It’s not easy being green

James O’Connell

Thoughts of attending the parade were entertained this year. Denver, being a ‘cow town’ in the rural mid-west has a lot more in kin with an upbringing in Mayo than London or Singapore. Cattle head up the procession and the pipe bands and céilí dancers are not far off home country standards. Not to mention the tractors. It was on St Patrick’s Day too – a bonus. However, it clashed with the game in SW17 and, well, priorities. I’m one of the lucky few that saw the 2009 crew cross the line (twice in 60 seconds) in the Millennium Stadium.
The sacrifice was worth it. Don’t you think? Besides, I’m not a huge fan of the parades. The Ramble Inn in Tooting was a more-than solid replacement for any parade during my London days. Both club games were on and it was wall-to-wall with first generation ex-pats. Paddy, Mary and Jimmy were great hosts with pints flowing and the craic ninety.
Surprisingly, Singapore had a fairly decent parade but through a mixture of bad timing and apathy, I just never made it. Here in Denver there’s very few Irish. I’ve only bumped into a handful and some of those were passing through. Damien from Roscommon runs Linger & Ophelia’s – two fine eateries/cocktail bars. My kind of places and a good fella to bounce the ball with.
In my first year my co-workers insisted on a happy hour and it was good craic. At the bar one of them was told “Bar tab for Jimmy O’Connell? No one has that name. Pull the other one!” That was Noel Whelan from Galway, proprietor of The Celtic Tavern, alas no more. Inside was fine. Outside? There’s an event call kegs and eggs. They start early and there’s something unedifying about people wandering around polluted at 11 o’clock. A sea of green t-shirts with embarrassing slogans, dodgy shamrock suits, tutus and the odd skintight luminous onesie spill out of drinking houses and decorate the sidewalks. Not to mention the green beards, beads, glasses, wigs and tiaras.
In the red and black Mayo away jersey, you’d stand out for not being green. No one recognized the top. This year I saw no other club or county jersey. No physical evidence of another paddy. Just a sea of plastic as far as the eye could see.

James O’Connell is a native of Ballinrobe and a former Mayo News journalist.