St Patrick's Day Party | Irish themed Tableware, Recipes, Decorations & Fancy Dress Ideas

Every year on March 17, the Irish and the Irish-at-heart across the globe observe St. Patrick’s Day. What began as a religious feast day for the patron saint of Ireland has become an international festival celebrating Irish culture with parades, music, dancing, special foods, lots of drinking and a whole sea of green. On St Patrick’s Day you can get festive by inviting friends round to enjoy traditional Irish food, dancing and of course lots of Irish drink. Whether you throw a St Patrick's Day dinner party or just drinks for friends it's so easy to add a bit of the Emerald Isle to your St Patrick's Day event. Playing some traditional Irish folk music is a great way to get everyone dancing (especially after a couple of whiskeys) and enjoying the craic! Leprechauns, shamrocks, gold coins and lots of green plus some white and orange decorations feature heavily in any Irish or St Patrick’s Day party celebrations and we've got some great low cost St Patrick's Day decorations, tableware and St Patrick's Day fancy dress ideas to ensure your party has some brilliant Irish charm! We’ve also got delicious St Patrick's Day party recipes for beef and Guinness casserole with traditional Irish soda bread, followed by mint Guinness brownies, Irish coffees and Baileys espresso martinis. Yum Yum!!

St Patrick’s Day Party Tableware

Celebrate this St. Patrick's day in style with these decorative, Lucky St Patrick’s Day Shamrocks Paper Plates. These plates are set on a white background and feature a patterned design of different coloured shamrocks, scattered around one central, larger shamrock. These will look just perfect on the table at your St. Patrick's day party! These plates are sold as a pack of eight and are 22.8cm in size. Add some lucky Shamrock fun to your St. Patrick's event with our Lucky St Patrick’s Day Shamrocks Paper Cups. Perfect for brightening up your table and adding to your party. Cups feature a white and green shamrock design. These cups have a capacity of 266ml and are sold as a pack of 8. This shiny metallic St. Patrick's Day Confetti also looks gorgeous sprinkled on the table – just make sure you don’t get it in your drinks! £2.94

St Patrick’s Day Party Decorations

This green St Patrick’s Day shamrock paper garland, measures 12ft in length and is perfect for stringing over fire places, along shelves or around doorways.   This pack of 6 St. Patrick's Day paper fan decorations, measuring 20.3cm, 30.4cm and 40.6m look fab against a white wall or hanging over a doorway or in the window and are really easy to set up. Simple unfold and add in the centrepieces if required. There are six different sizes and designs in a pack so they look great hanging together at different heights at only £5.94 they are an absolute bargain! [gallery link="none" size="full" ids="2951,2949,2950"] Adding these orange St Patrick’s Day Tissue Paper Fans look great mixed with the other designs and the vibrant orange colour is a perfect complement to the green and white decorations. [gallery link="none" size="full" ids="2946,2947,2948"] If you plan on using the paper fans again, you can fix them together with blue tack rather than the tape provided, so they can easily be folded back up for storage. These St Patrick’s Day Shamrock string decoration, measuring 2.1m in height these are ideal to decorate your St Patrick’s Day venue and are fun to have hanging in doorways or to cover large areas of blank walls. I've strung mine along the fireplace and down either side of the chimney breast and the metallic shine really adds a bit of Irish sparkle. Pack of 10 St Patrick's Day assorted green latex balloons, great low cost way of decorating for the your St Patrick's Day themed event. They look fab tied around doorways or tied to chairs around a dinner table. Each balloon measures 27.9cm (11"). £3.30

St Patrick’s Day Party Fancy Dress

This St Patrick’s Day Shamrock Stand Out suit is a brilliant, high quality fancy dress costume which can be worn for any Irish event such as St Patrick's Day parties or just to show your Patriotic side. It’s a great alternative to dressing in a traditional leprechaun suit. Included is green blazer printed with shamrocks all over, matching trousers and also a matching printed tie. Add a bit of Irish charm with this sexy St Patrick's Day Fever Fancy dress Costume. It includes a long green velvet-feel jacket with belt, green silky dress with a mini hat on a headband, green bow tie and panties. Why not complete your look with some white stockings and some shamrock accessories. Or a low cost and easy way to add a bit of St Patrick's Day to your outfit, this gorgeous velvet St Patrick’s Day Leprechaun Hat with bows and feathers is only £5.94! View the full range of St Patrick's Day fancy dress costumes and accessories

