Happy St. Patrick’s Day, I hope everyone enjoys the requisite libations that come with this festival of American indulgence and Irish stereotypes.
I’m sure many of you will enjoy Irish Car Bombs, the St. Paddy’s variation on the boilermaker, that consists of a 50-50 shot of Baileys and Jameson (or Bushmills) that is dropped into a half-pint of Guinness and then downed in one swig. It’s fun, it’s all Irish booze and it gets you drunk on a day of overindulgence that somehow has become an Irish-American, or really any American’s, right of intoxication.
I’ve had my fair share of the cocktail, and — like on one St. Paddy’s when I somehow ended up chest deep in a creek — too many.
The aftermath of a bombing attack in Ireland.
But, I’ve always been uncomfortable with the very name of the drink. An Irish car bomb can be taken as a reference to the violence in Northern Ireland also known as The Troubles. The situation, as violent as it was complex, was a result of the religious and cultural divides in Ireland. I just watched the movie 50 Dead Men Walking a frank depiction of the violence during the 1980s and this reminded me why I never really liked the name of this fun party drink that is so often enjoyed on St. Patrick’s Day. The name refers to the car bombs used by the Catholic Irish Republican Army and the Protestant unionist terrorist gangs. Both sides felt they had God on their side and therefore had the right to terrorize and kill their fellow countrymen.
Would you drink a Baghdad Suicide Vest or Hamas Rocket or Shining Path Slammer? No. I don’t think so, but for many American’s Ireland is just “cute.” The legitimate issues of the Irish movement against British tyranny for hundreds of years or the bloody and often senseless fighting in the decades following the separation of Northern Ireland are lost on the hundreds of thousands of drunks screaming Erin Go Braugh and Danny Boy while spilling green Coors Lite on their Notre Dame sweatshirts.
The Irish Car Bomb is the epitome of this attitude.
Yet the situation in Ireland has changed, and for the most part Belfast and the rest of Ireland is peaceful. As an American of Irish descent I can say that at least I’m happy the only car bombs being ordered in Ireland these days are by tourists in a pub.
And that is something to celebrate.
