Comments on: Help me throw an awesome Irish pub party.

Question: Help me throw an awesome Irish pub party.

Not in my backyard — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:39:30 -0800

Asking for a friend: If you could design a booklet to be distributed at a party at an Irish pub, what would you include?

My company is hosting a party at an Irish pub, and we want to do a "reference booklet" that will be left on tables and distributed with the gifts (logoed pub glasses and coasters) as guests leave. This was originally intended just to be an Irish dictionary with toasts and various phrases, but it's grown to be a reference booklet that can help our guests identify/define some things that are going on throughout the evening. We'll be showing Gaelic Football and Hurling on the flat-screen TV's in the pub, and we're having a 4-tier whiskey tasting event. We have engaged an Celtic rock band to play throughout the night, and they are going to do some sing-alongs but they want us to pick the songs.

Here's what I have so far, but I am concerned I'm missing something:

Rules for Gaelic Football and Hurling
Explanation/Story of Irish whiskey and list of Irish whiskeys being tasted during the evening
Story of Guinness and list of types of beers available at the pub and the attributes of those beers
Words to 3-5 Irish sing-alongs (need recommendations!)
Dictionary/Pronunciation Guide for Gaelic words (words included so far are: craic, slainte, failte)

I guess what I'm most worried about is that I'm missing some good Gaelic Irish words. Do you have any suggestions? Also, I am in need of a few good, easy Irish sing-alongs.

If there's something important missing from my list of subjects, let me know, too!

Of course, to make it more difficult, I need all this information by tomorrow, Thursday, April 26.

(I am asking for a friend and can post her answers to any further clarification questions here.)

By: junesix

junesix — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:05:07 -0800

I got a big kick out of reading this Passport to the Pub manual. Include choice bits about ordering etiquette, pub talk, round-buying, opposite sex, and pub games (if applicable to your location).

By: TwoWordReview

TwoWordReview — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:10:23 -0800

Some singalongs -

The Wild Rover, The Irish Rover, 'óró sé do bheatha abhaile', Spancil Hill, Níl na Lá, The Rathlin Bog... I'm sure I'll think of some more in a minute.

Irish words

Dia Dhuit - Hello
Dia 's Muire dhuit - Hello in response
Slán - Goodbye
Teach tabhairne - pub
Amhrán - song
Ar meisce - Drunk
Póg mo thóin...

By: junesix

junesix — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:17:17 -0800

For the Guinness section, keep the history light and instead toss in bits of interesting info and "things you didn't know about Guinness" from the Wikipedia entry to spark conversation. There's a lot of mythology and rituals surrounding Guinness such as its iron content, low calorie count relative to other beverages, how and how long it's poured, the widget at the bottom of canned Guinness, and the mesmerizing foam head [1]. The Wikipedia entry also has a list of Guinness drinks.

By: MarvinJ

MarvinJ — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:30:36 -0800

A nice touch for the Whiskey tasting page would be to include the gaelic translation
uisce beatha (ish ka (water) ba ha(life)

Maybe some Oscar Wilde quotes?

By: TwoWordReview

TwoWordReview — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:33:49 -0800

There's also 'Whiskey in the jar' for the sing-alongs

Some more modern Irish songs that always get people singing would be -

Crazy world - Aslan
July - Mundy
The Waterboys - Whole of the Moon

By: jamesonandwater

jamesonandwater — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:44:26 -0800

Top 100 Irish albums of all time.

I read recently about a dictionary of modern Irish slang that would be really useful, but now I can't find the damn story. The slang dicitonaries online tend to be ... dated ... but may work for your purposes.

How about printing out or compiling some interesting/funny/recent Irish news stories? Just to get away from the stereotypical stuff. A map with zoomed-up photos of various places/sites/pubs/people born there?

There's a whole bunch of Irish links on my profile page you might find helpful.

By: jamesonandwater

jamesonandwater — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:50:01 -0800

Oh here's an okay list of Dublin slang. Some of it unrecognizable to this Dub, but hey, it's the internet. And their general Irish slang.

By: TwoWordReview

TwoWordReview — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:10:06 -0800

Yeah there's a few on that list I haven't heard either!

Lisdoonvarna is another good singalong btw!

By: amtho

amtho — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:25:04 -0800

I personally have wondered how to pronounce (and capitalize and spell) "Erin go bragh".

Also, you might consider faerie / mythology words, like Tuatha de dannan (also vague on spelling / capitalization here)

By: TwoWordReview

TwoWordReview — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:15:25 -0800

I personally have wondered how to pronounce (and capitalize and spell) "Erin go bragh".

That would be pronounced something like 'Air-in guh braw'

Pronunciation for the other words I mentioned would be

Dia Dhuit - Dee-ah ghwitch
Dia 's Muire dhuit - dee-ah-s mwira ghwitch
Teach Tabhairne - chock thow-or-nya
Amhrán - ow-rawn
Ar meisce - Er meshka
Póg mo thóin - pogue mu-hone

By: TwoWordReview

TwoWordReview — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:22:56 -0800

Forgot to add in 'Tóg go bog é' (thogue guh bug eh) which means 'Take it easy' which is used to mean either mean 'calm down' or more commonly a casual form of 'goodbye'

By: Juliet Banana

Juliet Banana — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 15:55:41 -0800

Maybe I've got the wrong idea with the suggestions, but I recommend some comic strips, or illustrations. As long as it's not cheesy clip art leprechauns, artwork is what would turn something like this from a throwaway pamphlet into a booklet that I'd tuck into my purse and keep.
Sorry, no fun facts, my linage is about un-Irish as it gets.