Listen, at 21 years old, I couldn’t get enough of a pub crawl down barf-soaked streets. I think comedian Colin Quinn’s St. Patrick’s Day poem sums up why at 35, I’ve decided to stray from the pub crawls of yore.
“I’ve lost my friends and seven teeth at this festival to St. Patrick. Puked, out-duked and oft rebuked this holy day’s unholy hat trick. Can’t find the train, it starts to rain. I’m in a world of trouble and a house of pain. Still, this tradition I keep alive, it’s in my blood, at .25.”
My March 17 no longer resembles Quinn’s, and I’ve since perfected the art of the St. Patrick’s Day punk party, and it’s under my own roof. No, I’m not kicking over my garbage bins and covering my walls in black Sharpie art. I’m spinning my favorite Irish punk tunes, making my tried and true St. Patrick’s Day recipes and clinking Guinness pints with my closest friends — after I’ve toasted with an Irish proverb of course.
Here’s a guide to partying like a proper Irish punk from home.
The Tunes
“Nowadays for us, St Patrick’s Day has taken on a totally different meaning where it’s about getting together with friends and family,” Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys said in a 2013 interview. Adding what rookie mistakes not to make, and this applies to partying at home as well, Casey said “Don’t start too early. You start too early, you peak at about two, you’re in trouble. … It’s a marathon, not a sprint. You wouldn’t believe how many kids are getting rushed into the gutter outside of the club because they went a little too high, too fast.”
Whether you’re spinning records from The Pogues, Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphys, you can’t party like a punk on St. Patrick’s Day without some Celtic Punk tunes vibrating your walls. If you don’t have any records handy, I made a Spotify playlist to make your celebration a festive one. And like all the party playlists I make, it starts nice and easy with songs including The Pogues’ “Dirty Old Town,” The Cranberries’ “Zombie,” and The Kilkennys’ “Galway Girl,” and ramps up as you get deeper into the list with pub songs like Flogging Molly’s “Drunken Lullabies,” The Real McKenzies’ “Chip,” and Dropkick Murphys’ “Rose Tattoo.” The playlist, “Party like an Irish Punk on St. Patty’s,” is searchable via Spotify, or you can check it out by clicking the link here.
SEE ALSO: Flogging Molly is turning its St. Patrick’s Day party into Shamrock Rebellion Fest
The Feast
What could be more punk than a grab-what-you-have traditional Dublin stew known as the Irish Coddle? Bacon, sausage, potatoes and of course, Guinness, make this super easy stew rich and filling. Check out Casey Elsass’s recipe for Food Network Kitchen below.
Ingredients
1 pound thick-cut bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 pound Cumberland sausage or any mild pork sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 large white onions, halved and thinly sliced
Kosher salt
1 cup fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/4 cup Irish stout, such as Guinness, optional
Irish soda bread, for serving
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
- Add the bacon to a large Dutch oven and set over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the fat renders, about 10 minutes. Add the sausage and increase the heat to medium high. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the bacon and sausage are nicely browned, about 10 more minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon and sausage to a plate.
- Drain the fat from the pot and return it to medium heat. Add the onions, a pinch of salt and 1/4 cup water. Use a wooden spoon to scrape the brown bits from the bottom and sides of the pot, then sprinkle the onions with 1 tablespoon of the parsley and plenty of black pepper. Layer the bacon and sausage over the onions and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon parsley and more black pepper. Layer the potatoes over the meat and add enough water to submerge everything but the potatoes, about 2 cups. Season the potato layer with a pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon parsley. Bring the liquid to a boil (don’t stir!), then cover and transfer to the oven. Bake, checking halfway to add more water if needed, until the onions are very tender and caramelized and the liquid has reduced slightly, about 2 hours.
- Finish with a pour of stout, if using, and a final garnish of the remaining parsley. Serve immediately with soda bread.
For some other St. Patty’s recipes, check out:
- Clodagh Mckenna’s mum’s Classic Irish Lamb Stew takes a bit of time to make, so you may want to whip it up the night before or start early in the morning. It’ll feed six to eight people and keeps well if you’ve got some left over to nurse a hangover with on March 18. The stew pairs well with Irish soda bread. Find the recipe here.
- My go-to St. Patrick’s Day recipe is Alton Brown’s Shepherd’s Pie, which calls for lamb, but you can swap it with ground sirloin or even ground chicken or turkey if you steer away from red meat. This is a hearty dish that will feed several of your closest mates and doesn’t take too long to make.
- Southern California News Group contributor Cathy Thomas has a recipe for Colcannon, a rustic dish of mashed potatoes moistened with milk and butter and mixed with cabbage and onions. It’s a St. Patrick’s Day favorite served with corned beef, and she’s got a recipe for a “quick” corned beef here.
- Scotch Eggs aka St. Patty’s Pub Eggs are soft boiled eggs with a gooey center, wrapped in sausage and breadcrumbs and deep-fried. They are fantastic, and you can find a recipe for them here.
- John Mitzewich’s highly-rated Guinness beef stew is “a very simple dish, but at the same time, it has a deep, complex, rich flavor. The maltiness of dark beer really does amazing things for the gravy.” He serves it in a nice ring of green onion-mashed potatoes. Find the recipe here.
SEE ALSO: St. Patrick’s Day 2024: Where to find corned beef, green drinks and more at chain eateries
The Drinks
If you have the patience to make a proper craft cocktail, start with the Dubliner, a citrusy take on the Manhattan using Irish whisky. Find Gary Regan’s Liquor.com recipe below.
Ingredients
- 2 ounces Irish whiskey
- 1/2 ounce Grand Marnier
- 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
- 3 dashes orange bitters
- Garnish: 1 green maraschino cherry
Directions
- Add the whiskey, Grand Marnier, sweet vermouth and orange bitters into a mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled.
- Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
- Garnish with a green maraschino cherry.
Some other St. Patrick’s Day cocktails to try are:
- The Dead Rabbit Irish Coffee may be the perfect hot cocktail to keep you warm this March 17, which is expected to be a relatively chilly and cloudy one. Grab the recipe here. For an Irish coffee with a twist try the Shamrock Flip by Luis Gudino, which incorporates an egg.
- If you prefer your St. Patrick’s Day drink simple and easy, try an Irish beer like the Murphy’s Irish Stout, a Guinness Extra Stout, O’Hara’s Irish Craft Lager or Sullivan’s Malting Irish Red Ale.
- A McGlashan is a funky twist on a whisky sour, which incorporates smooth Irish whiskey, orange-ginger marmalade, and a fiery kick of ginger for a balanced mix of warmth and spice. Here’s the recipe.
The Toast
No St. Patrick’s Day is complete without a proper Irish toast, here are a few of my favorites to clink glasses to:
- “May the winds of fortune sail you, May you sail a gentle sea. May it always be the other guy Who says, ‘this drink’s on me.”
- “Here’s to cheating, stealing, fighting, and drinking. If you cheat, may you cheat death. If you steal, may you steal a woman’s heart. If you fight, may you fight for a brother. And if you drink, may you drink with me.”
- “May your glass be ever full. May the roof over your head be always strong. And may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.”
- “May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, The foresight to know where you are going, And the insight to know when you have gone too far.”
- “May the lilt of Irish laughter, Lighten every load. May the mist of Irish magic, Shorten every road. And may all your friends remember, All the favors you are owed!”