Tim Finnegan's Wake (pics)

Last night was the first "meeting" of the Friends of St. Patrick that we were able to attend. Apparently they also have real meetings of the sit down and talk about things variety but this one was to have a good time. We met up at O'Toole's (Seanny's favorite pub) and actually got a timeline for the wake. We would hang out for about 45 minutes at each of the pubs before carrying poor Tim to the next pub. We had two bagpiper's leading the way and also a man with a bodhran, which is an Irish drum.
This fun wasn't just made up, but it has a story line and history. Seanny will be able to describe and explain it way better than I but here's the basics of Finnegan's Wake. James Joyce wrote a book titled Finnegans Wake, and apparently it is an extremely difficult read. Something that is more easily understood and more widely known is the song. The song tells the story of Tim Finnegan, who having a lot to drink (like most good Irishmen) fell and hit his head. Everyone thought he was dead and laid him on his bed with a bottle of whiskey at his feet and they proceeded to hold a wake. There was some drama, a fight broke out (I guess this is the norm at these things...),a whiskey bottle was thrown and ended up splashing poor Finnegan with whiskey, and low and behold Tim Finnegan rises from the dead and says "Whittle your whiskey around like blazes, t'underlin' Jaysus, do ye think I'm dead?" Of course everyone continues their drinking and dancing about...."Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake"
So, we pub crawled with a corpse in a casket all evening:D We got a lot of weird looks and comments. One lady asked "Who died?" and we responded "Tim Finnegan!", she proceeded to place her hand over her mouth and was like "oh dear", like she knew the guy and was saddened by his death! Funny stuff, a lot of people were poking their heads out of the doorways checking out the bagpipers as they lead the way.
We talked to a lot of people and had a great time. We ended the night at O'Toole's and ended up hanging out with some pretty cool bikers.
I'm looking forward to the next "meeting" :P