I had a great St. Patrick’s week/day this year. It was a bit of an odd one as it’s my first year living in the city centre whilst the Paddy’s day festival was on.
I’ve recently moved into an apartment, located on Capel Street with . Before you ask, yes the noise from the street can be a pain sometimes. For anyone who doesn’t know, Capel Street is a small one way street that is located directly at the end of one of our main pedestrianised shopping streets Henry Street. We are just far enough away to avoid most of the hustle and bustle. To be honest, the benefits of being so central really outweigh any of the negative stuff.
Last year I was invited to the grand stand by the guys at Pix.ie. I but it was a bit of a pain not being able to leave the grand stand without having to walk through the parade. This years Paddy’s day was a bit of an interesting one. I was invited by to watch the parade from his office roof top. We had such an amazing view! His office is located in the middle of Dame Street, just a stones throw from Dublin’s City Hall.
To be honest it was a bit bizarre.. We some how managed to get sandwiched between a pack of Greenpeace folk and a few anarchists who liked the idea of waving massive Palestinian flags! They were the types who seemed to think it was wise to stand on a railing in front of a directional mobile phone antenna. They also seemed to take pleasure in risking life and limb jumping over a set of roof top spikes to get on to the roof of the five story building next door. The things that people do sometimes boggle the mind!
What was hilarious was when one of the anarchist guys started selling some sort of raffle vouchers in support of Shell to Sea campaign. At this point, Louise started cracking up. For anyone who doesn’t know, Louise is a mechanical engineer who is building a pipeline for a power station in the UK. I’m sure you can see why she wasn’t too impressed. Be warned, don’t bring up the subject of pipelines or around Louise. 
We were also invited by (Official Guinness Storehouse Ambassador) to for their festival party. They had the usual diddly dancing, DJs and live music including Rattle & Hum, Jimmy Smyth, The Gravel Walk and Sliotar. There is nothing like a few pints of Guinness, but I couldn’t help noticing that many of the people there looked like they were bored out of their tree! At least that was until Rattle & Hum (), kicked off.
All in all it was a fun day. s from this year.
