St. Paddy's Day in Dublin: A Whole Lot of Americans, A Whole Lot of Fun

‘Twas the night before St. Patrick’s day and all through Dublin airport everything was stirring. In fact, every single American college student studying abroad was stirring.

They came in packs and masses. A herd from Barcelona. A gaggle from London, another from Copenhagen. Wearing leggings and New Balances, and carrying Longchamp totes through Dublin’s busy, crowded airport.

The non-EU passport customs line was literally an hour long. I think I saw the entire populations of Penn State and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in that line… but it was midnight and I had had a full day of class and travel so I was a little bit delirious.

This mass entrance of Americans to Dublin in mid-March apparently is one of the “charms” of St. Patrick’s Day. My friend from home that studies at University College Dublin has predominabtly Irish friends, and all of them decided to skip ot on the festivities, saying that it was more of an American thing to celebrate, anyway. I can’t be a cynic and make fun of it, because I was a part of it: Western tourism at its finest, a college weekend in Dublin for the biggest party in the world. 

It really is incredible, though, the masses. The world sometimes feel so small on this side of the globe, where prague is only an hour flight from Milan and Rome and Venice are only a three hour train ride apart. You forget that between those hours on train rides and flights, there are people tucked into all corners whether they be locals or tourists.A lot of them, though, are tourists. 

And they all came out for this festival. They donned their green from head to toe, stumbled into one irish pub after another, ate chips and full irish breakfasts.

It was wild this weekend. Despte my realizations on how big the world was while standing in the customs line at the airport for literal hours, despite the rather guilty acknowledgement that my countrymen had kind of taken over an iconic Irish holiday as their own playground, I managed to meet some incrediblepeople from all over. I got to reconnect with old friends, make new ones. Maybe I’m a tourist, maybe I’m basic, but I had a great time.