Green Is Not A Color For Beer… A Stout Rebuke
It is St. Patrick’s Day.
I’m an Irish American born and raised in New York, and we have a term for St. Patrick’s Day: Amateur Night. One way we celebrated our community was to have what seemed like every young person on Long Island board the trains for NYC. It was so crowded that the conductors gave up trying to collect fares.
Ah, but we all grow up.
I thought that investigating some eco consciousness of my ancestral home would be in order.
There is a sustainable Ireland site: Dublin Green Map. It has a community and family section as well as the “green” map of Dublin.
About 70 miles from Limerick, where I have stayed with relatives who lived in Ballycummin Castle, is a planned “eco- village in North Tipperary’s town of Cloughjordan”…yes, it IS a long way….
Connecting To Cloughjordan
A new cobbled street connects the project to the main street of Cloughjordan via a landscaped community area called the Welcome Square. An old stone coach house at the entrance has been renovated to provide a new threshold to the sustainable community….
So starts the description of the planned sustainable village. There are plans for a community farm, active and passive solar, other renewable forms of energy as well as community buildings for economic, social and artistic collaboration.
I have not been to the homeland since 1984. It was easy for me to travel there with my very Irish name, which takes up at least two pages in the phone book. I was welcomed into many homes and felt a strong sense of community. I visited relatives in Dublin and Limerick.
And of course I must be on the same hackneyed bandwagon as all other media by talking about drinking and green beer.
Green Beer Sucks, But Your Beer Can Be “Green”
As an American with enough Irish heritage to be annoying I will say this: No such thing as green beer in Ireland. Here is what green beer means to me now: IF you are in Ireland, you are lucky enough that Guinness is your local brew, so drink it. In the US, where I currently reside, my version of “green” beer is to drink a locally made organic brew. No pesticides, smaller carbon footprint, more money stays in the local economy.
I will say this – I don’t think I can ever completely give up having a Guinness every now and then. But I am lucky to live in Cascadia where there are more fantastic local breweries than just about anywhere in the world.
