The Saturday List #433 - My top five St Patricks day memories

 St Patricks day is a massive day in the calendar for everyone of Irish ancestory. My Grandad was born in Dublin a couple of centuries ago and came to the UK to work and to avoid the heat on his family from the British establishment, as they were staunch republicans. Growing up as a Roman Catholic in North London, Irish culture was all around. I went to St Vincents RC Primary and then Finchley Catholic High School. On Paddy's day, everyone would come in with Shamrock and put on Irish accents and talk about how terrible all things British were. There was usually some sort of do in the Church, with a diddly band playing songs like The Wild Rover and Danny Boy. For me, it was lemonades and crisps.

As I grew up and I got into the Pogues, I started to appreciate the music. Here are a few of my best memories of Paddies day over the years.

1. 1981 - The Galtymore in Cricklewood. I was going out with a lovely Irish lass from Kilburn. Being into punk, I'd never been there before. Her elder brothers had the air of gangsters, but when I told them of my Irish heritage, they were fine. They were very into the Republican movement. There were collections for the cause, but mostly there was a lot of Guinness drunk. It was a fun night. The family moved back to Ireland suddenly a week later and I never saw them again.

2. 2016 - The Pogue Traders at The Water Rats -  A mate of mine was playing tin whistle in the band. I love the Pogues and I love the Traders as they carry on the musical legacy. It was a grand old day. Lots of Guinness consumed. They are playing at The Half Moon this year.Go if you can it will be great, sadly I can't

3. 2014 - The Sacred Heart Parish St Patricks night do. I was part of the Parish Council and we decided to do a Paddy's day do. When we were discussing food, we decided to invite everyone to bring their 'signature Irish dish'. The feast that the lovely parishioners put together was out of this world. I still get hungry thinking about it. I had the job of DJ'ing for the event as we couldn't get a band. Much fun was had. 

4. 1969 - St Patricks night party at The Annunciation in Burnt Oak. I was only eight at the time. My parents had been married at The Annunciation Church and knew the long time Parish Priest Fr Fred Smythe well. There was a vibrant social club, which had a 99% Irish membership. The party was always a blast. My brothers took their guitars down and lead a big sing song. My sister Valerie commented that this was "The last St Patricks day of the 1960's" which seemed really important at the time. 

5. 1979 - The False Dots St Patricks Day party. The band had been going a month. Pete Conway was very into Irish culture and decided that we'd have a St Patricks day party. We decided to write a song to mark the event. Pete was really into the Republican cause and wanted to write a song highlighting the injustice of British policies over the years towards Ireland. We were quite prolific and Pete was a great poet. When he announced that he was writing a song,  I was quite excited. Three days before the party, he turned up at my house and was distraught.  He said "Rog, I've got real writers block on this, every time I try and write anything about Ireland, it just comes out as a load of old rubbish". Pete was a bit of a perfectionist. It was important to him and he wanted to do it right. We got a bottle of cider and decided we would not move until we'd written a classic. After three hours we gave up. We had the party anyway, which was actually quite a laugh. It was the first time I drank too much Guinness, but not the last time. Dave the drummer quizzed Pete as to why he hadn't written the song. Pete said "If I can't write a better Irish song that the Dubliners, I'm not going to write one at all". That always stuck in my mind. I've not seen Pete since 1984. I wonder if he ever did?