An Irish August.
That could be the name of a rom-com. Or a Hallmark movie.
Since I am writing this, and it’s about me, not so much.
Besides, I didn’t plan for my Irish August. It just happened.
It started with Starburster
For starters, there’s a song I keep hearing on the radio. Yes, I still listen to the radio. I am old. WXRT has an ominous earworm from Fontaines DC in rotation. The DC stands for Dublin City. The tune is Starburster.
The number has been described as a panic attack with a disco beat – which pretty much sums up 2024. There’s a line where I swear the guy’s singing that “Hong Kong is your business, if it’s momentary business.”
According to the internet, the actual lyrics are “I’m gon’ hit your business if it’s momentary blissness.” Whatever that means.
I like my version better. It makes me hungry for pot stickers.
Fontaines DC have a new album, Romance, which has been getting good reviews. The band will be in Chicago Oct. 9 at The Salt Shed.
I won’t be there. I am supposed to cut way back on my sodium intake. Still, it’s nice that an Irish band besides ancient U2 is finding a modicum of success and press stateside.
Then there’s Kneecap
Listening and reading about Fontaines DC, my algorithm decided I needed to know about Kneecap, the act and the movie.
Kneecap is a West Belfast rap trio. The oldest of the three members goes by DJ Próvaí. He wears a tricolor balaclava when performing. The other two look like they will each weigh 300 pounds by the time they are 40. If they make it to 40.
When I looked up the movie, I found that it was playing at a far northwest suburban Chicago multiplex. This was before the star-studded premiere screening in Dublin, which I thought was odd.
The Tuesday I went to see Kneecap was like the stereotype of an Irish August. Yeah. It was damp, cloudy and cool. For some reason the weather made me crave White Castle.
I wolfed down some sliders at the one not far from the theater before the matinee. The place had just two people working the lunch shift.
Craving White Castle has become synonymous with being high. I wasn’t and very, very rarely am. But based on my reading about Kneecap’s habits, I figured I could at least simulate part of the sensation. Method acting, meet method viewing.
At the noontime showing I was but one of two paying customers. They still made me pick my seat. Being raised Catholic, I actually sat in that seat.
As for the movie, it’s a raunchy, ribald, political, funny Irish stew. It tells the mostly made up (?) tale of how the group formed and found its first taste of the limelight. Oh. They rap in the Irish language.
The movie is Hard Day’s Night, Saturday Night Fever, Straight Outta Compton, several Guy Ritchie movies, Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire, The Commitments, Beastie Boyos and Public O’Enemy videos and tracks from the 80s and 90s, with a touch of Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland flicks thrown in the pot for good measure.
Michael Fassbender plays an IRA dad. In one scene, with a beard and dressed in a hoodie, he looks like Irish Jesus!
By viewing Kneecap, naive me learned that ketamine can cause hallucinations – and that kids can buy their drugs these days via the dark web part of the internet.
These are truly magical times! Or not.
Lest the drug use upset you, keep in mind that Rooney and Garland allegedly were kept medicated to be able to keep to their exhausting production schedules. That’s not to mention John Belushi’s bad habits, particularly during the making of The Blues Brothers.
Kneecap has already been named the Irish entry for the 2025 Academy Awards. You can catch Kneecap at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Wilmette Theatre as part of the 10th annual Irish American Movie Hooley.
I plan on going to see Kneecap again that night, if just to see it with other people. As an added bonus, Jessica Reynolds from the Kneecap cast will be there, too.
More Irish August – in Hoffman Estates
My Irish August continued with a visit to Shenanigan’s on the Green in Hoffman Estates.
This was the second incarnation of an event formerly known as the Northwest Celtic Fest. Like last August, this gathering had a lot of family-friendly things to do.
Being the good and loyal friend that I am, I gave best fest buddy Tom special dispensation to head to the whiskey tasting while I watched his two grandsons.
The little lads had fun on a tram that journeyed through an Irish land of make believe. Or around the grounds. One of those. The youngest boy made at least two girlfriends. The other was hoping there would be a Lego booth.
