We know, we know, you think St. Patrick’s Day is amateur hour for the city’s young drunks, and if one more person tries to pinch you for not wearing green, you’ll commit a homicide. But swallow some of your St. Patrick’s Day-related anger for just a little while, because today also means free books by Irish authors like Flann O’Brien are just being given away at subway stops! Is féidir linn a toast le léamh.
The Irish Arts Center would like to focus a little bit less on things like the drinking and parade problems and would instead like you to focus on Ireland’s rich cultural history. Hey, that’s fine by us if it means getting free books at the subway. In Brooklyn, the giveaways are happening outside of the 36th Street subway stop at 36th street and 4th Avenue, and outside of the 7th Avenue F/G stop at 7th Avenue and 9th Street.
Of course, every New Yorker is trained to just keep walking when someone offers free books at the subway, since it’s usually Scientologists or Jews for Jesus, but this time you can get books from Irish luminaries like Flann O’Brien, Ann Enright, Colum McCann and Maeve Binchy. Pretty cool, and makes us realize that the rotten English haven’t given anything to us for free, ever.