Kiss Me I'm Irish... well, not really...

Now my friends all know that I'm not Irish. While I'm sure it's back in my roots somewhere (I am from Georgia after all, and I do have a child with gorgeous hair the exact color of the morning sun), being Irish is something that never identified my family. As a teenager, I used to envy my "Irish" friends who played hookie, sanctioned by their parents, just to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and, how? Well, I never knew.

Now I know because this year, I finally got to be Irish.

You see, I'm play the fiddle in this Irish band called The Donnybrooks. As husbands and wives (well, wife), parents, teachers, workers and all mild-mannered around normal people, playing in a band together is our chance to let loose and act like the heathens we really are! Singing about whiskey before breakfast, drunken sailors and good old-fashioned Irish revenge is just fun! And we love it! And this week, we did lots of it too! Nine gigs in eight days!

Being the silly Protestant that I am, I never knew what fun all of those Irish Catholics were having on St. Paddy's Day, nor did I realize how much they enjoyed sharing in the fun! With St. Patrick's Day falling on a Tuesday, the band was called celebrate this special saint's day for longer than one solid week. We've played and sung and driven and tuned and loaded and unloaded and set up and torn down, and it has been about the most fun I've had in sense I realized just why having so much fun is usually reserved for the young-uns, under 25.

So to end up this post, I'm going to leave you with a list of the Top Ten Things I Learned About the Irish and St. Patrick's Day. After you read it, go on over to http://www.blogger.com/www.thedonnybrooks.com where you can hear some of our music and see a (teeny-weeny)clip of us on the news.

10) People celebrating St. Patrick's Day (March 17, the anniversary of dear old St. Pat's death) don't really care if it is the actual Saint's day at all, as long as they're within a week of the actual day, or really just some time in March... no need to be gettin all picky about the details.

9) While I never saw a pot 'o gold, four leaf clover or a banshee, I did see several leprechauns: mostly those giant inflatable kinds that people sit in their yards. But they were leprechauns none the less.

8) The Irish love their music, especially songs about whiskey before breakfast, ye olden days, people dying in the steerage section of great ships a 'sinking, making whiskey in the hills, fighting the English for their dear land and drinking whiskey in the evening.

7) Those beautiful folks who do Irish dancing are straight-up, hard core athletes. The only people stronger and tougher are the Irish rugby players... and the dancers are much prettier!

6) St. Patrick's Day is the one, church-sponsored chance celebrators get all year to imbibe before lunchtime without incurring hot wrath, gloomy judgment and loud condemnation of their mild-mannered spouse, who is for once, likely joining them!

5) Irish folk, in general, do not like American lite beer any better just because it has been dyed green. This is something gimmick-y created by slick marketeers to help the "Irish for a Day" types feel more comfortable about consuming beer before lunchtime. The hard-core Irish-types only want the black stuff.

4) I don't know if it's true what they say about what men wear under their kilts or not, but when you're faced with so many, singing, piping, drumming and drinking all day long, it is certainly an entertaining thought to consider. And the flesh of their knees look cute too, just sitting their mindlessly between the hem of their tartans and the wool of their knee socks, just barely concealing the dagger.

3) While I did enjoy some truly delicious traditional Irish food this week, the Church Hill Irish Festival management isn't scared to have more traditional fare, including a Dublin Dog, Irish Burger, Mac 'o Cheese and Ital- oops, I mean Irish sausage... and of course Miller Lite.

2) The Irish people must be the happiest, music-lovingest bunch of people I've ever met. There were so many fantastic musicians at each venue we visited this week that my head is spinning! Inspiration for a new fiddler!

1)Last but not least, no one can resist the surly charm a a sweet little red-haired girl!

See more fun photos of the week here!