Brianna Parkins: Irish people don’t make a move until 2am, we're obsessed with death, the kebab shop makes a great impromptu first date and other home truths StPatricksDay stpatricksday2023
Most – if not all – people I've met can do at least part of the original Riverdance. They bring it out at nightclubs, weddings, funerals. They also stand on tables and sing the national anthem at the end of the night. In Australia this only happens at sporting events, school assemblies and anti-immigration rallies but here it's just the bar's way of telling you to bugger off home. They will also cajole you into joining a sing-song at some point. This is a trap as they can all sing.
Riverdance lead dancers Patrick O’Mahony and Amy-Mae Dolan are not the only people who can do the dance. Photograph: Don MacMonagleFor a nation that lives life to the fullest, it is obsessed by death. I had always put down my family's morbid fascination with the newspaper obituaries as one of their many eccentricities. But moving here has made me realise it's not their fault – it's their culture.
‘The kebab shop is a great place for an impromptu first date.’ Photograph: Rob Lawson/Photolibrary/Thinkstock/GettyThey sound alike but are worlds apart. One could be gentle pints by the fireplace listening to some old boys in flat caps playing trad tunes. The other could end up performing both parts of the Grease Megamix when you're not even at karaoke and meeting the love of your life over a spice bag.
Which is really the best part of living in Ireland. The being looked after by strangers, the invitations, the inclusion. So please don’t tell me to leave if I don’t like it. Because I really do.
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