Newstalk: So you're over from America - are you concerned there'll be riots, that Irish people are drinking too much or that there'll be trouble?

American Tourist: Well thats what its all about, right? I'm sure if there are riots they'll be for a good cause, right?

For anyone expecting a Bahktin-esque collapse in the social order along the lines of the medieval carnival - you'd do much better to look towards our celebrations of halloween. Every neighbourhoods youth, hidden away in their rooms and at the backs of buildings comes out to the front, lights fire and throws fireworks. Paddy's Day me arse, give me Halloween any day. Illegality on a mass scale, and few figures of authority in place to organise our festivities. Like many others, I'll be avoiding town tonight, with all its crass commercialism as a virtuous as the piss in driven snow, and taking it easy in a party in a mates gaff with a bottle of the cities finest social lubricant in hand.