St. Patrick's Day Parade Munich 2008

ziertz, he's also playing Scottish pipes, not Irish ones. That's because the Irish (uilleann) pipes are not designed for playing while parading, but while sitting at a fireside in a cosy pub. All the pipers at the parade play Scottish pipes and wear Scottish kilts. There are no Irish pipe bands in this neck of the woods. (By the way, Irish marching bands don't play Irish pipes either, for the reason given above.) Irish tartans, with very few exceptions, were devised to make money out of a primarily American market, and the Irish plain-colour kilt died out in general use around the 16th century.
So thank f* the Scots still wear kilts or those pipers would be very chilly indeed.

This looks like it would be fun but I won't be in Munich on Saturday, maybe next year. As far as I know BCN doesn't have a St. Patrick's Day parade, but there is apparently some kind of party somewhere.

If you know any Argentinos in BCN, especially porteños, they'll be celebrating it. Or just head down to any of the Irish bars, there's a couple in Barrio Gotica, one off Rambla closer to the harbour.
Porteños givin' it loads.

Mariposa - the parade is on Sunday, not Saturday ... if that helps?

Not really, maybe I'll ask a friend or two if they want to check out one of the events.

@GT: No, haha, thanks but I won't be in Munich on Sunday either (or any other day until June 27th). But my parents will be arriving here from Munich on Sunday, yay!

I have to say that thats one thing that really bugs me about St. Pats Day in Munich is the emphasis put on the Bagpipes. If there is a picture in the newspaper or a report on TV - its always of the pipers and rarely of the dancers or musicians. OK they can make a lot of noise and do add something to the parade - but it does give the impression that its a typically irish thing and seems to be accepted by all Germans as such.

Agree Agnes - unfortunately they do make the most noise and they are pretty photogenic (en masse if not individually ), and so the view is basically that anything that gets the parade some publicity is OK. This year there's lots of press coverage, but there have been some very lean years when the media collectively ignored the event.

The "view" - of the kilt or up the kilt.
"Anything" that gets the parade some publicity is OK.
Oh no. We have our limits.
We're time honoured Christians, so we are.
Toddles off to bed musing about noisy, photogenic things up
lads' kilts.

Well the perm is being revived in the UK as we speak LOL
Hope it doesn't here - it's bad enough with the Mullet still being popular here :-}

BTW, are there any TT members planning to meet each other on Sunday?

Tons, I believe.

half of the Munich TTers will be there
Pm me or Sarabyrd if you want to arrange a meet up

My few photos of the parade will be up in the gallery in about ten minutes. If anyone has the time to look, Reuters news agency was filming - whoever buys their footage will be showing it on the news.

Here's my pics of the parade...very disappointing...and damn cold. Guinness is always good though.

Anyone catch the name of the brewmaster from Guinness? The only one I can find using google is Fergal Murray...but that wasn't him...

John Hudson.

Cold, cold?? You can't have been there 2 years ago... today was positively warm And we had a great time with Guiness and friends!!

Thank you to Paul Daly and garibaldi for organizing, I enjoyed the variety of groups and must mention the Dirty Kelly's or whoever they were. All four of them came all the way from Bad Reichenhall just to march in this parade!

As DDBug said, Reuters was filming away. I noticed this guy with a tv camera standing right in my way as I was filming the pipers, then I realized that he was filming us. Red alert has been sent to my family in the US to be on the lookout.

Also got bayern wide mention on Antenne Bayern radio BTW.

A lot of fun at the parade today.

Will have some photos up shortly.

Loadsa Pictures Here

Top day..weather held out. I had copious Guinness. Now I am bouncing of the f**** walls, htting the cot and dreaming me way back to Ireland...the end was great dancing in the rain and getting lessons of the stage for free !!! topper !!!

Thx Garibaldi

A great time!

Thanks Eagle for joining in the umbrella ceili (a world premiere - following on from the snow ceili a few years ago)! Where would we be without mad buggers like you lepping around in the pissing rain, eh? Big thanks also to Gen, our sweetie-hurler-in-chief on the Ceili Band float (toll to date: 12 dead, 23 injured; ER head says "It was the toffees") for proving that chucking sweets at people is actually an art and reveals people's deeper, darker side. Looking forward to seeing people's pics - bringing up the rear as usual we missed the whole parade

There is an interview with him in today's Süddeutsche Zeitung, all about how many megagallons of beer he's brewed in his life, how many pints he's drunk and if he would clink glasses with an Augustiner-drinker on St. Patrick's Day.

Anybody know where to get an Irish breakfast this morning?
All pubs open after 12...?

ganz-muenchen.de shows some hundred pictures from the parade plus a 11 minute video from the parade plus a 3 minute interview with master brewer John Hudson. http://www.ganz-muenchen.de/freizeitfitnes...sday/intro.html

You couldn't throw a stone without hitting an Irish wolfhound. Normally there's one being walked by St Patrick, yesterday there were 3 adults and 2 puppies (big puppies). Got to smooch with 2 of the little doggies, girlfriend's son who likes his dogs cat sized wasn't impressed.

Strange this is I've always found them to be daft, nervous, jumpy creatures. Didn't do an intelligence test on these ones (although licking me in the face might be a bad sign), but they weren't nervous at all. Their owners were German, said they fell in love with wolfhounds years ago, and would want no other dog.

Is it just me or is there a little of Alan Partridge in John Hudson?

Some photos from the parade up in the gallery now.

Some really great shots in there Keydeck! Thanks!

More photos from after the parade up now.



PM me if you want anything removed.

We went along to, I really enjoyed the parade and thanks for throwing the sweeties, it was the only way I could drag my boys out.

Yep. Well done. My boy Eirik liked the drums best, and if he was quicker he'd like the sweets too.

...and a fine upstanding young man he is too.
Then again, could he be otherwise - coming from the Loins of Sin.
It was a fine and noble pleasure meeting you two down at Feilitzschstr.