As a girl who grew up in Dublin, Ireland, you can be sure that I absolutely love St. Patrick’s Day! Whether you’re celebrating in Ireland or the United States, who doesn’t love the influx of all things green and lucky! Not only does St. Patrick’s Day celebrate the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, but it also celebrates the culture and heritage of the Irish in general! I am extremely proud to have been born and raised in Ireland and thought I would take this opportunity to tell all of my wonderful readers about my experience growing up there!
When I was growing up, the city of Dublin was just on the brink of becoming the city that we know it to be today! The town I grew up in was about twenty minutes out of the city and only had three streets at the time! I had a great time growing up with my brother, sister and cousins who lived a few houses away! I was so blessed to have grown up with my extended family all living so close to me, so you can imagine how much I miss my family in Ireland now that I live in America! Family is so important and is a blessing that we should treasure regardless of the distance between us!
The town I grew up in was very small and located close to the Dublin Airport which made getting to the city fairly easy. I remember when my older sister used to sometimes take me with her into the city she would sometimes let me get a strawberry milkshake from McDonalds which, at the time, was my favorite thing in the world and a huge treat!
While McDonalds was a rare treat, I loved above all the traditional Irish food and meals! My Nana used to bake bread weekly which all of my family members looked forward to, as it was known within our family to be the best homemade bread in town! We also had a “bread man” who would deliver homemade bread called “turnover,” with black crust, which I LIVED for! Sunday Dinner was a special weekly family event where my Mom would spend the day cooking ham, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, cabbage and veggies for the family! Roast potatoes, for those of you who don’t know, are potatoes that are cooked in a tray in the oven and get crispy on the outside and are absolutely heavenly and flavorful and delicious! To this day, those dinners are some of my most cherished memories! My mom was such a good cook that all of my friends would beg to sleep over on Sunday nights so that they could be at my house for Sunday Dinner!
There is so much I miss about Irish tradition! One of my favorite holidays was Halloween and I’ll bet you can’t imagine why! In Ireland, it was a tradition to eat a meal called “Colcannon” for dinner, which consisted of boiled potatoes, curly kale (a type of cabbage) and onions! In my family we simply called the dish “Curly Kale” and, as per Irish tradition, on Halloween my Mom would wrap coins in foil and hide them in our curly kale for us to find as a Halloween treat! We also celebrated Halloween the traditional way where we’d dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating! When I was younger I LOVED “The Simpsons” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” so those characters were some of my favorites to dress up as!
Growing up, we played a lot of similar games that are played in the United States! My favorites were “hide and seek” and “blind man’s bluff” and I also loved to play with dolls! I remember having my Corky doll, which I loved more than anything! I used to carry him around with me everywhere I went and he talked! I loved him so much and even though he weighed a ton, he was with me everywhere I went! My cousin, Emily, had his sister “Cricket,” and we’d always play together with them. To this day, we still talk and joke about how obsessed we were with those dolls!
Even now, one of my favorite parts of being from Ireland is the Irish “slang” that was the normal way of speaking in Ireland. It always felt like Ireland was an exclusive club that everyone living there was part of as we had our own “secret language” that only we understood! I remember when I would travel outside of Ireland and continue to speak in my normal Irish “slang,” nobody would be able to understand what on earth I was talking about! It took quite some adjustment for me because in Ireland we have slang for basically everything, so learning proper English ways to say things was quite a brain buster at times!
As you can see, Ireland has its own traditions just like the United States and all other countries! I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to get to experience the cultures and traditions of both countries, and even celebrate St. Patrick’s Day here in the United States! There are so many wonderful things about Ireland and being Irish that you can learn more about by visiting the “travel” page on my website! My Destination of the Season for the spring is Ireland, so click here to learn more about my home city of Dublin and some more of my favorite parts of the beautiful, green country! I hope you all get the experience to catch a leprechaun and find the pot of gold at the end of your dreams! XO