Putting on the Green at Falls Church's 4 P'sColm Dillon loves the month of March. For some people, Yuletide cheer is the pinnacle of happiness, others can’t wait to carve the Thanksgiving turkey, but for Dillon, the owner of Ireland’s Four Provinces, the Irish pub at the corner of Broad and Washington Streets in Falls Church, St. Patrick’s Day is his day. Like the rest of the Irish pubs and bars in the United States, St. Patrick’s Day is the biggest day of the year, as millions of people, many Irish, others claiming the distinction for a day, gather and share a Guinness, or two, or three...
Over the years, the day has come to include certain traditions in the United States; parades, people dressing as leprechauns and of course, plenty of green beer. While celebrating Irish culture, some of the original intention of the day has been lost among the festivities. For Dillon, it is a day for which he has been preparing for weeks. He and Chef Rich Cooper have been cataloguing their supplies to make sure they have enough for the day. While many pubs just open their bars early and serve sandwiches, Four Provinces, serves complete meals from a select menu, 11:00 in the morning until its 1:30 a.m. closing time. Dillon said that the restaurant doesn’t start taking reservations until the first of January, but that hasn’t stopped people from calling prior to the new year to get first pick at a table. With the start of March the calls have been coming fast and furious, an indication of the busy day to come. In the period of that single day Dillon plans to serve over 1100 lbs of corned beef, 35 gallons of potato leek soup, and 600 lbs of mashed potatoes, all prepared and cooked in house, not to mention countless pints of Guinness. His first St. Patrick’s day at the Four P’s, Cooper said that he has been aptly warned about the rush. “I’ve been told, ‘As busy as you think it’s going to be, double it,’” he said. The staff started the preparation for St. Patrick’s Day last Friday and it has continued all week. Up until Wednesday night, late into the evening, Cooper remains at the restaurant, putting the final touches on the Bailey’s Irish Cream desserts, and then getting little sleep before he has to be at the restaurant by 6:00 a.m. Despite the long day and the mass of people that will keep Dillon, Cooper, and the entire crew, nearly double that of his regular weekday staff, on their feet, Dillon loves the day. A veteran of 21 years in the food industry, first as a waiter, then a manager and finally an owner, he has only missed work once on St. Patrick’s day, and that was when his father passed away a week before. A native of Charleville, a small town in the north part of County Cork, Ireland, Dillon said the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day is different than in the United States. A Catholic holiday, the day celebrates the work of Ireland’s patron saint, who brought Christianity to the country. Born in Wales with the given name Maewyn, the man who was to become St. Patrick was sold into slavery in Ireland at the age of 16, where he remained in captivity for six years before he escaped. After studying religion and receiving the name Patrick, he returned to Ireland as a bishop to preach the Christian faith, and help establish monasteries throughout the country. Part of the St. Patrick story includes the shamrock, which he was supposed to have used to explain the holy trinity, using the three leaves growing out of the one stem as a symbol of Christianity’s three parts of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. While parades and public celebrations have become more common in Ireland, they are often held for the benefit of those who make their way to Ireland for that day. Dillon said in Ireland people have the day off and they go to mass, spend the day with their family, then later visit a pub with friends. It’s a part of the holiday, often overlooked in the U.S. festivities. So too has Irish culture at times become summed up in simple cultural symbols, rather than a more comprehensive view. Paul O’Donnell, the vice president of the Greater Washington Ceili Club, an organization that promotes Irish dance and music, said there is a tendency to link the Irish with River Dance, shamrocks and beer, because of St. Patrick’s Day. But he also said the day provides a venue through which people can gain a greater awareness of Irish culture. At the Ceili Club, O’Donnell said the initial interest sparked by the St. Patrick’s Day view of Irish culture, has actually turned people on to joining the club and learning in greater depth about Irish dance and music. Dillon agrees. “Celebrating it anywhere raises awareness of Irish culture and that can only be a good thing,” he said. Overall, despite the generalities, Dillon said the day communicates the most profound part of the Irish; friendliness. “Everyone’s in a great mood on that day,” he said. “I don’t know how you can have a bad St. Patrick’s Day.” |
