Help me throw an awesome Irish pub party.

April 25, 2007 8:39 AM

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.)

posted by Not in my backyard to Society & Culture (12 answers total)

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).
posted by junesix at 9:05 AM on April 25, 2007

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...
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:10 AM on April 25, 2007

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.
posted by junesix at 9:17 AM on April 25, 2007

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?
posted by MarvinJ at 9:30 AM on April 25, 2007

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
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:33 AM on April 25, 2007

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.
posted by jamesonandwater at 9:44 AM on April 25, 2007

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.
posted by jamesonandwater at 9:50 AM on April 25, 2007

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

Lisdoonvarna is another good singalong btw!
posted by TwoWordReview at 10:10 AM on April 25, 2007

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)
posted by amtho at 11:25 AM on April 25, 2007

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
posted by TwoWordReview at 2:15 PM on April 25, 2007

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'
posted by TwoWordReview at 2:22 PM on April 25, 2007

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.
posted by Juliet Banana at 3:55 PM on April 25, 2007