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**Jim Wald** @CitizenWald · Mar 18, 2023 *

Mar 18, 2023 *

I have a lot of mid-March #historical anniversaries to catch up on, but it's been a long week, so let's just focus on March 17, #SaintPatrick's day or otherwise.

Some colleagues and I got a head start last night at The Hangar in Hadley, where they had Guinness for $3--so, whether watching #MarchMadness or just thinking of #Ireland--who could resist?

View from behind the pub area, where further stock is stored.

1/n

looking from the rear hallway into the main pub area at The Hangar. To the right. stacks of kegs of Amherst Brewing and other beers.
Rear left: tables in the bar area, an American flag, and windows looking out into the parking lot.

The Hangar, with which Amherst Brewing merged some years ago, always had an aviation theme in its earlier locations: hence the flag, as well as various memorabilia of recent military campaigns.

**Jim Wald** @CitizenWald · Mar 18, 2023

Mar 18, 2023

Jim Wald @CitizenWald

Here in the Bay State, #SaintPatrick'ss Day is a state holiday

In March 1776 the Revolutionaries moved cannon captured at Ticonderoga to Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston & fortified positions there. Faced with a hopeless situation, the British abandoned the city on March 17.

https://guides.bpl.org/marev/1776

In 1901, #Boston officially celebrated #EvacuationDay, thus commemorating Washington's 1st victory in the Revolution—& #StPatrick's Day

(I saw what U did there)

https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/boston-celebrates-first-evacuation-day.html?utm_source=Mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=eMoment

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guides.bpl.orgResearch Guides: American Revolution in Massachusetts: March-June 1776: Fortification, Evacuation, and the AftermathAn overview of Massachusetts' history during America's Revolutionary Era.

**Jim Wald** @CitizenWald · Mar 18, 2023 *

Mar 18, 2023 *

Jim Wald @CitizenWald

When we think of the major #SaintPatrick's Day parades, it is naturally those of #NewYork & #Boston.

So, if #Holyoke, #Massachusetts (2nd-largest in the country) is not on their radar screens (https://www.thereminder.com/features/page2feature/second-largest-st-patricks-day-parade-in-nation-re/), you can be pretty sure they are not thinking of #Savannah, #Georgia, which lays claim to being the second-oldest in the world (https://www.savannahsaintpatricksday.com/)

You are welcome.

#Irish #heritage is everywhere!

3/n

Historical Marker, Robert Emmett Park, Savannah, Georgia

Savannah’s Irish and Robert Emmet
Once known as the Strand and later as Irish Green because of its proximity to the Irish residents of Savannah’s Old Fort 'neighborhood, this park was renamed in 1902 for the Irish patriot Robert Emmet (1778-1803) to commemorate the centennial of his death. Emmet, who led an unsuccessful Dublin uprising for Irish independence and was executed for treason, was a hero to Savannah’s Irish community. Emmet is best known for the speech in which he asked that his epitaph not be written — until “my country takes her place among the nations of the earth.” Emmet Park remains an important center of ceremonial congregation for Savannahians of Irish descent.

Erected by the Georgia Historical Society and the B St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee 2003

Monument in Robert Emmet Park, Savannah: stone Celtic cross inside circle of shrubbery, surrounded by black metal fence. Dedicatory wreath to left of cross. Trees with Spanish Moss, lawn. streetscape in background

Detail of preceding photo:

Base of Celtic cross with inscription:

To Americans of Irish Descent
Past-Present-Future
Erin Go Bragh

At left: an orange-white-green wreath

**Jim Wald** @CitizenWald · Mar 18, 2023

Mar 18, 2023

Jim Wald @CitizenWald

Here, in #Amherst #Massachusetts, #university students 3 decades ago engaged in the #Blarney Blowout" in which they drink themselves to the point of sickness or antisocial behavior.

Town & Gown thought they had the problem solved, but it is out of hand again. The innovation this time was "blackout rage gallons"--jugs of alcohol, electrolytes, & water. Note #Holocaust "joke."

College binge drinking on ‘borgs’ leads to record visits to Cooley Dickinson Hospital https://www.gazettenet.com/UMass-town-react-to-a-weekend-of-borg-drinking-50165727

4/n

Plastic milk bottle with remnants of red "BORG" fluid, tastefully labeled Borgen Belsen.
I guess this asshat did not take my Holocaust course at UMass 2 years ago

By SCOTT MERZBACH Published: 3/6/2023 8:19:57 PM

Staff Writer

AMHERST — It’s the kind of record that a community doesn’t want to see their local hospital break, but that’s exactly what happened Saturday when alcohol consumption among college-age people contributed to a record number of ambulance arrivals over a 24-hour period at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton.

In that timeframe, 62 ambulances arrived at the hospital, a more than 20% increase from a previous record of 51 ambulance calls, spokeswoman Christina Trinchero said.

The hospital said 32 of those ambulances were related to pre-St. Patrick’s Day revelry by college-age people in Amherst, many of whom were participating in a binge drinking trend called borgs, or blackout rage gallons. The Amherst Fire Department and University of Massachusetts officials said many students were observed during the day carrying plastic gallon containers with a mix of alcohol, electrolytes and water. The trend has been depicted on TikTok, and UMass officials said this was the first time they identified it on the Amherst campus.

**Jim Wald** @CitizenWald · Mar 18, 2023

Mar 18, 2023

Jim Wald @CitizenWald

Amherst residents are justifiably upset over UMass student drunken excesses during "Blarney Blowout"

Some of the proposed solutions are as idiotic as they are understandable: ban liquor sales not only in Amherst but also in neighboring towns

Fat chance.

+ even the dumbest college student would be smart enough to stock up in advance

More creative: #Irish-American friends of mine founded the Amherst Irish Association to combat stereotypes of Irish drunkenness

https://amherstirish.org/

5/n

The prevalence of the borgs prompted downtown resident Alex Kent to take a picture of one discarded at the corner of Amity and South Prospect streets. Kent sent this to Town Council and Bockelman in a letter calling it “a fitting emblem of yesterday’s horrors and a tribute to the two dozen young people who were transported to the hospital by ambulance for treatment of alcohol poisoning.”

“Yesterday, like so many other Amherst residents, we endured the noise, the littering, the wail of ambulance sirens, and the chaos of yet another ‘Blarney Blowout.” I would like to request that, next year, the bars and liquor stores get shut down, at least for the day of this disgusting event. Students are clever, and they will surely figure out other ways to get their hooch. But the one-day closures might serve as a deterrent. The stores in Hadley should be asked to cooperate, as well.”

Kent said in addition, he is concerned as to whether the town will be responsible for the costs of the regional medical system, asking that question of his District 3 Councilor, Dorothy Pam.

Pam said she was alerted by both Kent and a Fearing Street resident to damage to trees and shrubs, and litter, though that she observed that by Saturday evening the town was subdued and that no noise could be heard from her home on Amity Street.

Jim Wald @CitizenWald@historians.social

To turn to more edifying #Irish topics of interest to #MaterialCulture @histodons:

My "haystack" measure made by Joseph Austin & Son of Cork, c. 1828-33. It held 1 noggin=1 gill=1/4 pint=5 imperial fl. oz.

These delightful measures were never exported to the United States & are therefore found here either because Irish immigrants brought them with them or because collectors later acquired them. The marks are of the reign of George IV, when it was made, William IV, & apparently, George V

6/n