13 Things About St Patrick's Day That I Usually Tell Strangers While At The Parades

I love St Paddy's Day because all shades of green are flattering on my completion, I have way too many of those cheap/plastic necklaces in storage, and I have a plethora of otherwise useless facts about Ireland in my head. It's also the only day where people get excited when I start doing a jig in the middle of the dance floor. Strangers enjoy my haymakers jig and it's a simple enough dance to teach your partner as you go. Strangers also seem to be entertained with my drunken spew of Irish facts. Since I'm not imbibed and roaming Far Rockaway, to the internet I go...

1. Ireland's national color is St. Patrick's blue otherwise known as azure blue.

2. Ireland doesn't/ never had snakes for dear 'ol St Patrick to drive out.

3. Leprechauns aren't friendly creatures. They live underground, in the hills and cliff sides of Ireland. Leprechauns wear red jackets as commonly as they wear green and one of the most common "pranks" is to steal children.

4. There's a bar in Minneapolis called The Local that sells the most Jameson out of any bar in the world. They've held the record for a few years with an average of 22 bottles per day or 671 cases per year.

5. St. Patrick wasn't Irish, he was born in Britain and was Roman. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery at 16.

6. According to sales figures, Guinness is more popular in Nigeria than it is in Ireland. Guinness expanded to the Nigerian market in 1827. Unlike Ireland or the US, Nigeria mostly consumes in bottles instead of draft or cans.

7. It takes a little more than six hours to drive across Ireland from north to south. It'll take about three hours from east to west.

8. The Titanic was built in Belfast by 14,000 men and $7.5 million in 1912.

9. Ireland has about 5M citizens. According to the 2019 U.S. Census Bureau, 32M (9.7% of the population) American's claim Irish ancestry.

10. Ireland's flag is symbolic of unity and hope between the Roman Catholics and Protestants. White is in the center for peace, green for the Catholics, and orange for Protestants. Orange was chosen to honor William III of England otherwise known as William of Orange.

11. The first United States celebration of St. Patrick's Day was in Boston in 1737.

12. Maewyn Succat is the real name of the figure we call St. Patrick.

13. Pádraig is the Irish version of Patrick so when abbreviating, it's Paddy with two d's. Patty is a nickname for Patricia while Paddy is the nickname for Pádraig/Patrick.