To round off the Paddy’s Day nonsense, here’s some links from news and blogs possibly related to Kansas City and St Patrick’s Day. I suspect there may yet be more.

• A reminder that KU’s Spencer Research Library boasts one the largest collections of Irish literature outside of Ireland

• KCTV5 interviews parade co-chair Kevin Bundy in Browne’s

• The parade committee announced the 2010 KC St Patrick’s Day Parade Prize Winners

• Brookside & Snake Saturday Parades feature the Star’s Photo Gallery

• The Voice of Pete McCluskey features on the KC Star’s Video report of the parade (1:45mins)

• The 1st Irish triplets in the KC Area had their 6th own little neighborhood parade

• Why can’t a girl have 2 favourite colours? Learning Leslie enthuses about the colour green

• Downtown Lee’s Summit announced its 5th Emerald Isle Parade results

• The Kansas City Gaelic Athletic Club went to the parade

• Irish Oatmeal and Irish humidity gets an appreciation by The Star

• Jules gets understandably irritated at the Brookside parade, and gives us a whole bunch of facts about St Patrick (that to be honest some of us don’t accept)

• Original Kansas Citian Julie makes for the 1st time Irish soda bread in Nebraska

• How Did You Spend St Patrick’s Day? The Bonner Springs Chieftain tells a few very short stories

• Kansas Bob remembers singing “When Irish Eyes Were Smiling” in Elementary school

• Types of Irish beverages are described in a drinks rundown by Blake Hannon

• Not for the 1st time, the luck of the Irish is called into question as the sort of luck you might want

• Drunk-Monkey found it hard to get into party mode midweek

Read: KC Irish Links Round-Up for Paddy’s Day 2010 »

Parade Route
The route of the St Patrick’s Day in Kansas City for 2010 is the same as it was in 2009: Along Broadway starting at 33rd Street (Linwood) going south to 43rd Street in Westport.

Not downtown.

UPDATE: List of Parade Winners

Parking & Bus Info
The Parade committee website has information on parking & bus routes for the parade.

Times
It begins at 11am and as it’s shorter these days than it was a few years ago it should be over around 1pm-ish. I hope people stay to the end; I used to hate seeing people stream away from the parade while hundreds more paraders were still coming down the street.

Grand Marshall
Ireland’s Ian Byrne is the Grand Marshall. He performs in some band called The Elders

Special Guests
The FDNY are special guests with the New York firefighters being joined in the parade by members of KCFD.

Television
Live television coverage is on Fox 4 from Noon - 1pm.
There is also online streaming coverage from 11am - 1pm on Fox4KC.com

St Patrick’s Day Events
Other Irish Events in Kansas City

Read: 2010 Kansas City St Patrick’s Day Parade »

Every St Patrick’s Day in Kansas City I was asked about food in Ireland. And I wasn’t sure what to say.

Because, despite all the changes, food in Ireland is different to food in America. Meals are different. Eating is different.

I know it didn’t have to be that way, but in general I found food in America poisonous.

Breakfasts were what other countries call desserts, portions were double the sizes you found in other countries, processed food dominated the grocery store shelves and home-cooking, and sugar was added to everything. I think it was even added to sugar.

And I ate it all.

Rather than buy fruit and vegetables, or food generally, I opted for chemicals. And frequently in all-you-can-eat restaurants.

And because in Ireland I was brought up to always clear my plate, all-you-can-eat restaurants provided a real moral problem. As did people’s houses where everyone always cooked enough for small countries.

The sedentary lifestyle didn’t help and within 6 months of living in the Land of Sugar and Salt I had increased my weight by almost 50%. I was literally a man and a half.

Eventually I reversed that trend. By taking control of my life and buying food that wasn’t junk. It sounds simple but ignoring all processed foods and conjuring up regular meals from what was left did not come naturally.

My favourite food website in Ireland is called Not Junk Food. Because it’s all about the simple cooking of fresh ingredients.

Today Not Junk Food shows you how to cook the best bacon & cabbage, the nearest meal we have in Ireland to a national dish - even if America still insists on the non-typical Irish dish of Corned Beef & Cabbage for its supposed traditional Irish food.

You’re looking at actual meals prepared and cooked in Ireland so if you want to see what people in Ireland are eating, don’t ask me - have a look at Not Junk Food.

