Gawker
So a bunch of angry Irish folks have put down their pints of Powers Gold Label long enough to feel aggrieved by something, which, let's face it, is their favorite thing to do after getting plastered and blowing up cars in heavily-populated areas anyway. This time Seamus and Co. are upset about "a St. Patrick's Day liquor ban on New York's commuter railroads, calling the move a gross act of stereotyping and discrimination."
"It definitely looks like stereotyping, and that's what the MTA should be faulted for," state Senator Martin Golden, a Republican of Brooklyn who is Irish, said. "Some people do get out of control, but to focus on that day, and on certain segments of the population like that, is totally wrongheaded."All of which seems reasonable enough until you think back to, oh, just about any St. Patrick's Day you've ever spent avoiding belligerent paddies puking in alleyways and bitching about the British.
And have any of you tried to take the LIRR on that particular holiday? You could drown in the rivers of barf and blood. Plus you basically have to step over the bodies of battered gays to get off at Massapequa.
Whatever. You don't like it, Golden? Why don't you go on a hunger strike? It worked for Bobby Sands!
Ban of Liquor on St. Patrick's Riles Railroad Commuters [NYS]
Related: There's a profile of model Irishman Shane MacGowan in today's Times.
Comments
I think the city should move the parades for St. Patrick's Day and Puerto Rican Day on the same weekend.
being a strawberry blonde, my aryan/nordic good looks are at times mistaken for irish, to which i typically respond, "no, i drink by choice and not addiction and i have a decently-sized cock" to which my questioner usually replies, "you're a fuckin' asshole" at which time i buy them a pint and a shot (and of course another for myself).
yeah, i love irish pubs. just not on st. patrick's day. except ear inn. i'll go there any day.
Equally annoying as all the shit-faced Paddies are the Irish wannabes who do their part to maintain the drunken lout charisma that is so much a part of the day. If your name is Vinny, stumbling around in a green plastic bowler hat doesn't make you Irish. It just makes you one more loud asshole on the subway.
OK. Me and the other Dead Rabbits are'a gonna be in front of Five Points at dawn on the 17th. We're a'takin' all comers...
Don't forget - I warned you people it was a slippery slope back when they demanded an end to Puerto Rican Pride Day rapings.
The poteen and lashings of green draught on the LIRR was to help kick-off the spring offensive against the Vandal tribes of Tapeuppia and Lower Blowoutsylvania.
Now just intestinal fortitude will have to suffice.
May the ghost of Brian Boru protect and keep ye, Hibs!
@momo: I feel your pain. Except that I actually am Irish and I drink because of choice as well as addiction. So wait, fuck you, asshole. Buy me a drink.
@ Truculent: I cannot wait to be one more loud asshole on the subway. Hopefully my "Kiss Me I'm Irish" pin will cancel out my Mediterranean features for a day. (That's all it takes to be Irish, right?)
Well why not? Most of the Thirsty McSweaterheads are like 17th generation (i.e. Americans from Long Islan, not Irish ya eejits) anyway.
@ Sev:
Ain't never heard of no Black Irish?
Who do you think invented the McRib, Lucky Charms, huh?
Shamrock Shake?
"Some people do get out of control, but to focus on that day, and on certain segments of the population like that, is totally wrongheaded."
I didn't even know wrongheaded was a word until today.
And like most of McDonald's crap, the McRib was fucking foul. Lucky Charms though, whole other story.
@schvitzatura: Yes, I have. However, I have no Irish in me whatsoever. Will not make the "but I'd like some" joke. Oops.
I'd like some, if it didn't have whiskey dick at 10 am.
Erin Go Bragh(less). You know... like Tit Models.
Nice.
@Sev:
Sadly, that is true. Go ask my buddy Sol Cohen.
just drive, ya pussies.
Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day -- everyone who chooses to celebrate it, that is. Therefore, everyone's a drunken asshole on St. Patrick's Day. This isn't discrimination against any particular ethnic group, but rather against drunken assholes. I'm totally fine with that, actually.
if you need a holiday to have an excuse to drink before noon, pick up some barely legal ass, and boot and rally by 3 p.m., then there's two words you need to hear: amateur hour.
This makes me so proud to be a Sullivan.
In order to balance the evil perpetrated by my people, it has been thrust upon me to be the one well-endowed, teetotaling Irishman amongst the masses of NYC. 'tis a lonely life I lead.
@rchick: Nominated.
Throw Up In My Mouth A Little, I'm Irish.
It wasn't the hunger strike, it was the dirty protest.
I'm still not sober!
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