Kerry River Sessions
Chicago's Green River. Marie's Kerry Talk. Abrakebabra's Chip Butty.
Chicago’s St. Pat’s Splendor
St. Patrick’s Day is upon us, and here in Chicago, this holiday is quite the spectacle. By mid-March, the city is crawling out of the winter blues and ready to party. There’s an Irish pub in every neighborhood in the city. There’s not one, but two parades—one downtown and one on the south side of the city where a sizeable sect of Irish reside. And the coup de grâce is the colossal civic splendor of the Chicago River dyed an incomprehensible shade of green.
If you’re seeking a pint on St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago, you won’t have to walk far. Here’s a map plotting the 100+ Irish pubs in the city…
And if you are looking for a short list, here’s a few:
River North (these are all within a few blocks of each other):
• Brehon Pub
• Kerryman
• Celtic Crossing
• Fado
• Smith & Wollensky (Not technically an Irish Pub, but the bar area of this steakhouse is particularly festive during the dying of the river)
North Side classics:
• Chief O’Neill’s
• Fifth Province
South Side classics:
• Cork & Kerry
• Porter Cullen’s
• Barney Callaghan’s
• The Carraig
Kerry Talk
My mother-in-law, Marie, was born on the family farm in the tiny town of Currow in County Kerry in the southwest of Ireland. Well before they ever dyed the river green in Chicago, Marie had relatives who came to work in Chicago, and she immigrated to the city a couple generations later in the 1960s. I didn’t come to know her until the 1990s, but ever since then, I have took note of these magical phrases that she would occasionally drop into conversation…
“You could hear the grass grow.”
“Like a pocket in a shirt.”
“You wouldn’t call the Queen your aunt!”
“More porter for the woman in the bed!”
These were often simple utterances delivered without much thought, but they would always stop me in my tracks. The word choices somehow seemed totally foreign and completely familiar at the same time. And there was an enchanting lyricality to the phrasing, which I have since learned is a trademark of Irish conversation.
A couple years back I published a collection of these phrases in a book called “Kerry Talk” as an ode to Marie. It couples her anecdotes with illustrations of familiar Irish sights: A block of Kerry Gold butter. The Guinness toucan. A Dublin door. A Spar storefront.
I also produced a few other limited edition items inspired by the quotes. Reach out if you are interested in any of this stuff and I can try to make more.
Things I miss about Ireland:
I lived for a year in Dublin. These are the things I miss:
• Abrakebabra’s “Chip Butty”
• “Father Ted”
• Tea Service with Uncle George
• Toner’s toastie
• Howth hikes
• A Mulligan’s pint
• Walking past the Pepper Cannister to work
• Watching Six Nations rugby
• Hanging with Helen
• Irish sessions
• The Stations mass
• The literary traditions
• Banoffee Pie
• The warm breezes of the Inch Strand
• Watching William eat breakfast (Full gallon of milk, half loaf of bread, half block of cheddar cheese, half bag of Maltesers)