More on Irish Food:
   • Turkeyed Out In Ireland
   • A Vegan Irish Recipe
   • Sausages in Ireland are NOT called Bangers
   • Chicken Sandwich Imperialism

Read: Not Junk Food »

Once again you have a full day of activities for the whole family on St Patrick’s Day at the Irish Museum and Cultural Center (IMCC) in Kansas City’s Union Station.

Location/Parking
The IMCC is located in the lower level, west wing of Union Station, where you get 3 hours free parking.

Admission
Entrance to the Museum for St Patrick’s Day is free with some activities carrying a small fee or suggested donation.

St. Patrick’s Day, Wednesday March 17, 2010 at the Irish Center

Family Fair
The Family Fair runs all day, from 10am - 4pm, which means you can go before or after the parade - as well as during of course. There are refreshments available.

11 am - 1 pm - Shamrocker Irish Guitar game
1:30 pm - Reddest Hair contest
1:45 pm - Wee Little Parade through Union Station, led by piper Jody Watson

All-Day Activities for All:
   • Face painting
   • Irish balloon figures
   • Celtic art “stained glass”
   • Storytelling
   • Song leading
   • Plant a shamrock to take home
   • Green hair and nail painting
   • Scavenger hunt
   • Your name as Gaeilge (in Irish)
   • Genealogy lookups
   • Irish tourism and classic movies

Nelly Don “A Stitch in Time” program, by Terence O’Malley is on at 1:30 pm, in Union Station’s Town Hall. $2 is the suggested donation, with tea and scones (that I presume you receive rather than give for entry)

See the IMCC’s website for more information.

Other St Patrick’s Day & Irish Events in KC
I’ll post these events on the Kansas City Irish events calendar.

Read: St Patrick’s Day 2010 at the Irish Museum & Cultural Center of KC »

For those of you who want to sing the Irish national anthem but don’t want to learn the Irish language, or have learned it but find that all that fighting talk is not how you wish to celebrate a small open economy with candles in its windows, I give you now an alternative anthem

Specially recorded for The Irish Times with St. Patrick’s Day almost upon us, is “Ireland, Ireland!” by The Duckworth Lewis Method - who you may know as Neil Hannon and Thomas Walsh.

So yes, it’s not a million miles away from the “My Lovely Horse” of Father Ted fame.

Called “Ireland, Ireland!”, I believe in the tradition of Filthy, Rich, & Catflap (successor series to The Young Ones) playing Trivial Pursuit and “Iceland comma Rejkjavik full-stop” that this new anthem should be called “Ireland Comma Ireland Exclamation Mark”.

Here are the lyrics - you can listen or download the song from The Irish Times

Ireland, Ireland!
By The Duckworth Lewis Method

Ireland, Ireland, damp sod of earth
lost on the surf of the North Atlantic.
Ireland, Ireland, mountains and mist,
Vodka and chips, it’s so romantic.

Joyce and Heaney, Beckett and Wilde,
Bill O’Herlihy, Dunphy and Giles,
Evans, Hewson, Mullen and Clayton,
Westlife and Jedward the pride of our nation!

Ireland, Ireland, once we were poor,
Then we were wealthy; now we are poor again.
Cows and horses, donkeys and sheep,
Munster and Leinster, Connacht and ******.

Chinese, Polish, Africans too,
Doing the jobs we don’t want to do.
An Irish stew, a nation of nations,
Working for peanuts in petrol stations.

Ireland, Ireland, you are the best
Place to the west of Wales and Scotland.
Sometimes it’s heaven, sometimes it’s hell,
But I’d rather be Irish than anything else.

Written by ‘Duckworth & Lewis’ c.2010

And from the article in the Irish Times by Elaine Edwards, here’s Thomas Walsh’s thoughts on how “Ireland, Ireland!” might fare:

We’re completely at the whim of The Irish Times and the nation. We’re not getting ahead of ourselves, but we’d like them to sing it before the Scottish game this weekend.

Read: “Ireland, Ireland!” The Alternative Irish National Anthem »

The 3 gigs on St Patrick’s Day by Rattle & Hum, Kansas City’s U2 tribute band, have been added to the KC Irish Events calendar.

That’s 3 - one in the morning at the KC Live! thing in the P&L, one in the afternoon at the Beaumont Club, and the final one in the evening at the Irish Hooley in Waldo co-hosted by Lew’s Grill & Bar & The Well, though R&H are appearing at The Well.

Times etc are on the Kansas City Irish events calendar.

Read: U2 Tribute Band Rattle & Hum on St Patrick’s Day in KC 2010 »