There won’t be a special St Patrick’s Day supplement this year, so you’ll have to make do with our preview of the events taking place a week next Saturday.
The truth is, we can’t be arsed (see our review of the bottomless supply of talent involved in this year’s Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition). There’s only so many things you can write about the Blarney Stone, Ryanair and that rugby player who looks like Uncle Fester.
In recent years, we’ve done numerous A-Zs, an ‘on this day in history’, several pieces about the history of the parade, Irish food and musical instruments, not forgetting the one-offs on villains (memorably on the same page as a greeting from the Irish Embassy), sports, unsung Irishman, and different types of Irishmen. And despite doing all this, I still only managed to score one out of five when Ireland turned up as a specialist subject round at the Globe Quiz.
No, this year we’re switching our attention to St George’s Day on April 23, the patron saint of England, who in 2012 will be giving Paddy a run for his money thanks to the efforts of Martin Popplewell, the owner of the newly-opened English boozer Sankt Nikolai Restaurant and Pub on Nikolajgade in the city centre.
“We’re getting a white horse,” says Popplewell. (Yeah, beat that Tourism of Ireland!) “The idea is for St George to trot through Copenhagen on a white horse, searching for the dragon to rescue the damsel in distress.”
And along with the theatrics, expect some traditional English goodies like Lancashire Hot Pot, Fish & Chips, Cornish Pasties, a 15-strong all-English beer line-up, and a special St George’s Day Quiz (the answer to question one is that he was Palestinian). “Nobody ever celebrates St George’s Day, so I want to make a big thing of it.”
Talking of English, our Select Shopping this week looks at the best places in town to buy Anglophone books, although it omits the very best location: the St Albans Summer Fete in late August.
Finding a good book there is as easy as finding a pint of the black stuff on St Patrick’s Day.
