You'll be fine, OP. Just remember the Scots are real sticklers for manners- don't forget to say "Top o' the mornin to ya" to shop keepers, bartenders, folks standing beside you at the bar, etc. It immediately breaks the ice and they'll appreciate that you took the time to learn how to speak in their dialect. Also Scottish men are very easily flattered, if you compliment them on their cute British accent they'll be like silly puddy in your hands.

"<i> don't forget to say "Top o' the mornin to ya" to shop keepers, bartenders, folks standing beside you</i>"

You are just being mean >)

((6))

(I was soooo hoping to see a Cholmondley Warner response in this thread but it looks like he's not around anymore? :( )

Sadly CW died last year
http://www.fodors.com/community/fodo...nge/rip-cw.cfm

Having been banned, he was reinstated after he was dead. He would have laughed like a drain at that

I wish people would be more polite on this forum - after all that is why people have queries, because they need information and be corrected if they have a wrong perspective, but in a civilized and polite manner!!!

I think nytraveler's point about historic bad relations between religious communities is worth repeating. In Scotland, there are essentially RC and Protestant football teams, Celtic and Ranger and support for one or the other is not just Patriots vs Giants.

Several years back, I was in Edinburgh on Michael Collins's birthday and watched an Irish parade being jeered and having the odd vegetable tossed at them.

If the OP is still around, the lessons of this series of posts is that all kinds of things are going on abroad that you should avoid getting involved in because they call up a lot of emotions that are just different from the way people in the States would react to the same thing.

There is a huge Irish diaspora living in the U.K., and many of them are unconcerned about past political and religious problems. I live in an English city which has traded with Ireland since the middle ages and which has seem considerable Irish inwards immigration over the past 200 years. In the early 1800s, there were anti-catholic riots, although there were riots about other grievances as well.

I have never heard of a march on Michael Collins' birthday, and the idea of an event where those taking part were pelted with vegetables is beyond belief where I live. We save our energies for protesting about new supermarkets and chain coffee shops.

Things must be different in Scotland, where feelings on religion and nationality are stronger. That's the downside of the sort of emotions that brought you Braveheart and the culture of perpetual grievance.

I always liked what Simon Hoggart, the Guardian columnist, said about the Irish. They will do anything for peace except vote for it.

Yes, the peoples of both islands have had an interesting common history for thousands of years and there has been constant toing and froing of settlers and migrants in both directions.

People often forget that Patrick was actually Romano-British and first brought to Ireland as a slave having been captured by pirates.

I don't think he'd be very impressed by modern 'St Patty's Day celebrations'.

There are Irish bars all over Europe nowadays, though most of them will have local staff rather than expat Irish people and very few of them bear any resemblance to a bar in Ireland. I expect the ones in Edinburgh will be doing something on March 17th though it may not resemble the goings-on in Boston or New York.

While the tone might be a bit snarky, the advice was generally good. Sectarian divisions run deep in parts of Scotland - and not just in Glasgow. I have been on the receiving end of some quite unexpected hostility in Aberdeen and in Edinburgh because of my Irish accent (just some mild rudeness - but still).

It's probably not a good idea to go in for all the wearning of the green nonsense, and to steer clear of Irish pubs on the day - Irish pubs abroad on 17th March seems to be a magnet for every kind of idiot that you can imagine.

And it's never, EVER Patty.

Very sad to read about CW - I had no idea. I actually thought of him after Spurs' disastrous thrashing at the hands of the mighty Arsenal last weekend.

"I wish people would be more polite on this forum - after all that is why people have queries, because they need information and be corrected if they have a wrong perspective, but in a civilized and polite manner!!!"

I agree with you BUT............We seem to get this same question every year albeit it usually refers to London, I think some posters get a bit peeved by the naivety of the question, just as I was a bit peeved by the rant of an American in a Mcdonalds last year, he was insisting that he should be able to pay in USD as Mcd's is an American company and also we should be forever grateful to the US for saving us from the nazi jackboot during WW2.
I am at a loss sometimes to understand why these type of people travel as they seem to expect that everything will be the same as "back home".

>> 'St Patty's Day celebrations'. <<

Is that where everyone dresses up like their favourite character from Peanuts? Or like the Andrews Sisters?

As long as it's nothing to do with Pat Butcher!!!!!!

>>As long as it's nothing to do with Pat Butcher!!!!!!<<

I can see it now: competitions for the dangliest earrings, the most eye-searing floral print.....

I live near Glasgow Uni and on Paddy's night the bars are usually heaving with folks in silly green hats who've had a lemonade or 3.
Just by a swift Google I've already spotted 2 St Patrick's Night Ceilidhs and a Pride of Ireland St Patrick's Day Show in Glasgow that weekend.

Oh yes, and I'm invited to a friend's Paddy's night party up the road.....

Yes - but it's not like NY - where everything is green on March 17 - from beer to bagels to fur coats to dogs (yes, some people dye their dogs green with food coloring)

Nor does the entire city stop for a massive parade with every politician within hundreds of miles, a half a million marchers and a couple of million watchers.

But NY is a city of immigrants from everywhere - and there are parades (although smaller) for just about every nationality you can think of. (Columbus day isn't far behind and Puerto Rican day parade is also huge.)

It's just very naive to have so little understanding fo the world outside one's tiny area to assume that everything will be the same. (I recall a poster some years ago asking about Thanksgiving celebrations somewhere in europe. Somehow they must have missed all of American history - with the Pilgrims, starvation the first winter, then Squanto and his pals showing the immigrants how to survive and the THANKSGIVING feast when they brought in the first harvest and knew they would no longer starve.) Why would people in europe celebrate that?

I seem to remember the dearly departed CW saying that <i>of course</i> we celebrate Thanksgiving.


On July 4th.

(Thanks for the link, MissPrism- I haven't been around these parts for quiet a while and had no idea. What shocking, terrible news.)

Apologies for the hijack, OP.

To actually answer the OP's question, rather than patronise the crap out of the poor soul, the following links have a list of events on in Glasgow and Edinburgh over the St Patricks day period.

http://www.glasgowstpatricksfestival.../listings.html

http://www.viewedinburgh.co.uk/pubsa...urgh-3486.html

Enjoy your trip and don't let the idiots get you down.