Arcadia Ireland

What does St. Patrick's day mean to you? Is it about wearing a leprechaun hat or drinking green beer? Maybe you have already been to numerous parades all in honour of the Patron Saint of Ireland. This year we invited all of our students around Ireland to think about the holiday in a slightly different way.  In the run up to the holiday this week on the 17th March, we invited students to become even more creative and step into the world of recycling and reuse! What has that to do with Paddy you might ask?! We wanted students to become the best Irish version of themselves through clothes. In an attempt to help contribute to Ireland's goals of sustainability we wanted to play even a small part in helping students offset their carbon footprint while participating in our programmes. Students were asked to create their own outfits, all from charity shops and could only spend a maximum of 25 euro! Across our many charity shops in Ireland there were many shades of green and students were definitely up for the challenge as they rummaged through rails of coats, jumpers, trousers on Saturday afternoons throughout the month of February. 

As always, there could only be one winner though and our Villanova (NUI Galway) student, Megan Gouldy stole the show with her original yet stylish St. Patrick's day outfit. Megan told us the following -

"I didn’t initially consider the windbreaker until I realized that the logo was from a sports team. I remembered participating in the Gaelic games in Dublin and learning about the importance of sports in Irish culture. I figured that recognizing an Irish sports team would also be a recognition of Irish culture. As for the scarf, it was an obvious purchase, considering that there’s nothing more Irish than the flag itself!"

Thank you to everyone who participated in this new, innovative Ireland co-curricular event. We are always trying to find ways to make a difference in the world of sustainability and this one seemed to work quite nicely! Megan wins herself a 50 euro Amazon voucher!

This year, Ireland will reopen parades around the country in honour of our patron Saint. It is the first one in three years as the country slowly returns to "normal". We stood together during the last two years and this year in particular we will remember those who lost their lives due to COVID since our last celebration in 2019. We will salute those who were on the frontline of the pandemic in our healthcare and other settings. Nurses, doctors, guards, testing center staff, vaccinators, deliveroo staff who kept us fed and delivered online groceries when we couldn't leave our houses, the list goes on. The Irish government has given us all the gift of an extra public holiday in addition to the 17th of March as a thank you to those who have given so much of their time and energy. 

This year I feel even more proud to be Irish. Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit- Happy St. Patrick's day!