March 20, 2011 - 4:37pm
Before You Were Here: A look at St. Patrick's Day past
BY LINDSAY KRAMER
Many students will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day today by dressing in green, drinking green beer and opting to go to the bar instead of to lecture. But the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day in Ann Arbor has been a tradition that started long before current students were even born.
Green beer was already a St. Patrick’s Day favorite in 1950, according to a March 18, 1950 article in The Michigan Daily, with students and Ann Arbor residents crowding the local bars, drinking to honor the famous St. Patrick.
But in 60 years since, at least one thing has changed: whereas the bars used to open between noon and 3 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day and close promptly at midnight, they have since adjusted their hours and are open early in the morning to well past the stroke of midnight.
The celebrations have continued over the years and by 1980, there were over 3,000 people of Irish descent living in Ann Arbor, according to a census at the time. Two Ann Arbor locals who spoke to the Daily at the time discussed the differences between the symbolic meaning of the holiday and how it’s celebrated, according to a March 17, 1985 article in Daily.
“In Ireland it’s a holy day – you go to Mass…It’s festive the entire week, not just one day like it is here,” Tony Paxton, an Irish immigrant who lived in Ann Arbor in 1985 told the Daily at the time.
Jack Foley, a store owner in Ann Arbor at the time, told the Daily that a big part of the holiday is the festivities that go with it.
“It’s the parties. It’s just a joyful time to celebrate. It’s an excuse for a party,” Foley said to the Daily.
In 1980, bars that now cease to exist took part in the day’s celebratory events, and much of the green beer that was served left a lingering color on students’ teeth.
Even the University got swept up in the spirit of the day as the University Club hosted Gaelic dancers and served Irish whiskey, coffee and corned beef sandwiches.
