Irish Observe St. Patrick’s With Gab and (Lots o’ ) Grog

The late John Huston, who directed “The African Queen” and other classic films, became an Irish citizen in his later years. Huston wrote in his autobiography that his first trip to Ireland was for a fox hunt with friends. Looking out the window his first morning there, he describes it:

“Through pines and yews in the garden I saw, across a running stream, a field of marigolds. Above a lake was a mountain of black rock rising precipitously, and on its crest--like a shawl over a piano--a profusion of purple heather. I was Ireland’s own from that moment.”

That’s the kind of Ireland Ramon Delaney of Garden Grove knew growing up there.

“It’s the Garden of Eden,” he said. “An hour’s drive from Dublin, in any direction, it’s still an unspoiled heaven.”

In case you’ve forgotten, today is St. Patrick’s Day, to honor the patron saint of Ireland. Even those of us without Irish ties like to wear something green, to stay in the spirit of things. We serve up corned beef and cabbage and tell our children stories of leprechauns.

But maybe you have to be Irish to know how to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day properly. Meaning: Hit the pubs.

Last year was Delaney’s first St. Patrick’s Day in America. For his American wife, Jill, and her family, it wasn’t quite the holiday affair he was used to.

“This year we’re going to do it up right,” Delaney told me. A family outing during the day, and the pubs at night. Delaney added:

“In America, all of you dine out all the time, but do your drinking at home, with a rented movie or something. In Ireland, we do our eating at home, but we do our drinking in the pubs. And we do a lot of drinking.”

Delaney, 35, who is heavily into the show-dog business, still spends several months a year in Ireland. I asked him if his first trip to Southern California was quite a contrast to the life he’d known there. Delaney had never left his native country before.

“It was different in every way. Every way,” he said. “The food, the people, the houses. It was a big cultural shock.”

But he’s made the adjustment so well, Delaney said, that he could never return to Ireland for good. He’s embarking on a new computer career here; opportunities for that are too limited in Ireland. But our main selling point?

“Marvelous weather,” he said. “I could never go back to Ireland’s cold. You have it so unbelievably good here with your weather.”

Our marigold fields are few, and we’re short on purple heather. But our winter sunshine gives Orange County its own claim on the Garden of Eden title.

Dancing Rivers: Don’t think all that Irish pub drinking is just for the working class. Monica Keogh, president of the Irish Multi-Cultural Arts Center at the Bowers Museum, has her St. Patrick’s Day planned:

A Mass in Gaelic at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Huntington Beach, an Irish coffee hour with friends, then later on--the pubs.

“We call it pub-crawling,” she told me. “Actually, we don’t do that much drinking. But the pubs is our chance to see old friends we haven’t met for awhile.”

Keogh is convinced that America’s fascination with Ireland has rapidly increased in recent years, in part due to the Riverdance craze.

“When we first moved to Huntington Beach 17 years ago, there was one Irish pub; now there are seven,” she said. “There is also an explosion in the number of Irish dance classes being taught, right here in Orange County.”

Like Delaney, Keogh’s heart warms every time she returns to her native Ireland.

“It’s not the land, it’s the people,” she said. “The laughter, the way they greet you in the store. You cannot help but love it.”

Special Reunion: The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda has lined up a couple of historical heavyweights for its 25th anniversary reunion dinner April 20 for American POWs during the Vietnam War. In May 1973, Richard and Pat Nixon hosted a White House lawn dinner for the recently released POWs, the largest state dinner ever held.

This one is a private affair--not a fund-raiser--for POWs and their guests. About 150 POWs have said they will attend, including one who now lives in China. It will be the largest POW reunion held so far.

Speaking will be Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s secretary of state who negotiated the prisoners’ release, and Everett Alvarez, the first American flier who was shot down over Vietnam and kept a prisoner for nearly nine years.

Refugee Art: The Southeast Asian Archive at UC Irvine continues to grow. Director Anne Frank notes that recent contributions include the entire archives of Project Ngoc. That was a student-run project out of UCI that closed last year after a decade of raising money for, and sending volunteers to, Southeast Asian refugee camps in Hong Kong. With those camps now closed, Frank said, the students’ mission had pretty much ended.

The archives include a collection of paintings created by refugee artists, plus photographs and videotapes of some of the camps, as well as some refugee correspondence.

The purpose of the Southeast Asian Archive is to help preserve the record of the refugee experience as a part of Orange County’s history.

Puttin’ on the Thanks: Anaheim’s Community Services Department figures it got an extra $650,000 this past fiscal year without tapping any tax source. That’s the value it puts on 103,900 volunteer hours of services.

Thursday night the city will say thanks with a “Puttin’ On the Ritz” theme at a recognition banquet for 800 volunteers and guests at the Anaheim Convention Center. Community volunteer programs include gang prevention, working with the elderly, and promoting environmental awareness.

Wrap-Up: You can learn more about Ireland--or how to plan a vacation trip there--by calling the Irish Tourist Board at (800) 223-6470. Just don’t call today. A staff member says on a recording: “We are closed for our national holiday.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com