Consensual celebrations, like Christmas or the national day, tend to annoy me. Socially mandated happiness feels hypocritical and slightly nauseous. People happily forget the often ludicrous patriotic or religious origin of the celebration, and instead let advertisement tell them how money should be spent on this joyous day. But maybe I’m just envious of all these happy-go-lucky people, or maybe it’s just my contrarian mind acting up on these occasions.
St. Patrick’s Day is a festive occasion in many places, surprisingly so from the sole point of view of its original meaning: why would people around the world celebrate the guy who supposedly converted Ireland to christianism? But nobody cares about that obviously, in fact people enjoy the slightly racist stereotype of Irish folklore: leprechauns, craic and enormous drinking. As far as I know Ireland is cool with letting the world enjoy this cliché, as long it helps with tourism and soft power. Besides, the old-fashioned image of Ireland has little to do with the modern country, which is not so innocent economically speaking.
Every year tourists come to Dublin to experience the “real” St. Patrick’s Day. They buy the mandatory merchandising, they attend the parade,1 the bravest ones visit the Guinness Storehouse and Trinity College… but mostly they drink a lot. It’s good business for the pubs of the city, sure. At night on the 17th,2 the crowded streets of the city centre are littered with discarded stuff, broken glass and the occasional puddle of puke. And of course a strong smell of piss everywhere on the walls and the doors of Dublin.3 Ambulances come and go around town, collecting collateral damage here or there. People don’t care or don’t realize, they’re too busy enjoying their night.
If you’re going to pay a flight, a hotel, all the food and drinks served in the expensive places of the city centre, all of that in order to spend your St. Patrick’s Day vacation in Dublin, you’ve got to turn on your holiday spirit and turn off the rest of the world. So you’re having fun with your friends, you talk, you laugh, you drink, and naturally you don’t pay a lot of attention to the unpleasant details. Like the guys sitting on the streets a bit everywhere, asking for change.
This one guy was kneeling and holding his empty cardboard glass up in front of him, head down, silent. He looked like he had surrended to the meaningless contrast of people having fun and spending their money that night, and the sad reality of his empty glass. It was painful to watch: the crowd was avoiding him as an inert obstacle, not even giving him a look, let alone any change. People don’t want to spoil their fun thinking about the housing crisis, drug addiction or general human misery. Socially sanctionned happiness requires a bit of selfishness.
I passed him and I went back five minutes later. I gave him something, he was genuinely surprised and shook my hand; maybe by the amount I gave him, maybe by the fact that I looked sober, maybe that somebody finally noticed him. I’m not going to pretend that I do this often, or that this action changes anything to the bleak reality of thousands of homeless people in the city. But sometimes you have to be ruthless with your own self-rationalizing inertia.
Epilogue: a bit later, as I was walking home through a dark deserted street close to the Guinness factory, a guy came from the opposite direction. He slowed down before we reach each other, crouched and then kneeled. I slowed down, surprised. He was facing me and wasn’t saying anything. When I was close I asked him if he was alright, he said yes. As I continued walking slowly towards my direction, he turned slightly on his knees in order to keep facing me, still silent. He was kneeling at me, no doubt. I said “Ok then… Have a good night”, and I left. It happened exactly like this, make of that what you will… After all, Ireland is a fertile ground for stuff that rationality alone can’t explain.
-
No offense, but in my opinion the parade is a tad underwhelming. Still a nice family occasion, I guess. ↩︎
-
For many the party starts on the eve of the 16th, so by the night of the 17th some people have been enjoying it for 24 hours. ↩︎
-
No public bathroom in the city. Though not sure people would use them, anyway. ↩︎