The Irish and Beer

Blackfive has a patent-pending on the Irish palm pilot shown above.

It's worth pointing out that are two patron saints of Ireland, St Patrick and St. Brigid and the latter  particularly loved beer which is featured prominently in some of the miracles attributed to her.
Her generosity in adult life was legendary: It was recorded that if she gave a drink of water to a thirsty stranger, the liquid turned into milk; when she sent a barrel of beer to one Christian community, it proved to satisfy 17 more. Many of the stories about her relate to the multiplication of food, including one that she changed her bath-water into beer to satisfy the thirst of an unexpected clergyman.

St. Brigid's prayer begins
I'd like to give a lake of beer to God.
I'd love the Heavenly
Host to be tippling there
For all eternity.

and ends
I'd sit with the men, the women of God
There by the lake of beer
We'd be drinking good health forever
And every drop would be a prayer.

Who else but an Irish saint imagines God as forever drinking beer, a beatific vision unique to  the Irish?

Go here to hear Noirin Ni Riann recite the prayer in her wonderful Irish voice.

And finally, an Irish joke from To the Point.
An Irishman was walking along a beach in County Cork one day and noticed an encrusted bottle washed up on the sand.  Wondering what might be inside he broke it off at the neck and out popped an Irish Genie.

"Oh, me man, I hah been in tha bottle for a hundred years, and you be settin' me free!" he exclaimed.  "For that, I'll be givin' you two wishes!"

"Two wishes?  Anything I want?" the man asked incredulously.

"Anythin' - just name it," the genie replied.

"Well, what I'll be wantin'," said the man, "is a glass of good Irish ale - but a very special glass, so that no matter how much I drink it will always be full of good Irish ale."

Poof!  There it was in his hand.  The Irishman drank and drank and drank, and twenty minutes later, he hadn't made a dent.  The glass was still overflowing with wonderful Irish ale.

But by now the genie was getting impatient.

"Listen me man" he announced.  "I'm grateful for you settin' me free, but I was in that bottle for a long time and I've things to do.  So you'll be makin' your second wish now."

The Irishman thought for a moment, looked at the glass in his hand, and declared, "You know, I think I'll have another one of these!"

So drink and pray beer for St. Patrick and St. Brigid, but never green beer, an abomination.

There's a party over at Guinness.  You have to register, but then you can download some Irish music by Quagmire