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A full-blooded Queenslander has this afternoon tip toed around cultural sensitivities and very politely opted against drinking a Guinness on St Paddy’s Day.
Local fleet logistics manager, Glenn Hallahan (50) is proud of his celtic roots – but he just can’t bring himself to drink a beer that isn’t golden.
This results in quite a few strange looks on March the 17th.
As always, The luck of the Irish is being graciously shared with the wider Betoota community today, as workplaces knock off early and head to the historically Irish Catholic downtown suburb known as the Old City District.
And the epicentre of today’s St Paddy’s Day celebrations is the iconic Border Campaign Hotel.
A famous Irish pub that has been owned by the same family since the first wave of Catholics arrived in town during the famine, The Border Campaign Hotel has been kitted out with green, orange and white balloons – as well as tri-colour flag bunting.
Everyone is welcome! Even the more stout-shy locals who can’t bring themselves to drinking an Irish beer.
Glen Hallahan is one of those poor buggers. He just can’t bring himself to drink a beer that is darker than Vegemite.
Even his uncontrollable competitive streak is yet to be activated, as the rest of his workmates at B2TA Car Hire begin playing drinking games.
Despite the pleas from his younger colleagues, Glenn will not be ‘splitting the G’
According to the young people who seem to think they are the first people in history to get drunk on the iconic Irish beer, the “Split the G” challenge is where drinkers aim to settle their Guinness foam perfectly in the center of the glass’s “G” logo – in one big sip.
While Glenn has no doubt he could easily defeat all of these lightweights in such a big gulp challenge, he refuses to leave his comfort zone by straying away from the beloved Queensland mid-strength lager that he has stayed religiously loyal to for 35 years.
Glenn’s a XXXX man. And no disrespect to the Irish, but an annual celebration of their patron saint is not going to change that. Not even for a day.
“Not for me thanks. I don’t need the black anaconda chasing me to the loo” he tells the rest of the bar.
“I’ll stick to splitting the X thanks fellas”
