure there were never any serpents in Ireland. There were a fair number of amphibians but they're not too menacing.
Erin go bragh.
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