Why Karl's Irish eyes are smiling

By Jules Quartly (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-16 10:46

"I never learned to read or write though 'coz ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) kicked in after three or four years of study."

Long says his best time in Harbin was in 2002 when SARS broke out and his school paid him to stay and do nothing.

"It was a month-and-a-half of drinking 10 kuai ($1.50) bottles of Chinese-made Russian vodka, eating lamb kebabs and doing nothing. It was fantastic," he says.

Tired of teaching, Long moved to Beijing and worked for the Irish Dairy Board before investing in Paddy O' Shea's and becoming its manager.

Now the 28-year-old is putting in long days and nights running the bar on Dongzhimen Wai Dajie, and also The Pomegranate pub in Beijing's Shunyi district.

"I'm not the best barman in the world but my job is to get people to come in and make sure they enjoy themselves," he says.

"And I'm good at that."

Known as Da Long in Chinese (Big Dragon), he says it doesn't matter where in the world you go: "There will always be a pasty faced Irishman and a sense of community."

As for tomorrow's St Patrick's Day, he expects only 10 percent of his customers to be Irish. "The rest of the crowd will be Irish for the night," he says. "In a way our national day is more about people from other countries celebrating our culture."

He says St. Patrick's Day parades in Dublin are not as colorful as those celebrated in other cities around the world, including Beijing.

"(In Dublin) everybody stands around with their arms folded waiting for the pubs to open," he says.

"When I was young, the highlight was dressing up in my Scouts uniform and fighting for sweets they threw off the floats."

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