St. Patrick's Day in it's native Ireland is a significant cultural holiday with parades and such. Here in America, it is an excuse to get blind, stinking drunk. Assuredly there are parades and pride in Irish heritage and history to be found but millions of people who aren't even remotely Irish pack themselves into pubs and drink massive quantities and, inebriated, then pour themselves out into the streets in search of another source of cheap alcohol.
I am no supporer of teatotalism but I am embarrassed by my countrymen. Especially if they are so disgracefully bearded.
In the 1860s, there was no such convenient excuse and people became drunk and they evolved into drunkards for their own personal reasons, as this photoset is intended to portray.
