THEY mights be thousands of kilometres from home, but that didn’t stop Griffith’s Irish population from celebrating their hardest this St Paddy’s weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While St Patrick’s Day is officially today, dozens of Irish locals and visitors took advantage of the weekend and painted the town green on Saturday.
Despite a few sore heads yesterday, the celebrations carried over across the entire weekend.
Eoin Keohane and Ciara Spillane, who are living at the Globe Backpackers Hostel, said they were surprised to find so many Irish people living in Griffith.
The pair lived just kilometres from each other in Cork, but didn’t realise until they both ended up in Griffith.
At one point, there were about 30 Irish travellers staying at the hostel.
Eoin and Ciara moved to Griffth in September and October last year and have been doing casual work for their visas.
“We came here for work and we’ll be here for two years,” Ciara said.
“There were about 30 of us here all from the same area all at the same time.”
While national events like St Patrick’s Day could provoke a spell of home-sickness, the pair said they didn’t mind spending the day in Australia.
“There are so many of us here,” Ciara said.
“It’s like a family away from home.”
St Patrick’s Day falls on March 17 each year and marks the death of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.