How To Celebrate St. Patrick's Weekend Authentically

Since St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Monday this year, Guinness Canada has taken it on themselves to make the celebrations last all weekend long. This year, instead of just calling it St. Patrick’s Day, Guinness has created St. Patrick’s Weekend.

Did you know that over 13 million pints of Guinness are enjoyed around the world on St. Patrick’s Day? Or did you know that around ten million pints of GUINNESS are drunk around the world every day; or almost 2 billion pints a year!

To help Canadian’s have a more authentic Paddy’s Day experience, Guinness Canada has flown over two awesome guys from Ireland, Mark “Happy” Rossiter and David Tunney. I had the opportunity to meet the guys last night at The Ceili Cottage to discuss some ways for Canadians to “do St. Patrick’s Weekend right”. Here are some of their suggestions:

– Eat and Drink Authentic Irish Fare – This means starting your day with a good Irish breakfast (ie. eggs and bangers (Irish sausage), grilled tomato, and rashers (Irish bacon)) and washing it all down with some authentic Irish beers and whiskies like Guinness, Harp & Bushmills.

– Choosing an Irish Venue – Find a real Irish bar. This guarantees you a much more fun experience than a bar just trying to ride the popularity of the weekend. Personally, I am hoping to make a stop in to The Ceili Cottage as they really do things great!

– Singing and Dancing – A good Irish bar should have lots of singing and dancing going on, and it is proven that a little Guinness will actually make you a better dancer ;)

– Don’t Drink Green Beer – If the bar is using food colouring to make their Molson Canadian look more Irish, run! Embrace the black beer. Not only is it delicious, it is also one of the beers with the fewest calories! It is one of my all-time favourite beers.

Guinness Canada have also gone to great lengths to make St. Patrick’s Weekend amazing this year, including flying the kegs in from Ireland then having them delivered to bars around the GTA with police escort!

So, if you see the Irish guys around this weekend, be sure to say hello! Have some Guinness and of course, party responsibly!

GUINNESS CONTEST

To get your St. Patrick’s Day started, I am giving away a couple of cans of Guinness, two Guinness t-shirts (size large) and some awesome Guinness Glassware (see photo). All you have to do to enter is tweet the following without the quotes:

“I promise not to drink green beer this weekend @GuinnessCanada! Now give me FREE Guinness @beachrockinc! https://www.cheapdude.com/drinks/how-to-celebrate-st-patricks-weekend-authentically #GuinnessSPW”

Here are the contest rules:

1) Must be following @beachrockinc on Twitter
2) Must tweet the phrase EXACTLY as shown above without the quotes
3) Must be legal drinking age. ID required.
4) Must live in Ontario and be able to meet in Toronto to collect the prize.
5) 1 entry per person.
6) Winner will be selected on Sunday, March 16 at 6pm.
7) This contest is not endorsed by Guinness Canada in any way.

Prize is as shown: