The Irish In Dalian

I think the Irish have established a firm presence in Dalian- especially in the areas of fun, music and sport!

The Dalian Wolfhounds Gaelic football team has been a great success and has brought together people from many nations! It gave them a chance to meet new friends and get fit in the process!

Recently, due to the activities of the Wolfhounds, there has been much fun had in the Tin Whistle Pub (TWP), Dalian’s Irish bar. Two weeks ago, The Shanghai Gaelic football team came to Dalian for a friendly match. The Saturday, one of the best nights ever in peoples’ memories was had in the Tin Whistle! The previous night, there was a rare Irish sing-song. A REAL Irish sing-song. Maybe it was special cos it was spontaneous and the numbers were few and mainly consisted of Irish people. The Saturday night, we also had a session. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good laugh, but didn’t match the magic of the Friday night.

Last night the Wolfhounds hosted a fundraiser pub quiz in the TWP. Also on the bill was an acoustic music session starring yours truly and Dermot, another Irish guy, who is studying Chinese here. The quiz was a good laugh, brought me back to the days of the quizzes in the DCU student bar on a Wednesday afternoon. Ah, I remember the “fruit drop challenge” game well! Anyways, our team consisted of a Spanish guy, a Chinese guy, a Chinese girl and myself. I wasn’t sure of our chances at the start but after 2 rounds, we were in the lead. I think the mix of nationalities worked well. In the end, we came joint third! I was quite happy with that!

The music session could have gone better. The bar only had one mic, so you could either let people hear a voice or a guitar, but not both! We actually had a way better session later in the night (or should I say early in the morning) outside Dave’s bar with some Koreans. It was an impromptu session, always the best!

So, the Paddies have definitely left their mark on this fair city, showing people how to enjoy themselves the Irish way!