Lebanon Swept Up in Worldwide Tide of Green for St. Patrick's Day
Dubai’s Burj al-Arab is green today, as are the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Niagara Falls, the London Eye and South Africa’s Table Mountain. No, a mysterious pollutant isn’t shrouding international landmarks – it’s St. Patrick’s Day.
Celebrated annually on March 17, Ireland’s patron saint’s feast day commemorates the man credited with bringing Christianity to the pagan island in c.432 AD. But recalling St. Patrick’s missionary work now largely takes a backseat to the annual showcase of Irish culture – from music and dancing to much-stereotyped drinking habits – the festival entails.
In more recent years, Asian and Middle Eastern cities have started hosting St. Paddy’s Day parades and events, and welcoming Irish government ministers and dignitaries, in the name of the man mythology claims drove the snakes out of Ireland.
In Lebanon too, the popularity of the holiday has grown.
For eight years Maggie Preston Kent has been on the organizing committee of Beirut’s St. Patrick’s Day Gala Ball, and she says this year’s affair is the most popular yet, with the event sold out at its 170 capacity and people still seeking tickets.
“There’s been a definite increase in interest in St. Patrick,” she says. “People are ready for the craic [Irish for fun, or a good time].”
She adds that events around the holiday are taking place on a much larger scale than usual, singling out as examples St. Patrick’s bashes, widely promoted online, hosted by the Speakeasy in Hamra and We Run Beirut. Patrick’s Pub, an Irish bar on Uruguay Street in Downtown Beirut, is also putting on a party for the occasion.
The Irish community in Beirut is by no means huge, so one can safely assume that a significant proportion of those in attendance at these events will be Lebanese – although on St. Patrick’s Day Irish putters are known to temporarily and indiscriminately grant nationality to all and sundry.
Where one will find a large concentration of Irish people in Lebanon this Saturday is at Camp Shamrock in Tibnin. Here, the more than 400 Irish peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon will mark St. Patrick’s Day in a manner more traditional than most in this modern era. For one thing, there’ll be no green beer.
In the morning, explains Sgt. Fergus Barrett, all the troops will receive shamrock specially flown in from Ireland. Shamrock is a small plant with three heart-shaped leaves. St. Patrick, the tale goes, used it as a symbol to explain the divine trinity to his Irish converts.
Traditionally in Ireland, people attend mass on St. Patrick’s Day morning – it is a religious holiday after all. Ireland’s UNIFIL soldiers will also attend a mass celebrated by the contingent’s chaplain Fr. Tom Brady, at which their shamrock will be blessed.
The afternoon at the camp will be dominated by a medal parade, at which soldiers serving overseas for the first time will receive their U.N. medals. Irish Minister of State for Defense Paul Kehoe will be in attendance, alongside the UNIFIL force commander, making the occasion particularly special.
But while the feast day is an official holiday back home, the soldiers, must work. Barrett highlights that the battalion’s operational commitment must be sustained despite the occasion. He will commence his day by going on patrol.
“It definitely won’t be like home where you can go into the pub and sit down for the day,” he says.
For those soldiers lucky enough to be at base camp in the evening, the highlight of the day will be watching the culmination of the Six Nations rugby tournament with a showdown match between archrivals Ireland and England. Ireland aren’t in a position to win the competition overall, but they can still be instrumental in denying England a second consecutive title – a prospect relished by the country’s populous.
Corp. Kevin Barry won’t see the game as he’ll be on night patrol on the Blue Line, but says “a win for Ireland would have a great effect on morale.”
However, while St. Patrick’s has become a day both nationally and internationally synonymous with permissible lunchtime intoxication, no such indulgence can be authorized while tasked with such onerous work as patrolling Lebanon’s southern border.
It may seem counterintuitive to those well-versed in Irish cliches, but the soldiers aren’t overly tormented by this restriction.
Some Guinness, however, will be available “to mark the occasion” but only in a limited quantity. Barrett says the one or two kegs flown in from Ireland should stretch to about a pint apiece for those soldiers not on duty, while Trooper Paul Reilly comments that it’ll just be nice to have “a taste of home.”
Back in Beirut the Guinness supply may be likewise limited, with only a few pubs serving the black stuff, but otherwise revelers have free rein to imbibe as they will. Be warned though, embracing Ireland today, can leave you struggling to disengage from its hungover grip tomorrow.
Niamh Fleming-Farrell
The Daily Star