Top 3 party planning list…

1. Pick a theme.

There are lots of theming ideas for St Patricks day, most of them centered around the colour green and shamrocks, leprechauns and rainbows.  But there’s no requirement to go mad with the colour green if you don’t want to.  You want your party guests to feel at home, free to let their hair down and enjoy the night so…

Why not create an irish pub theme in your home?

Paint up some cardboard to look like wood panelling, or oak beer barrels and stick these to your walls.  Get some pictures of Ireland blown up on the copier and stick these to the inside or outside of your windows so you can look out on an Irish landscape rather than your traditional view, get friends to bring along bar stools, rearrange your own household furniture to create a “bar room” style, add a few extra coffee tables, and look for quirky bar accessories.  Arrange bottles of Irish whisky and beer around the room, Irish beer mats (you can often collect these from pubs).  Get a blackboard and add some quirky bar quotes or a fake menu, and think about your lighting to try and make the room more atmospheric.  Go for uplighters and lamps, rather than your regular overhead bulbs.

2. Get the right music

There is no need to pick Irish folk music if you don’t want to – there are a great many Irish based pop artists which lend themselves to providing background music.  Here’s a few of our favourites:

• The Corrs
• The Cranberries
• Jedward
• U2
• Westlife
• The Pogues
• Clannad
• Enya
• The Boomtown Rats

There’s also the option to go really folky and encourage your friends to busk within your home.  If any play guitar get them to bring it along.  They’re sure to know one or two songs you can all join in with!

3. Food!

Ireland is well known for a number of traditional foods and drinks.  While you could just dye whatever you want green, there really is a lot more to offer by eating traditional Irish fayre – a quick trip to your local supermarket will give you a decent range of foods, but if you’re Irish-short on the shelves – why not recreate some traditional Irish recipes instead!

• Soda Bread, Potato Bread, Guinness beer bread
• Irish Cheeses like Cashel Blue, Bay Lough Cheddar, Irish Porter, and a range of Irish Goat cheeses.
• Irish Stew
• Colcannon
• Shepherds Pie
• Steak and Guinness pie.

4. Drink (OK, we lied about a top 3… but a “top 4” doesn’t quite sound right and drink deserved a bullet all of it’s own!

We really shouldn’t need to highlight the benefits of Irish drinks… but as well as beer, there’s whisky and Irish Coffee… and even Irish Gin these days – so do take some time to consider your beverages this St Patrick’s Day so you don’t miss out on some new drinks as well as the old classics!

• Guinness
• Caffreys
• Murphys
• Baileys
• Irish Whisky (Bushmills, Jameson, Paddy, Tullamore Dew, Pogues Irish Whisky to name but a few…)
• Irish Gin (Feckin Irish Gin, Drumshanbo Gunpowder, Boyle’s Craft Irish, Mor to name a few)
• Irish Coffee