Saturday, March 11, 2000

Spirit of the Irish far reaching this time of year - really far

BY CHRISTOPHER J. KELLY

Half of them think Lucky Charms really are "magically" delicious and the other half doesn't care that Killian's "Irish" Red is really Coors with food coloring.

Hey, at a buck a pint, who would?

And anyway, says Mike Stalter, a bartender at Farley's on Linden Street, "Everybody's Irish on parade day."

And by noon, some of 'em will even be green.

"Hands down, this is the biggest (bar business) day of the year," Mike says, popping the top on his sixth citywide pub crawl today.

"Everybody just gets into the spirit of the Irish."

And not a few spirits of other fermentative nationalities.

If Scranton canceled its St. Patty's Day Parade, which annually ranks in the top three to five nationally (depending on who you talk to), the suits at Guinness and Anheuser-Busch would be crying in their beer 'til Labor Day.

Local distributors and bar owners would don black armbands to commemorate "Bloody Saturday."

La Festa Italiana would be overrun by Gavinskys and Hannanellis.

The Friendly Sons would get downright cranky.

Ask most revelers who reel by you today, and they'll say if you don't wake up Sunday seeing shamrocks and scraping peat off your corned tongue, you're about as Irish as the Queen Mother.

But ask folks who are Irish all year 'round and they'll tell you there's a lot more to it than wearing green and waking up under a table at The Bog.

"It is a pity that some people view us that way, but it's not a bother because those people really don't understand us at all," says Sara Bradshaw, a 24-year-old graduate of the University of Scranton now living in her native Dublin.

The prevalent stereotypical view of the Irish as an entire people with a drinking problem, Sara says, likely stems from outdated imagery and the storied pub culture at the core of Irish society.

The Irish don't go to pubs to get smashed, she says, but to socialize and down a couple of pints --

KELLY,A2 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^much like Americans meet at a restaurant for a bite to eat.

"If you go by the same standard," she says with a laugh, "we could say that Americans eat too much."

Anything but an island of depressed sots, Sara points out that Ireland is an international player on the rise. The unemployment rate is at an all-time low, and the nation boasts Europe's fastest-growing economy.

As good as the economy is, however, it's still tough to find green beer in Galway, jokes Tomas Keys, a 19-year-old U of S sophomore.

"You can get the green milkshakes at McDonald's anytime, though."

Tapping his second parade in Scranton, Tomas finds humor in the myth and merchandising of St. Patrick's Day.

"Actually, St. Patrick was Welsh," he says, "but you can't say that around here or they'll go after your head. There were never any snakes in Ireland, either, but I'm not going to argue."

And who wants to argue on parade day, anyway?

"I think it's a good thing," Tomas says. "It's important to cling to your heritage, especially since America is such a young country. If someone wants to be Irish for a day, this is a really good excuse.

"And why wouldn't you want to be Irish?"

Indeed.

Erin Go Bragh.

CHRIS KELLY, the SaturDay columnist, isn't wearing anything under his kilt and wishes everyone a safe and happy parade day. E-mail him at loudmouth72@hotmail.com.

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