Apparently this offends people, which is ridiculous because are you really offended by a story of cops being pelted with smashed up statues of Our Lady from the windows of tenements because what the hell is not heroic about that? The best thing about recreational violence in Dublin is that, going as far back as the historical accounts take us, they all end in exactly the same way: with the people of the city chasing the cops/guard/constables through the streets with brickbats. It’s too bad, too, because I like to haul out my not-bottomless (bottomful?) store of information about theatre riots, church riots, three-day fights on Grattan Bridge where the brawlers went home at night for their tea, and my favourite — a riot started by a pro-Temperance crowd over Sunday opening.
So I posted this piece about how St Patrick’s Day debauchery and generalised hell was actually part of a long tradition of being a piece of shit in honour of the national or local patron saint. And I got a whole load of shit about how I’m a piece of shit for saying so.
This year, this piece of shit will merely tell you that our next Chaos Thaoghaire is ON St Patrick’s Day. There will be no debauchery, unless you decide to become debauched in a manner completely unrelated to the honouring of a national icon. No one, constabulary, magisterial or civilian, will be chased (by us) through the streets of Dublin 2 with brickbats (Battenbergs, maybe).
Here’s the deal:
TIME: 4pm to close (YES! YOU read that RIGHT!)
PLACE: Odessa Club, Dame Lane, Dublin 2
DAMAGE: YOUR FACE. And 10 euro (special price!)
THEME: PADDY GRA (we had originally intended for all the storytellers to be called Patrick, Patricia, Padraig, etc, but it seems that those with Patrick-derived names are unusually likely to have to work on their namesake day, unless there’s some secret Patricks-only party that no one’s told us or our curator, Patrick about)
CURATOR: Patrick Freyne
Note that this is a non-league event, which means that the Chaos Thaoghaire belt (currently held by *two* teams) will not be given out this month, which means that both teams will want to come to Contact High (our April Chaos) and maybe we will make them fight each other, physically or possibly psychically.
For this special event honouring our nation’s patron, we will be providing some incentives for attendees who come to Paddy Gra and want to play it forward. Instead of an all-nighter, we’ve organised this Chaos with your disjointed Paddy’s Day in mind. You can drop in and out, listen to stories, play a few rounds, pick up a game pack and carry it around with every intention of playing every game in it, but get hopelessly hammered instead.
Crikey, someone bring me the head of a cup of coffee ON A PLATE, please.