St Patrick's Day Recipes

Beef & Guinness Casserole Serves 5

• 2 celery sticks, thickly sliced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 really big carrot halved lengthways then very chunkily sliced
• 5 potatoes cut into quarters
• 5 bay leaf
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 beef stock cube, crumbled
• 440ml guinness
• 850g stewing beef (featherblade or brisket works nicely), cut into nice large chunks

1. Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Put the kettle on. Brown the beef and set aside.
2. Put the celery, onion, carrots, bay and 1 thyme sprig in a casserole with 1 tbsp oil and the butter. Soften for 10 mins.
3. Stir in the flour until it doesn’t look dusty anymore, followed by the tomato purée, Worcestershire sauce and beef stock cubes.
4. Gradually stir in 400ml hot water, then tip in the beef and potatoes and bring to a gentle simmer.
5. Cover and put in the oven for 2hrs 30 mins, then uncover and cook for 30mins – 1hr more until the meat is really tender and the sauce is thickened.

Serve with savoy cabbage, greens traditional Irish soda bread

Irish Soda Bread

• 250g plain white flour
• 250g plain wholemeal flour
• 100g porridge oats
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 25g butter, cut in pieces
• 500ml buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6/fan 180C and dust a baking sheet with flour. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then rub in the butter.
2. Pour in the buttermilk and mix it in quickly with a table knife, then bring the dough together very lightly with your fingertips (handle it very, very gently).
3. Now shape it into a flat, round loaf measuring 20cm/8in in diameter.
4. Put the loaf on the baking sheet and score a deep cross in the top. (Traditionally, this lets the fairies out, but it also helps the bread to cook through.)
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. If it isn’t ready after this time, turn it upside down on the baking sheet and bake for a few minutes more.

Mint Guinness brownies (Makes: 6-8 servings)

• 1 box of your favorite fudge brownie mix (plus ingredients listed on box)
• 3/4 cup Guinness (or stout beer)
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup softened butter
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3/4 tablespoon mint extract
• 2 tablespoons skim milk
• Green food coloring (optional)

1. Heat Guinness in a small saucepan over medium/high heat for about 12 minutes. You are making a reduction, so the beer should reduce to about 1/3 cup in this amount of time. Take off of heat and set aside.
2. Mix brownie box ingredients according to package instructions. If the box gives you the option of fudgy vs. cake brownies, go with fudgy.
3. Add Guinness reduction to batter and stir completely. Add chocolate chips and stir to combine.
4. Cook brownies according to package instructions. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
5. Using an electric mixer, beat butter until creamed. Add in the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add milk and continue to beat until a fluffy icing forms. Add in the mint extract and food coloring (optional).
6. Once brownies are completely cool, Ice with icing and place in fridge for 30 minutes to allow the icing to set.

Cut and serve. Enjoy! source: http://www.celebrations.com/c/recipe/mint-chocolate-guinness-brownies

Baileys Espresso Martini

• 2OZ Baileys®
• 0.25OZ Vodka
• 0.25OZ Espresso

Shake over ice. Strain into a martini glass.

Irish Coffee

• 1 (1.5 oz.) Irish cream liqueur
• 1 (1.5 oz.) Irish whiskey
• 1 cup hot brewed coffee
• 1 tablespoon whipped cream
• 1 dash ground nutmeg

In a coffee mug, combine Irish cream and Irish whiskey. Fill mug with coffee. Top with a dab of whipped cream and a dash of nutmeg. For further St Patrick's day recipes visit BBC Good Food View the full range of St Patrick's Day party supplies or for further St Patrick's Day party inspiration visit our pinterest board