Vienna had a sort of mini St Patrick’s festival this week. There were events all week, and the centrepiece was the parade last Saturday. I can’t remember the last time I was at a parade in Ireland, but I felt I had to come out and wave the flag for Ireland. A metaphorical flag of course, as the real one is in a box in a container somewhere between Dublin and here.

The parade started from the Schottenkirche, which is appropriate as it is one of the oldest churches in Vienna, and is one founded by Irish Benedictine monks in the 12th century.

The two women holding the flags are from the embassy. The one on the right won a 4.5l bottle of Jameson later that day. The band is Austrian, the Wien Energie Blasorchester (think ESB). They led the parade about 200m down to the Freyung where there was a beer tent set up.

The parade it self was made up of the usual motley collection of Irish related groups – the local GAA club, the Expats association, Irish Wolfhounds and Irish Setters and so on. The crowd was a good mix of Austrian’s, Irish, and bemused tourists.

Like the Irish times I am not particularly keen on the silly green leprechaun hats that were being worn by a lot of people. But until we settle on something less stupid as a national image (and stop aping the cartoon one the Americans have of us) we are stuck with this for the moment. Anyway, you can watch the whole parade (all 2 minutes and 45 seconds of it ) here:

Down at the beer tent there were speeches in German and English, music and an Irish themed table quiz (where the big bottle of whiskey was handed out). The weather was fabulous, sunshine and about 15 degrees, but it felt much warmer in the Freybug sun trap.

It was perfect for being outside listening to music and having a beer, even if it was Austrian Ottakringer dyed green. Now while the Austrian brass band was nice, I have to say the sound of a pipe band always gives me a bit of a thrill and makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. We had two pipe bands on Saturday. There was a big local one, the Vienna Pipes who seem to be very Scottish, and a smaller one from my home town, the Curragour Pipe Band of Limerick.

I briefly met the Frank Cogan who is our Ambassador to Austria. That’s him in the suit on the left, and his wife in on the right. I believe he is the “outgoing” ambassador, but I don’t know when he will be replaced. Regrettably I didn’t get to thank him for inviting me to his place for drinks on Wednesday when I had a grand auld time, and no one mentioned the F.R. things.

It’s a shame that the lovely day was finished off by a dissapointing performance against Scotland. But fair dues to our Gaelic brothers, they played brilliantly.