Mostly, the boys enjoyed the bungee cord attraction. Strapped in, they bounced up and down off a small trampoline while trying to flip about. They barely weighed enough to take part. I weighed too much. Life is like that.
We ended up at a Red Robin afterward. They still have endless french fries with every meal. Believe it or not, I had but one serving. And no whiskey earlier! OMG!
The Hop to the Milwaukee Irish Fest
My Irish August wouldn’t have been complete without my typical annual trek to the Milwaukee Irish Fest.
Past picking up tickets from a friend, our first stop was a pee break at the Lake Forest Oasis. I think it would be fun to return there one day to spend an afternoon feasting on Auntie Anne’s pretzels, KFC and Dunkin’, shopping for hats and jewelry and watching the traffic passing below.
I am easily amused.
Next was lunch at a place called Barnacle Bud’s, a seafood shack along the Kinnickinnic River. In Milwaukee, if cops pull you over, they make you say the name of the river three times to see if you’ve been drinking.
Barnacle Bud’s has docks for boats. Its website has a page that encourages shenanigans. I wish I had a friend with a boat. The shenanigans are a given.
I are a Holy Smokes burger and looked wistfully at the water. Or maybe that was a jalapeno talking.
Our bellies full, we parked at Best Fest Buddy Tom’s Brother Mark’s son’s condo building; dropped off some fish tacos; then took The Hop to the Third Ward.
The Hop is free to ride – and one of the things that makes Milwaukee an enjoyable, affordable place to visit.
After a pit stop at the Public Market, we hopped on another Hop streetcar toward Summerfest grounds and the Irish Fest.
First fun fact learned – water was $5 a bottle. Who knew it’s apparently the most expensive ingredient in beer and soft drinks!?
Mark and Tom bought cigars at a stand from a guy named Aaron. Aaron was a very friendly, loquacious sort. In the middle of his story about how Thursday’s bad rains ruined a bunch of lighters, he had a coughing fit.
We did not have to do the Heimlich maneuver. Still, as Aaron shook our hands upon greeting us, we found the hand sanitizer stations shortly after chatting with him.
From there it was on to the usual stops:
- Cliff at the Irish American News booth
- G & W Irish Tours and the other travel booths
- Jameson and beer booths
- The Five Farms Irish Cream Liqueur free sample booth
- Ward’s for Scotch eggs
- Some booths to look at t-shirts, hats and stuff I have too much of already
- Catching snippets of musical acts
- The spacious bathrooms
- The Joe Cullen memorial sheep barn
This time, some friends who were in Milwaukee celebrating their wedding anniversary met up with us for a bit. It was their first time at this fest. They liked it enough to return on Saturday as well.
It rained for a bit. It wouldn’t be an Irish August in Milwaukee without a little rain.
Before we left, we tried another batch of Scotch eggs and some haggis from Macski’s Highland Foods. I asked Tom to get me the vegetarian haggis, just because it sounded funny. I thought it might just be a bowl of oatmeal. He brought back two veggie pasties – as if I was in the UP instead of Milwaukee.
The final act we caught for the night was Elephant Sessions. They play folk music mixed with funk, disco and electronica. It’s Celtic Daft Punk by way of the Scottish Highlands.
I bought the band’s CD, because I am old.
We left to their pachyderm beats to wait for The Hop back to take us to the Third Ward. Another old guy boarded with us. He seemed lost. So lost, he wound up back on the streetcar we picked up in the Third Ward to get back to Mark’s car.
I checked the police reports the next morning. I was that worried about him.
The Hop ride around 10 p.m. was eerily empty and quiet. Being in the very clean cars traversing through Milwaukee’s downtown felt sci-fi like lonely. But comforting. It reminded me of this Blue Nile song, The Downtown Lights.
They’re from Glasgow. So my Irish August took a Scottish side trip.
Either way, fall falls soon.
But you can still have your own Irish August – at least for a weekend – with the fest in Gaelic Park .
Slainte.
Mike Danahey is a freelance writer living somewhere near Chicago. He’s available for hire and can be contacted by leaving a message for this post.