Ooh I'm giving it all tonight

Another long, busy, soul-destroying week in the office drags its way slowly to a close, and we need to gather our skirts to celebrate the weekend to come in an appropriate fashion.

This Sunday being Paddy's Day - the day when for some strange reason, people across the globe think that somehow a small damp island off the coast of Great Britain [a source of huge problems for us, even now; but that's another story] is the "land of their fathers", and get together to drink "Black Gold" (aka Guinness) and generally act like idiots - I thought I'd combine the two celebrations with one of the early 1980s' most remarkably enduring (and mega-popular to this day) Disco hits.

It is, of course, by those good-Irish-Catholic-girls-gone-"bad", The Nolans - and everyone can sing along to every single word of it...

The Nolans - I'm In The Mood For Dancing

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Myth-busting facts about Paddy's Day "traditions":

• Porter or stout is a drink invented in London around the 1720s (possibly earlier); Arthur Guinness only started marketing his brand of the drink in Dublin in 1778.
• Saint Patrick was Welsh.
• There was no real link between the 5th century missionary activities of St Patrick and the Shamrock until a botanist wrote about it in 1726.
• Scotland as whole has a higher percentage of ginger people than Ireland.
• Many believe that the Paddy's Day celebrations in March were in fact invented as a way to lift the usual fasting restrictions of Lent and provide an excuse for a day's drinking.
• St Patrick's Day parades began in North America in the 18th century but did not spread to Ireland until the 20th century.

Have a good craic, whatever you get up to, dear reader!